Heredity [Paperback]

Jenny Davidson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 10, 2005

Smart, blonde, and self-destructive, Elizabeth Mann thinks that leaving New York for a London travel-writing job will solve all her problems. She couldn't be more wrong: In a museum of medical curiosities at the Royal College of Surgeons, her daydreams over the skeleton of Jonathan Wild - a notorious eighteenth-century bounty-hunter - are interrupted by an encounter with Gideon Streetcar, an attractive gynaecologist with asthma and a low sperm count. As Elizabeth fast assumes the humiliating, exhilarating role of Gideon's secret mistress, her obsession with Jonathan Wild grows. At an auction she happens upon the diary of Wild's own mistress, who was also named Elizabeth Mann. Further tantalized by this coincidence, Elizabeth decides that with Gideon's help, she will give birth to the bounty-hunter's clone. An impressive debut, Heredity is a virtuoso tale about the world of fertility and genetic cloning.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"'The book is laced with veins of fascinating minutiae about grave robbing by early anatomists, the mechanics of vitro fertilization, even the pathology of syphilis' New York Times Book Review; 'Heredity is a marvelously entertaining work of intellectual and biological obsession - bawdy, audacious, and very funny' David Liss, author of The Coffee Trader and A Conspiracy of Paper; 'Drawing its author comparisons to writers from A.S. Byatt to Susanna Kaysen, Davidson's dark debut, Heredity, is the stuff of biology, love, and self-destruction - you know, like all the good books' Seattle Stranger"

About the Author

Jenny Davidson was born in London in 1971 and raised in the United States. She teaches in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and lives in New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Serpents Tail (February 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852428643
• ISBN-13: 978-1852428648
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,941,887 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great characters, great writing, February 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Heredity (Paperback)

I was stunned by this book, in the best sort of way. It's better written than just about anything out there and really romantic--not in the sense of easy happy endings, which it rejects, but in the sense of getting at the rawness of a young woman's emotional life. Two young women, actually, a few centuries apart: One of the author's gifts is making the sections of the book set in the past as immediate as those in the present; there's no false frumpery. Among its other charms, this is a great book if you've always been a little suspicious of doctors.

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this book!, March 1, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Heredity (Paperback)

Surprising and touching, this novel explores serious questions of families and morality with wicked, subtle humour. The first-person narrator of "Heredity" is a rare accomplishment: a smart, self-destructive young woman who rings absolutely true. Well worth a read!

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic., February 14, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Heredity (Paperback)

A hilarious and touching book, with its tentacles in every imaginable field: genetics, Dickens, travel writing...an all-over attractive book with brilliant turns-of-phrase, a decadently ludicrous plotline, and a strong heroine. It reads quickly and is addictive from the start.