New Yorker Elizabeth Mann travels to London on a travel writing assignment. Little does she know that her ultimate discoveries will be far more captivating than the happenings at Buckingham Palace or the activities of the royal family. When she becomes lovers with an infertility specialist, the two conceive a plan to create a new person using the DNA of an infamous 18th-century criminal. Combining elements of Girl, Interrupted and A. S. Byatt’s Possession, Heredity is both a deadpan detective story and a twisted historical romance.
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Book Description
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"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Jenny Davidson was born in London in 1971 and grew up in Philadelphia, where she attended Germantown Friends School. She has degrees from Harvard and Yale and currently teaches eighteenth-century British literature in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
great characters, great writing,
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!,
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.,
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.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
I hang up the phone one afternoon in early June and consider my options. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
condemned hold Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Jonathan Wild, Elizabeth Mann, Old Bailey, New York, Mary Wild, Hunterian Museum, Van Butchell, Allan Menzies, British Museum, Jack Sheppard, John Hunter, Mother Clap, Pancras Church-yard, Quilt Arnold, Royal College of Surgeons, East End, Gideon Streetcar, Hyde Park, Ian Wilmut, Jurassic Park, Mia Farrow, Roslin Institute, Skull Dean, Witness Protection Program New!
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Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
I hang up the phone one afternoon in early June and consider my options. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
condemned hold Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Jonathan Wild, Elizabeth Mann, Old Bailey, New York, Mary Wild, Hunterian Museum, Van Butchell, Allan Menzies, British Museum, Jack Sheppard, John Hunter, Mother Clap, Pancras Church-yard, Quilt Arnold, Royal College of Surgeons, East End, Gideon Streetcar, Hyde Park, Ian Wilmut, Jurassic Park, Mia Farrow, Roslin Institute, Skull Dean, Witness Protection Program New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 10
books:
See all 10 books this book cites
- Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: The Classic Guide to Understanding the Opposite Sex by John Gray on page 131, and page 137
- Remaking Eden by Lee M. Silver in Back Matter
- The English Way of Death: The Common Funeral Since 1450 by Julian Litten in Back Matter
- Sex and The Single Girl: Before There Was Sex in the City, There Was (Cult Classics) by Helen Gurley Brown on page 149
- The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (Modern Library Classics) by Laurence Sterne on page 40
See all 10 books this book cites
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