Customer Reviews

The Glass of Time

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Glass of Time is a sequel of sorts to The Meaning of Night: A Confession. Set in 1876, twenty-two years after Meaning of Night ends, the book begins when Esperanza "Alice" Gorst goes to Evenwood to (ostensibly) become Lady Tansor's lady's maid. In reality, she's been sent by The Powers That Be to spy on her employer, for reasons that Esperanza will not be told until later.

We first met Lady Tansor when she was Emily Carteret, engaged to Phoebus Daunt, the poet who was murdered twenty years before The Glass of Time opens. She still harbors feelings for her former fiancee, however, and one of the tasks she has Esperanza do is read out loud from Daunt's work. She also has Esperanza run mysterious errands into town, much to the suspicions of Evenwood's housekeeper, Mrs. Battersby. What unfolds is a web of deception, lies, and, yes murder--not much more than that about the plot I'll say, only because I don't want to give anything away.

The Glass of Time has been one of the books I've been anticipating the most this year, and it didn't disappoint. Cox's long-winded, Dickensian style won't be to everyone's taste, but I really like his mode of writing--it sucked me right in from start to finish. His prose is descriptive, and his characters unusual and interesting. In Esperanza, Cox finds a bright, fresh, and new way to tell the story of the Tansor family. Cox's depiction of Victorian England is never contrived, like so many books set in that period and written lately are--another thing I loved about The Glass of Time.

Another thing I thought was excellent was that Cox (for the most part) got rid of the fiction that this is a "confession" edited and annotated by someone else for publication, using the convention of using footnotes to explain various passages. The Glass of Time is therefore that much more readable, making it only about 580 pages (the same length its predecessor might have been without footnotes). The reader figures out a long time before Esperanza does what's really going on; but the fun of the book is following Esperanza's journey. "I couldn't put it down" is such a clichéd sentence, but in this case... I really and truly couldn't put this book down. My only problem with this book, and maybe this will be fixed before it's published, is that the narrative switches back and forth from past to present tense, sometimes within the same paragraph. I don't know if this is intentional or not, but it's a bit distracting.

Although Cox mentions events that took place in The Meaning of Night in this book, it's not entirely necessary to read it beforehand; a newspaper "clipping" about 130 pages in recaps the bare-bones storyline of The Meaning of Night. However, if you haven't already, I would strongly suggest reading that book at some point--aside from its footnote problem, it's just as good as its sequel.

If you read the author's dark and complex The Meaning of Night when it came out two years ago, you'll get a sense of deja vu--except that it will seem uncertain. There'll be a certain familiarity to the book, but you may not be sure just why. The Meaning of Night was convoluted, effective, and definitely odd--there were a great many twisted threads, a tangle of paths and characters. So shortly after starting The Glass of Time I found that I had to pause and dig out the earlier novel to remind myself of what had happened there, and who the characters were. A very recent reading of The Meaning of Night would help give a smooth seque to The Glass of Time. If you read the latter novel without having read the former, I think you'll be missing a lot.

The overall flavor to the two books is very similar. Much goes on that some of the characters understand, but which is not communicated to the reader, In that regard, someone who is more comfortable with the more modern let-it-all-hang-out, lay-everything-bare novel in which the reader knows everything the characters do may have a difficult time here. You do know what the central character--Esperanza Gorst--does, but almost everyone else has secrets, secrets which greatly impact the story. Very little is as it seems. Lady Tansor, Esperanza' employer, is Emily Carteret from The Meaning of Night. Madame de l'Orme, who arranges Esperanza's employment seems to be an enemy of Lady Tansor, and the employment is, shall we say, not intended to be helpful to Lady Tansor. Madame's motives slowly and piecemeal become clearer as the novel winds along.

This is not a book you can read if you have distractions. It's as convoluted and twisty as the earlier work, and there are a lot of threads and characters to follow. I found that even when I picked up the book again after having put it down for several hours I had to look back over a previous several pages to remind myself what had just occurred. At close to 600 pages, it's not a book you can finish quickly, and so the length and style may present some problems unless you have a very sharp memory. It's well-written, and if you have sufficient patience, you'll find the novel rewarding.

In spite of the issues it had Michael Cox's "The Meaning of Night" had a strange hypnotic quality in the writing that kept me reading through the slow spots and once I finished the book had me going strait to the sequel to see how the twisted tale of an inheritance stolen would work out.

