Customer Reviews

History of a Pleasure Seeker

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Young and charismatic Piet Barol is a hedonist with a purpose. He's turned pleasure into an art, like a jaunty Epicurean. In 1907, he leaves behind his austere beginnings in South Holland for the splendor of the rich and modern, via employment in a powerful family in Amsterdam. Although raised in lower-middle-class surroundings, his Parisienne mother imparted gentility and musical refinement to Piet before her premature death. His sensuous lips, striking physique, keen blue eyes and cultivated, easy charm ignites passion in others, and he is as resourceful as he is alluring.

With confidence and authority, Piet secures a position in the Vermeulen-Sickerts' household as ten-year-old Egbert's private tutor. Egbert's agoraphobia presents a challenge for Piet, who is paid well to teach and to hopefully "cure" him. From the moment he steps foot in their grand house, class distinctions are noted and deftly exploited by the agile and ambitious new tutor.

This promise of the title delivers, and the sex is candid. If you are turned off by explicit sexuality, you may want to reconsider this book. However, Mason writes with a poised pen and a light, poetic touch in this romp of rumps. It's ripe, but not vulgar, and he has a knack for regulating the sexual exuberance. In lesser hands, it would be meretricious and puerile, but he harnesses the narrative's carnal energy with a droll and nutty bite. The bi-curious Piet jettisons the limited definition of heterosexuality. He is a card-carrying lover of women, but he has a sensuous appreciation for the subtle bonds of carefree, liberated men.

This savvy novel of class and manners displays Piet's acumen for blurring divides and situating himself as a "guest" of the house. Barol quickly intuits the vulnerabilities of the domicile, including the servants, and makes an enterprise and métier out of his talent for soothing egos, from the bottom to the top. However, he is not without a nemesis. Daughter Louisa, a strong and independent woman who assesses him as a canny and insouciant opportunist, mistrusts his motives, although her sister Constance is mildly afflicted with his charms.

Maarten's anguish over his son blindly binds him to a severe and persecutory God. His religiosity is so extreme that it has become anathema to intimacy with his wife. There is more at stake here then just a pleasure seeker's desires. The sins of the father have infected the child. The author's understanding of Egbert's illness and its roots in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (although the term isn't named in the book) were penetratingly accurate. What is even more profound is Mason's ability to illustrate a theory that I have always held: that fervent religiosity is also linked to OCD. He shows without telling.

Word has it that Mason intends to continue the adventures of Piet Barol in at least two subsequent books. Knowledge of that mitigates the appearance of a pat and abrupt ending here as the ship sails into South Africa. There is much potential for past liaison's to threaten Piet's future, and for his usual composure to careen as he walks a tightrope--which is an extended metaphor and a prime subtext of the narrative. The novel ends with a promise that pedigree, passion, and ambition will continue to quiver and clash in Piet Barol's pursuit and parlay of pleasure.

The opening line of this novel set mostly in Amsterdam in 1907 tells us that our hero Piet Barol is extremely attractive to most women as well as to many men and that this will be the key to his advancement.

The son of a dull academic and a now-deceased French woman who has taught him opera and which fork to hold in grand dinners, Barol interviews for the job of tutor to the son of a wealthy trader who has made a fortune selling ice to Americans and opened a chain of luxury hotels.

Barol gets the job and finds himself in the embrace of the Vermeulen-Sicker family with its two attractive daughters and their sexually frustrated mother. Piet's pupil is Egbert, a talented and intelligent nine year-old in the grip of a terrible case of obsessive-compulsive disorder, a condition not yet recognized or named.

The book tells us how the confident and charming Piet maneuvers his way through the thicket of complicated relationships both with the family members and with the staff who serve them. His greatest gift is an ability to know when to use and when to refrain from using his sexual magnetism. One of the strengths of this book is the air of sexual longing and desire that accompanies almost all of its episodes. Almost all of its characters, major and minor, are motivated in some degree by their ability or inability to integrate sexuality into their lives in a way that makes sense.

