Customer Reviews

The Great Victorian Collection

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

 

 

....literally!
Anthony Maloney is assistant professor of history at McGill University. At twenty-nine years old he is already a specialist on everything Victorian. If there's anything to know about the Victorian era, Anthony knows it.
While attending a series of seminars in California, he decides to indulge in a few days of rest and relaxation before heading home to Montreal. One night, alone in his hotel room, Anthony has a profound dream about London England...
He suddenly awakes and when he looks out his window, finds that down below on the huge hotel parking lot, a complete exhibition of Victorian culture has appeared overnight.
He climbs out of the window and wanders among the endless aisles of Victoriana and is soon met by a man asking "Are you in charge of this?"
Without understanding why... he replies "Yes" and from that moment when Anthony claims ownership of The Great Victorian Collection, he will never be the same.

What follows is a truly realistic treatment of what would happen to someone who found themselves in this truly unrealistic situation.
A bewildered Anthony tries to process the fact that his "dream" brought this spectacle into existence, while everyone from the hotel manager, the law enforcement agencies, the press, television media, the surrounding community... descend upon him for an explanation of how he has done such a thing.
We're not talking about a few doilies and candle-snuffers here! There are gigantic working fountains... a locomotive... entire buildings that were not there the night before! Previously unknown collections within the collection... rolltop desks with handwritten letters locked within!
Of course, he does not have an answer. He only knows it's there. Everyone sees it. And he's responsible for it.
This collection consists of vivid replicas of existing Victoriana, and experts are called in to vouch for its authenticity. Most find that the stuff is so "good" that it is indistinguishable from the originals which are still located in their respective museums and locales around the world.
There seems to be no other explanation for how such a monstrous display has appeared here in Carmel-By-The-Sea (overnight, no less) than to conclude that Maloney DID in fact "dream" it into existence.
As such, he becomes a worldwide celebrity.
Many people believe his story, and many do not. The plot revolves around the way these supporters and detractors affect Maloney's psyche. It appears as though the previously unextraordinary and perfectly normal professor is now on the verge of going completely bonkers. And who can blame him?

The problem becomes the uncertainty that surrounds the perpetuity of the Collection. Will it slowly fade? Will it disappear overnight, as quickly, and inexplicably as it appeared? Is Maloney responsible (though his continued dreaming) to keep it in existence?
And what should be done with it if it does last forever? Should it become a Disneyland-like tourist attraction?

Maloney finds that if he tries to manipulate the Collection in his waking state, it begins to deteriorate. And the Collection becomes a nightmare to him. Can he turn over to the world what he has created? He attends to it with a jealous possessiveness, and finds that he cannot let go of it. Psychologically, the Collection imprisons him... creates unendurable insomnia, and other life-threatening perils.
Because of the initial scandal, and subsequent absence from the University, Maloney has long since lost his professorship... only to be offered it once again after he becomes an established celebrity.
Should he return to Montreal and try to re-establish a somewhat normal life... or stay with the Collection?

He is torn. His dream becomes a living nightmare.

There is so much more to the plot than I'm saying here in this review because I don't want to ruin anything for readers. There is the usual Moore romantic dalliance thrown in, and it's wonderful stuff.
The beauty of the book is the way Moore makes such an unrealistic situation seem like the most normal thing that could have happened. The way that Maloney and those around him react to the Collection seems very natural, very believable.
And all in all, the book reminds me why Moore is definitely one of my favorite writers of all time. This one is a real page-turner from start to finish.

In this dreamy, strange little tale, a relatively ordinary man struggles to escape his seductive but limiting fate.

Tony Maloney has a dream which comes true. Fabulous! But, like King Midas, he finds that this gift is not the ultimate joy he first thought. Tony wakes up to the reality of a precious collection of Victoriana - and cannot leave it. He fights to free himself from his precious burden, and finds that things are even worse than he thought. His abandonment of his treasure causes it to be damaged, and he cannot bear the pain of watching its deterioration.

Moore has taken an unlikely premise, and uses it to produce an oddly believable tale of inner torment. Maloney's inner sense of artistic integrity and his sense of the value of his treasure become the means of his punishment.

As in the other Moore novels I have read, the story seems to drive itself through its inner logic, and is simply a gripping, haunting story, independent of any moral message.

Similar to "Cold Heaven", the protagonist struggles against an unknowable greater power to assert free will. This is an excellent read.

Brian Moore's wistful, libidinous, fabulously imaginative novel describes an event that can't have happened, but it did. The slipstream tale is radically different from his usual work in content and style but--typical for him--compelling, provocative, funny and sad, and completely worthwhile. And the overarching question is the very one he worries at in his novels about faith: What is real, what isn't? Premise: His protagonist had a dream, and it comes true. Out of his REM state and into the parking lot behind a motel in Carmel springs up, in one swoop, a collection of Victoriana like nothing else on earth. In this gaudy fairground are hundreds of famous objects that are neither missing from the British museums that own them nor copied but somehow in two places at once. Objects thought to be long ago destroyed somehow exist again, in pristine, working condition. Don't worry about what's real and what isn't. Be there now.

This story does not make sense either on a literal or symbolic level. The narrative is crude and forced. The theme is vague. The writing has a few good moments but is generally flat. One has the impression that Moore didn't know what to do with the situation after he set it up. He plowed forward into a series of unbelievable scenes until there was no way out. In the end, he chose the easy way out.

Tony Maloney, a history professor, on vacation in Carmel, CA, goes to sleep in a motel, has a dream about attending the Great Expedition in London in 1851, and when he wakes up, a magnificent collection of Victoriana is set up on display in the parking lot. A dream come true at first, but eventually the collection begins to take control of his life, and there is nothing he can do to get rid of it - not even dream another dream! He ends up committing suicide.

It's an interesting idea and Moore's broad humor is on display here. But it's pretty much a single idea and often while reading it, thought it might have worked better as a short story. Good, but Moore has done better work in other books.