"The Glass of Time" is the tale of Esperanza "Alice" Gorst, an orphan from France who has been sent by her guardian and tutor to England to serve as the lady's maid for Emily Duport, Lady Tansor. But she is to be more than just a maid. She is under instructions to note everything in her book of secrets and told that she will receive three letters which will alert her to the "great task" that she is to accomplish.

Though Alice knows she's at Evenwood for a purpose it's hard to resists falling under the spell of the beautiful, charming and tragic Lady Tansor and her two handsome sons. But the closer she comes to Lady Tansor the more secrets she begins to uncover-finally leading to the truth behind her own destiny...

It's really clear that the author learned from the mistakes he made in "The Meaning of Night" and corrected them. Unlike its predecessor this book has no real slow spots and while it does have some footnotes (as both books are supposedly documents found in the Duport library and edited by a scholar) there're much less of them and they are much more relevant to the story.

All in all this was a good book. The mixture of crime, mystery, family secrets and gloomy atmosphere give it the same hypnotic quality that the first book had, making this not exactly impossible to put down, but easy to loose yourself in. All in all the two books together make a great read for a rainy week.

Four stars.

The nature of Esperanza Gorst's new position as lady's maid to Lady Tansor, the 26th Baroness at the English estate at Evenwood in 1876 is as obscure to the young woman as it is to the reader. Raised in Paris by a guardian and tutor, Madame de l'Orme and Professor Thornhaugh, the orphaned Esperanza is given a mission: to befriend the widow, Lady Tansor, and earn her confidence. Given only sufficient information to complete her "Great Task", the girl must trust her guardian above all others on this imprecise adventure; sorting through a myriad of duties, Esperanza, or Alice, as she is called by Lady Tansor, balances curiosity with attention to her employer's needs, a challenge for a well-educated young woman thrust from a secure, if lonely environment into service. There are secrets here, not the least of which is the girl herself. Meanwhile, there is a luxurious estate to explore, a demanding mistress to please, the handsome Duport sons, Perseus and Randolph, to fantasize about and a mystery to unravel.

Cox salts his novel with intricate twists and surprises, by turns moody and atmospheric, the nature of Esperanza's "Great Task", a precious locket worn by Lady Tansor, a temperamental employer who may or may not be "Alice's" nemesis and the well-publicized murder of writer Phoebus Daunt, Lady Tansor's fiancé, by the infamous Edward Glyver years before. Alice wanders Evenwood, where busy servants toil from morning to night, while the inhabitants of the estate, the lady and her sons, wander the labyrinthine rooms in pursuit of private interests. The luxurious estate of the Duport family is filled with above and below-stairs eccentrics, a hotbed of intrigue, cross-purposes, greed, guilt and frustration, Esperanza the greatest mystery of all.

Anyone familiar with Cox's previous novel, The Meaning of Night, will recognize his signature, an elaborate, multi-faceted approach to drama, drawing on the arcane and the historical for a cluttered Victorian sensibility, the material goods of wealth and privilege attended by a houseful of servants, the unpredictable Lady Tansor virtually entombed with the precious memories of her relationship with the prolific Daunt. With such eccentric individuals as the lupine Armitage Vyse, the slovenly old woman, BK, and the vigilant housekeeper, Mrs. Battersby, this rich feast of characters and textured plot reveals a writer at home with complexity, Alice's discoveries and a long-delayed denouement that must be savored to be appreciated. Immersing all in historical detail, Cox instills life into the fusty sentiments of an era, proving that passion lurks in the most unexpected places, as does a thirst for revenge.

Cox's prose plunges beyond the obvious morality at the heart of Esperanza's dilemma to the less predictable nuances of the human condition, cause and effect hampered by inexplicable sympathies between characters. Dickensian in structure, it is his focus on the torments of flawed choices that lends the novel its power, the various characters' subtle machinations insufficient armor against compassion, a twisted terrain of past, present and a future burdened by long-simmering secrets. The ordinary- if compelling- tale becomes extraordinary when illuminated by true conflict, revenge tempered by forgiveness, even affection. Luan Gaines/ 2008.

After the murder of her lover, Poet Phoebus Daunt, the scheming Emily Carteret is named the 26th Baroness Tansor. The beautiful villain appears to have escaped unscathed from her involvement in her father's murder and the displacement of true heir of the Tansor title, Mr Edward Duport. Yet, the Baroness is still haunted by an unceasing obsession with her long dead lover and the secrets which continue to threaten what she so cunningly plotted to achieve.