Eventually, leaving the family under something of a cloud, Piet buys a ticket on a liner for South Africa in tourist class but finds a way with a friend to sneak into first class -- which is what this novel is about. He is on the point of being discovered and thrown off the ship when fate intervenes once more.

It's an enjoyable if undemanding read because one does root for Piet to succeed.

Richard Mason's HISTORY OF A PLEASURE SEEKER is a lush, sensuous and finely-wrought story of how, through charisma and seduction, one man is able to change an entire family and free them from their stuffy, well-made cages. In return, Piet is able to leave behind his poverty-stricken youth and seek all the pleasures to which he feels entitled as a self-made man.

I was initially attracted to this book because of a line drawn between it and F. Scott Fitzgerald's THE GREAT GATSBY, one of my favorite classics. After finishing HISTORY OF A PLEASURE SEEKER, I can see the parallels between the two. Though our setting here is The Netherlands, Piet functions as a sort of Gatsby-like anti-hero. I took turns loving and despising him, wondering if he possibly felt for the Vermeulen-Sickerts family or merely sought to snap off a piece of their prestige. That feeling morphed many times over, and I'm still not completely sure how I feel about Piet.

But, like the many characters in Mason's novel, it's hard not to be seduced by him. On the surface Piet is a talented pianist, an educated dreamer, a reliable employee. He's described as devastatingly handsome and all too aware of what his attractive physique can afford him from others. Whether everything is just an elaborate scheme to buy himself fortune, I'm not sure -- but I'm leaning toward not. At his heart, I don't think Piet was a cold and calculated gold digger. I think he was just a little tortured and entitled.

HISTORY OF A PLEASURE SEEKER was a fast, intoxicating read -- all due to Mason's command of language and dreamy, atmospheric writing. Though my interest waned slightly as Piet moved on from Amsterdam, I was still very invested in the plot and characters. The novel features several scenes steamy enough to make my cheeks flush, but I wasn't bothered by the erotic and hypnotic nature of the story. If you're easily offended by sexual content, I'd suggest tiptoeing around this one -- but those seeking a raucous, entertaining and sexy story of one social climber pawing his way to the top will find Richard Mason's novel goes down a treat.

The pleasure seeker of the title is young Piet Berol, but he is far from the only one. Almost everyone in the novel is a pleasure seeker in one way or another. And while the first thing the title brings to mind is sex- and there is plenty of that, written in terms that rise to near Bulwar-Lytton-esque heights- Berol and the others seek all sorts of pleasure: fine food and drink, beautiful clothing, jewels, objects d'art, music, even the everyday pleasures of soft, clean sheets and hot baths.

Berol, a dirt poor but handsome and smart young man, is hired as tutor to a lad who suffers from what seems to be a mix of OCD and agoraphobia with dashes of schizophrenia. The boy has refused to step outside the house for years, and his father, one of the richest men in Amsterdam, wants him cured. Berol is a quick study of humans, and charms his way into the house, into the hearts- and sometimes into other places- of the family and servants, and, he feels, into eventual fortune. The best laid plans can go awry, though, and Berol takes a lot of chances; I found myself frequently thinking "No, no, no, you idiot!" But Berol always seems to land on his feet, unbelievably so. After leaving Amsterdam, he ends up on the luxury liner Eugenie heading to South Africa to seek his fortune. Here he has more adventures, missteps and saves. The ending is rather inconclusive, but apparently the author plans a sequel or two.

The writing is lovely, if slightly overblown in a few places. The author excels at description of both people and things. It's all very smooth and sleek, with no jarring notes. The characters all seem to revolve around Berol in one way or another, but this I think is intentional; to him, that is what they actually do. He is a genius at figuring out how to move people into doing what he wishes. He is not mean or cruel by any means; he does not wish to hurt people. It's hard to really like him, but it's almost impossible to dislike him. The character I actually found myself liking the most was Didier Loubat, footman in the house in Amsterdam and later steward on the Eugenie, who becomes Berol's best friend and who nurses a secret love for him. While he is a pleasure seeker like all the rest, he takes risks for Berol, pays for those risks, and yet is willing to do it all again. I will definitely be looking for the sequel.

