From A.N. Wilson, comes the story of the sentimental education of Julian Ramsey. After an agonizing (and often hilarious) passage through prep school, public school, and army service, Julian begins an exploration of love and friendship and what it really means to "know" someone, in this comic, yet touching, coming of age story.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In another of the mildly wicked dissections of the English character at which he excels, novelist ( Love Unknown ) and biographer ( Tolstoy ) Wilson attacks the unscrupulous practices of some members of the literary community while spinning the coming-of-age story of Julian Ramsay. Orphaned during the blitz, Julian has been brought up by his aunt and uncle in a small East Anglian village. Eccentric Uncle Roy, a vicar, is obsessed with the aristocratic Lampitt family, overvaluing his friendship with Sargent Lampitt, who treats him with snobbish disdain. Sargent's brother, belle-lettrist James Petworth Lampitt, dies offstage but remains squarely at the center of events because of a biography of him written by Raphael Hunter, a legendary charmer and seducer destined for a pivotal role in Julian's life. While the narrative tension centers around the sinister implications of Raphael's behavior, the revelations thus far (this is the first book of a trilogy) do not quite bear out the ominous foreshadowing. Enlivened by some darkly funny scenes set in the "English Gulag" (Wilson's name for prep schools) and by a series of wonderful character portraits, the book also delivers trenchant commentary on the nature of the literary art, particularly the gossip-centered, prurient biographies so much the rage today.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
We are indeed compelled to "incline our hearts" toward Julian Ramsay, both narrator and protagonist of this frank and self-effacing tale. Julian describes his boyhood and adolescence as a continual trial to be endured within the confines of several "English Gulags," from the public school system to National Army Service. Contrasted with these harsh male worlds are Julian's anxiety at the early death of his mother, and his attraction, both physical and intellectual, to the few women who cross the perimeters of his prisons. With wit and poignancy, Wilson reveals both the eccentricity and ordinariness of the Ramsay family life to which our hero regularly returns. Given the somewhat inconclusive ending, many readers will eagerly anticipate the forthcoming volumes in this projected trilogy. Julia Duffy, CUNY Graduate Sch. Lib.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Coming of Age in England,
This review is from: Incline Our Hearts (Penguin Fiction) (Mass Market Paperback)
I enjoyed this novel immensely. It has similarities to BRIDESHEAD REVISITED with the importance of religion and focus on British aristocracy in decline, and the narrator looks back and comments on his coming-of-age with the wisdom of old age, but here it is just "Stage One" of his life, with a sequel obviously to come.
Speaking of the sequels, I had trouble trying to find the name of the next book, so to aid others here are the titles of the "Lampitt Chronicles" (according to the "also by A.N. Wilson" list I found in a recent novel): Incline Our Hearts A Bottle in the Smoke Daughters of Albion Hearing Voices A Watch in the Night I haven't read any of the others yet, but INCLINE OUR HEARTS is funny, interesting re: random English attitudes toward class, boarding school, radio, the Church of England, etc., with a protagonist you care about. I recommend it.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Growing up in mid-20th-century England,
By Kim Boykin (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Incline Our Hearts (Hardcover)
This is the story of the childhood and adolescence of Julian Ramsay, growing up in England in the mid-twentieth century with his uncle and aunt in a small-town vicarage and then at boarding school.
This novel is the first in the Lampitt series, which continues with A Bottle in the Smoke, Daughters of Albion, Hearing Voices, and A Watch in the Night. The books proceed through Julian's life and chronicle the strange ways in which his life is entangled with the lives of various members of the Lampitt family, including author James "Jimbo" Lampitt, and Jimbo's biographer. What I'm especially enjoying about this series so far (I just finished the second book) is Wilson's observations about growing up and adulthood. I recently discovered A. N. Wilson's novels, and I wish he'd written more of them. (He's written lots of nonfiction, including biographies of Tolstoy and C. S. Lewis.) I also highly recommend Wilson's The Vicar of Sorrows.
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