The players in this novel are the different, but the quest for revenge continues unabated. In The Glass of Time the readers meet Esperanza Gorst, who is sent to Evenwood by her mysterious guardian, Madame de l'Orme and her tutor Mr Thornhaugh to achieve a "Great Task", which is at first unrevealed to Miss Gorst and the readers. Esperanza arrives at Evenwood to apply for a position as lady's maid to the Lady Tansor. Madame de l' Orme's instructions to Esperanza are clear - gain the trust of her employer and remember that the Baroness is her sworn enemy who has stolen everything that is rightfully hers.

You would have to be a complete dufus to not guess the identities of the mysterious new characters who send Esperanza to Evennwood. However, there are still plenty of secrets to keep the readers guessing. Soon after the death of her beloved Phoebus Daunt, Emily Carteret traveled abroad where she married a mysterious and penniless man by the name of Colonel Zaluski. Fifteenth months later she arrived back at Evenwood, not only with a husband, but also with a son, Perseus, the future Duport heir. The Lady Tansor also finds herself implicated in the mysterious murder of a local woman by the name of Mrs Barbarina Kraus, who apparently was privy to a secret that could destroy the Baroness.

The novel was a little predictable at times, but the author still managed to sprinkle a few surprises here and there, especially with regards to Miss Gorst's conflicting feelings towards her mistress and her two handsome sons, Perseus and Randolph. This was a sequel that did not disappoint. By the middle of the book, when the secrets were finally unravelling it was impossible for me to put the book down. I found this book as mysterious and elegantly written as its precedessor. I read that there is a third novel in the works. It will probably be a long wait, but I'm sure Mr Cox will not disappoint!

Another Victorian masterpiece from Michael Cox. Intriquing, atmospheric, engaging, with enough plot twists and turns to make you dizzy and keep you up late at night. Masterfully plotted with characterizations even Dickens would have approved. Some of the revelations made me gasp out loud!
I do pray that Michael Cox will add a sequal to this book as this is obviously a sequal to THE MEANING OF NIGHT. Let the plot continue!!
Btw, for those of you who may not have read THE MEANING OF NIGHT, it will not detract from your enjoyment of THE GLASS OF TIME but, should you have the time and interest, I highly recommend reading both books in order. He is a marvelous author.

The Glass of Time, the sequel to The Meaning of Night lives up to its predecessor's very high standards. A treasure for fans of Victorian thrillers. Picking up the story twenty years after the first book ends, and with different characters, The Glass of Time is described by the publisher and some reviewers as a stand-alone book; reading The Meaning of Night first would be nice, but not necessary.

WRONG. While the book would probably makes sense without reading its predecessor, a vast amount of richness would be lost. As far as story development, this book is very much a continuation of the first, and understanding of characters, plot and mood would all be radically shifted if one started with Glass of Time.

So at this point, I'm assuming that you, dear reader, have already read The Meaning of Night. If you loved that book, you will not be disappointed by this one. The Victorian literary feel, the allusions to the work of Dickens and Collins (and here some Pride and Prejudice and some Wuthering Heights appear as well), the I-can't-believe-we-get-a-contemporary-piece-of-this-kind-of-fiction are all here once again. Nonetheless, it is a very different book. It is less dark. More Wilkie Collins and less Charles Dickens. While many charcters remain morally ambiguous, we now follow a classic heroine rather than the anti-hero of the first book. Good and evil are much plainer. For me, being able to root for the narrator had me, most of the way through, rating this book superior to its predescessor. The denoument is predictable, but no more so than in the first book (indeed, less so, since you are not literally told ahead of time). However, it all comes off as a little too contrived at the end. The payoff does not equal the build up, and the characters do not reamin quite true to their own construction so that, while the ending was certainly "right," the quality of the delivery of the finale was not quite up to the level of the rest of the oevre. Still, a great book for fans of this genre and, compared to the first book, a tie. Enjoy.

I read The Meaning of Night a few years ago and bought this book just because it was by Michael Cox, not realizing that it was a sequel. I vaguely remembered the storyline of Meaning of Night, but I remembered loving the atmosphere the book created. I had a little trouble keeping up with the parts in this book about the old murder, but what kept me going were the characters. I loved each of them and how they were all intertwined. Also the descriptions of the time period and locations in the book were great. I really felt like I was back in Victorian England and I was part of Esperanza Gorst's world.

After reading Michael Cox's first novel, The Meaning of Night, a chillingly sinister tale of murder and revenge in Victorian England, I knew I had to read the follow-up. This autumn, the sequel was published. And whew, is the reader in for a ride.