This novel opens in Amsterdam in 1907 and is divided into two parts, with the first part comprising about two-thirds of the relatively short novel (less than 300 pages).

In Part One, we see the main character, Piet Barol -- a good looking, recent college graduate with multilingual, musical, and artistic skills -- charming his way to employment with one of Amsterdam's richest, but also socially progressive, families as a live-in tutor to the family's only male child, Egbert, who is 10 years old and smart, but has quite a handful of psychological afflictions, including the fear of stepping out of the house for even just a moment. Barol's job is to further Egbert's education in the languages, music, and arts, as well as to coax him out of the house so that the future heir may partake in family outings.

Barol is first interviewed by Egbert's mother, Jacobina, who takes an immediate liking to -- and lust for -- him. Maarten, Jacobina's religious and now eccentrically celibate husband (the reason for this is explained in the novel), is similarly impressed. Barol gets hired and meets Egbert's beautiful, adult, and unmarried sisters, Constance and Louisa, as well as the household servants, two of whom -- the tall footman Didier and the slightly creepy, older butler Mr. Blok -- develop an immediate homosexual crush on him.

Against this backdrop of palpable sexual tensions that he immediately recognizes as favoring him, Barol intends to keep the cards he holds to himself and to play them adroitly. So it seems that the game is his to lose, but will he succeed or will he stumble?

In Part Two, we find Barol aboard a ship bound for South Africa. Soon after boarding, he realizes he has made a big mistake. Self-pity engulfs him, but he does meet an old ally, as well as new characters who have the potential to become allies or just additional conquests. The choices he makes can mean the difference between getting kicked out of the ship and left stranded in the middle of nowhere where the odds will overwhelmingly be against him, or making it to South Africa as planned where opportunities for pleasure seeking and, perhaps, even wealth building await him.

I thought the first part of the novel held many promising possibilities for interesting character and plot developments, so I was disappointed when the author apparently did not pursue those possibilities.

Had the author ditched the second part of the novel, which I thought merely changed Barol's sex partners and did not substantially add to character or plot development, in favor of using the freed up time and space to add more depth to the characters and color to the plot in what used to be the first part of the novel, the resulting novel might have had more substance and, therefore, appeal to readers like me who are looking for characters worth rooting for.

Sure, the author did a good job transporting me to what Amsterdam and America were like, at least to the super rich, during the earliest years of the twentieth century, and I did get a laugh or two at some of the characters' occasional missteps, silliness, foibles, and/or bravados, and descriptions of the sexual acts were tasteful and some were quite fun and arousing. But overall, I was indifferent to Piet Barol and the fate that awaits him should he fail or succeed at finding the pleasures he seeks, because I have not been given any good reason to care about him. Good for him if he gets rewards or favors for sex, but no boohoo from me if he doesn't.

The novel's ending suggests there might be a sequel or more. Here's hoping for a more fully developed Piet Barol and reasons to root for him!

First the positive - I did enjoy the writing, the time period, and yup even the overall story. Set in the early 1900s we follow Piet as he attempts to make a life for himself -- not just a life, a good life. We join up with Piet just as he's taking a job with one of thee families in Amsterdam. He's tasked with being a "tutor" for their young son, but really he's expected to be much more than a tutor -- instead the family is hoping for something of a miracle worker, someone who can cure the boy of his spoiled eccentric ways (ways we'd likely call agoraphobia and OCD at the very least today). Piet, using his charming ways and good looks, wins over nearly everyone in the household and seems well on his way to a life well beyond any he could have dreamed of.

It's definitely a book to hide from the kiddies or prudish types due to the numerous sex scenes (straight, gay, married, straight, married to others, you name it -- it's all here). There's also plenty of god talk (blaming, crediting, etc etc) which is always a sure fire way to get some people worked up.

The problem? In the end it just fell flat at developing some of the characters as well as it should have. Yes I realize that this was to be a book about Piet -- that's no excuse to neglect characters that it is introducing us to as so important in this time frame in his life and just failing miserably at going into details when it comes to them while going into such details at such silly things. I found myself feeling like I missing out on some of their lives or some of their motives, etc far more than I felt the need to read more about Piet... A good thing perhaps in some ways, still it just made me feel, in the end, like something was missing.

Caveat: This is not a book that will appeal to everyone. There is a vast amount of graphic, highly detailed sexual material that many will find off-putting. That said, I thought this book was really good. Not great, but well-written with an engaging storyline that kept me engaged until the very end. I haven't read many books about turn-of-the-century Europe, but now my interest has been piqued and I plan to find more from this era.

The basic premise of HISTORY OF A PLEASURE SEEKER centers around an extremely handsome young man, named Piet, who goes to work for a very wealthy family as a tutor for a boy with severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, although at that time,there was no name for it. As a teacher of students with disabilities I appreciated Piet's attempts to bring the boy back to "normalcy." Along the way Piet's relationships with the wealthy family and his fellow domestics take unusual and interesting turns.

Although Piet was born poor, he quickly adapts and ultimately revels in the lavish lifestyle to which he has become accustomed. His good looks and charismatic personality opens many doors for him. How he chooses to use these opportunities are the crux of this book. His choices will either bring his demise or his own good fortune. Read this book with an open mind and take in the author's brilliant prose. The book moves quickly and one will find themselves wrapped up in the golden glow of a golden era.

It's hard to deny the global impact of the television sensation "Downton Abbey." Popular in both the United States and the United Kingdom, the series has reignited interest in the glamorous, turbulent years leading up to the First World War. In the UK, that period of rapid modernization and tenuous luxury is called the Edwardian period. In Europe, it's known as the Belle Époque.

This gilded age, this grand world of immense wealth and rapid upheaval, is the one in which Richard Mason has chosen to set his fourth novel, HISTORY OF A PLEASURE SEEKER. It's a picaresque, the story of a young man whose love of pleasure doesn't get in the way of his desire for success (and sometimes even helps it along a little).

The year is 1907, and the place is the wealthiest avenue in all of Amsterdam. Without much in the way of qualifications or pedagogical aspirations, young Piet Barol is on his way to interview for the position of tutor to the son of Maarten and Jacobina Vermeulen-Sickerts. The boy, 10-year-old Egbert, is agoraphobic --- his brilliant talent at the piano is a mask for his terror of offending the Shadows that haunt his every thought.

Fortunately for Barol, his charming personality, excellent manners and flirtatious ways with Jacobina more than make up for any deficiencies in his resume, and he gets the job. Maarten and Jacobina's two eligible and accomplished daughters --- particularly the modern and ambitious Louisa, who wants to be a fashion designer --- think they see through the newcomer in their household, but Barol thoroughly impresses the girls' parents. Jacobina, in particular, is more than impressed with Barol's talents in the bedroom, once she starts up an intimate relationship with him that compensates for her sexless relationship with her husband.

Barol successfully bridges the gap between the servants and the masters in the Vermeulen-Sickerts's household, easily gaining admirers (and inciting more than a little lust) wherever he goes. It's clear, though, that this assignment is merely the first step in Barol's ascent in the world, and before long he's aspiring to greater heights than this grand avenue can provide. But can he cure Egbert of his phobias before the house of cards he has built comes crashing down around him?

With its careful, detailed descriptions of décor, artwork, architecture and fashion, and with its cross-class portrayal of a wealthy household on the cusp of change, HISTORY OF A PLEASURE SEEKER will certainly appeal to "Downton Abbey" fans who value many of those same aspects in their beloved television show. The novel, however, turns up the heat on the Belle Époque, as Piet inspires sexual desire --- and pursues his own pleasure --- both upstairs and downstairs, and in acquaintances of both sexes. Mason writes almost as colorfully about music as he does about sex, and he shows Barol cleverly using music both to convey hidden messages and to seduce.