Time has passed since the public and violent murder of Phoebus Rainsford Daunt, a handsome young poet and heir to a vast fortune and aristocratic title. Now the survivors of that crime have tried to move on, with varying degrees of success. Emily Carteret, once Daunt's fiancée, has inherited the title of Baroness Tansor, and is the mistress of the sprawling estate of Evenwood. Arriving at Evenwood is Miss Esperanza Alice Gorst, a prospective lady's-maid to Lady Tansor, a position that she is unusually suited for.

Alice, as she is called by Lady Tansor, is the one narrating the story, and it's quite a tale that she is telling -- for one, it's nearly all lies. She writes her recollections down in what she calls her 'Book of Secrets,' describing the people around her, from Lady Tansor, darkly elegant, holding the memory of her dead fiancée a bit too close to her heart, to Lady Tansor's two sons. Perseus, the elder, is just as darkly handsome and driven as Pheobus, writing poetry and adored by his doting mother. The younger, Randolph, isn't quite so fortunate, easy going and clearly a sportsman, without the darker edges of his brother. Along with them there are glimpses of serving maids and kitchen boys, forbidding footmen, and a grimly smiling housekeeper. Mysterious strangers come and go, and there are plenty of mysteries to uncover -- in short all of the elements of the Gothic novel in its purest form.

And this is where the novel excels. While Alice is our window to the ever-revealing story of Pheobus Daunt and Edward Gorst, now both dead, their rivalry and hatred of each other is echoing through time, with Alice as their unseen cat's-paw. Indeed Esperanza/Alice has spent her entire young life training up to what she calls the Great Task, to bring justice and with Lady Tansor as her target to restore the rightful heir to the Tansor liniage. While she does commit several actions throughout the book, I found myself not at all upset that she steals letters, spies on people and works at hiding her true self from Lady Tansor. Which leads to the interesting premise -- is it 'good' to commit acts of deception if it leads to a greater good, and the righting of a wrong?

The writing style here is very Victorian in tone -- Cox has been publishing nonfiction work on Victorian fiction before turning to novels -- and it does take a bit of time to get used to the very different mode of speaking and interacting with others. To those not too familiar with the novels of the time, it may sound rather over the top and stilted, but I enjoyed it very much. It's also a novel that harkens back to such detective classics as Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White and The Moonstone, along with modern writers, especially A.S. Byatt's Possession. Along with the story itself, there are quite a few insights into the life of a maid in Victorian England, the English abroad, and how the upper classes lived. While Alice does inhabit that no-man's-land of governesses and paid companions in that world, she's hardly shuttered in by her life -- she is a full player in the conspiracies around her, and does her own share of controlling, thank you.

While there is enough backstory put in to help understand the why of the Great Task, it really is necessary to have read _The Meaning of Night_ to really grasp the gentle nudges and darkness of this novel.

Summing up, this is a very good book for those who want their stories to be complex, full of plot and hidden meanings, this is a fine thriller to take in. I don't know if there is going to be a follow up to this one, but I will be looking forward to any more novels that Michael Cox can dream up.

Five stars overall, highly recommended.

To all of the readers of The Meaning of Night ,you need to read this book! This is the story of Esperanza Gorst, narrarated by herself. Her parents both died when Esperanza was very young. She has been raised by a family friend and her tutor, Mr. Thornhaugh. At the request of her guardian and her tutor, she seeks employment at Evenwood as Lady Emily Tansor's Ladies maid. Esperanza knows very little about her parents, but has been told that it is her duty t complete a Great Task by her Guardian and Tutor. She does not know what the Gr eat Task is, she only knows that it has something to do with her parents. Slowly, the details of the Great Task are revealed to her and she goes along with the plan, even though she does not understand why. Having secured a position as the Ladies maid, her next step is to befriend the Lady Tansor.


This book will answer any questions you might have after reading The Meaning of Night. The Glass of Time is written as well as The Meaning of Night. It is also every bit as exciting! Both of the books are right up there with the likes of Wilkie collins. Even though they were written in totally different worlds, these books read like they were written in the mid 1800's. I don't know how Michael Cox did it, but he writes as if he lived in the mid 1800's. Both The Meaning of night and The Glass of Time are going on my all time favorite list.


Quote from The Glass of Time

" i stare constantly into the glass of time, that magic mirror in which the shifting shadows of lost days pass back and forth in dumb show before the eyes of memory. As for the present, the days come and go in pleasantly uneventful- yes, and often dull - succession."

page 568