HISTORY OF A PLEASURE SEEKER is clearly set up to have a sequel, as Barol ends the novel on the cusp of an entirely different life, on a different continent (and with the words "To Be Continued..."). The rapid change of scene that happens two-thirds of the way through the book may disappoint some readers who have become fond of Barol's Dutch employers and want to spend more time with them. But they'll also be eager to discover where this pleasure seeker's pursuits lead next.

Reviewed by Norah Piehl

"History of a Pleasure Seeker" is a randy, raucous romp through belle epoque Europe.

It descends from a long line of young-man-seeks-fortune-in-the-big-city yarns by giants such as Balzac ("Pere Goriot") and Guy de Mauppassant ("Bel Ami").

What with cable networks morphing novels into television series, author Richard Mason may have a winner on his han if he'll only go with snappier title, "Bourgeois Behaving Badly."

The scene in "History of...," mostly, is turn of the century Amsterdam. Our hero is the humble-born Piet Barol who is skilled most at enjoying life and given the rapier tool best suited to this pursuit: beauty.

Barol is vain and ambitious in calculating, but it must be in a way that we all are, because the reader wishes him well and prays for his escape from some of the scrapes he rather hungrily gets himself into.

He's installed as a tutor in a burgher's house on an affluent Amsterdam canal as a tutor.

The man's wife is hot and unloved, his daughters flowering and enigmatic in interesting ways. A puritan runs the house staff, a pervert the service crew.

highwayscribery will avoid mentioning the ways, crafty and not, Barol navigates these seas while still reaching better shores.

Mr. Mason does what they call in comedy, "blue." If homosexuality or hearing the name of that thing hanging between men's legs called by its street name offend you, let us recommend Jane Austen.

"History of a Pleasure Seeker" is an easy read, rendered in efficient prose, and blessed with curious insights about Old World ways.

Mason permits himself no artistic indulgences, working with a strong forward moving structure, few flashbacks, al palatable tableaux peppered with good visual and historical detail.

It is really an Old World book, pulled from Old World ways of writing literature, with the novelty found in the voices of past masters sort of blended or woven into it.

Here you'll find erotic drama, laced with humor, with strong accents of Austen, Georges Bataille, de Sade, and Henry James.

I'd never heard of Richard Mason when I selected History of a Pleasure Seeker. But based on reviews of his previous work, I gathered he's something of a wunderkind. And in this book, he proves himself an accomplished writer, bringing vividly to life Amsterdam's Belle Epoque and its moneyed classes, as viewed through the eyes of a poor but exceedingly handsome and educated university clerk's son, Piet Barol, the pleasure seeker of the title.

As others--and the book description--have noted, Piet is adept at leveraging his looks, talents and his social graces to gain what he wants--initially a position as tutor to Egbert Vermeulen-Sickerts, a tenish-year-old boy who is bright and an accomplished pianist but who refuses to go outdoors. (It's unclear whether Egbert is autistic or schizophrenic or suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder or some combination of the above.) Neither servant nor family member nor friend, Piet quickly becomes integrated into the household, and upon the advice of the footman, he studiously avoids romantic involvements with the two Vermeulen-Sickerts daughters, despite their efforts to ensnare and trip him up. But it is another matter with Egbert's mother, Jacobina. Her husband, Maarten, is something of a religious fanatic and has resolved to abstain from sex, at the expense of his relationship with his wife, so Piet steps into the void.

Except for the rigidly defined class system, nothing is really black and white in the world Mason depicts, which makes for interesting reading, even if Piet's "cure" for Egbert's eccentricities stretches credibility. Things start to fall apart a bit in the second part of the book, which takes place aboard a luxury liner bound for South Africa. There are too many coincidences and too many close calls to be entirely believable, and one gets the impression that Mason wasn't quite sure how to end his book, so he opted for convenience. The resolution comes too fast and too easily--real life doesn't usually work that way.

Still, until the last pages, when I was rolling my eyes and saying, "Oh, come on!" to myself, I was engaged and entertained, which is why I've awarded History of a Pleasure Seeker four stars. Mason is clearly a talent worth watching.