The Lost Glass Plates of Wilfred Eng [Hardcover]

Thomas Orton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1999

A photo dealer and art historian, Robert Armour stumbles upon long-lost glass plates, the work of the great landscape photographer Wilfred Eng. The negatives, nudes of a beautiful young woman taken in 1874, bring certainty to the rumor of an affair between Eng and Ellen McFarland, wife of tycoon Joseph McFarland. The unraveling of that affair and the difficult relationship between McFarland and Eng become dual obsessions for Robert Armour.Though he recognizes the dangers, he also realizes the explosive impact such materials would have. The negatives threaten to shatter Armours fragile career, which was nearly destroyed years earlier when he unknowingly sold erotica by Edward Weston that turned out to be fake. Yet Armour is unable to resist temptation. Letting greed take the upper hand, he begins the search for a wealthy buyer.With the assurance of his mature talent, Orton portrays a societys reaction to an affair between an enigmatic Chinese artist and a white, upper-class woman. His supple prose reveals the subtle psychological turns in one mans contemporary struggle for redemption and love.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The protagonist of Thomas Orton's debut novel is running out of second chances. Once the respected owner of an exclusive photo gallery in San Francisco, Robert Armour ruined his career when he sold "newly discovered" Edward Weston erotica that turned out to be fakes. Now he's started a new life for himself in Seattle, writing articles and acting as agent in the occasional photo sale. Though his work life has taken a nosedive, Robert has found personal happiness with Diane Mays and her 8-year-old son, Budge. Then one day Judith Lund, an artist wannabe with more money than talent, asks him to evaluate four glass negatives she unearthed in the basement of an apartment building she owns, and his life is turned unexpectedly upside down. The plates turn out to be self-portraits of the famous 19th-century Chinese American landscape photographer Wilfred Eng. What's more, these four are not the only ones. Down in the basement, Robert discovers more negatives--nude portraits of a beautiful young Caucasian woman who could only be Ellen McFarland, wife of Eng's patron, and rumored to be his mistress. Suddenly, Robert has the means of salvaging his career in his hands--if he's willing to risk losing everything, including Diane, to play a dirty game:

Judith, having heard me kick her door and shout when I'd come back up from the basement, would have assumed I was after her to sign my check. Later, if she confronted me about the missing broken plate, I could claim I'd never seen it, that it was rather a hunch and some subsequent research that had led me to believe the plates were Eng's. She couldn't prove otherwise.... Everything about this plan was workable except for Diane. Eventually I'd have to tell her what I'd done, though just now I didn't like to imagine what she would think.

Thomas Orton punctuates his hero's perilous descent with passages from Wilfred Eng's writings, as well as from Ellen McFarland's diaries detailing her passionate affair with, and eventual betrayal by, Eng. As Robert's life unravels, he reluctantly recognizes certain parallels between his own actions and those of the unhappy photographer--but will he be granted yet another chance to make things right this time? Orton has crafted a tale that is part love story, part thriller, and wholly engrossing. --Alix Wilber

From Publishers Weekly

A man whose life has gone off course attempts to redeem his reputation by unraveling a mystery about a renowned landscape photographer in this thought-provoking, sophisticated first novel. Photograph dealer and art historian Robert Armour was disgraced after he unwittingly sold fake Edward Weston photographs, and when the scandal was revealed, he was forced to sell his humble yet respected San Francisco gallery. Along with his life work went his honor and self-confidence, and now he's moved to Seattle to start over, piecing together a new life haphazardly consulting, writing, lecturing and looking for romance. In the basement of his difficult, wealthy client Judith Lund, he happens upon a priceless cache of five original negatives from the work of "one of the fathers of American photography," Chinese-American photographer Wilfred Eng, dated 1874. Armour sees a chance to get back in the art game, this time with the real goods. His scheme requires cunning, and ultimately scheming, as he tries to enlist the right people to get the plates out of Judith's hands without her realizing how valuable they are. Part of the value of the plates lies in their ability to confirm a long-suspected affair between Eng and Ellen McFarland, the upper-class Caucasian child bride of Eng's benefactor. Excerpts from McFarland's diaries, interspersed throughout the novel, generate little of the shocking interracial "19th century scandal" Orton seems to be after. A surprise is revealed in the romantic twists of fate in Ellen's life, and Eng's burden of despair buries him, if not his legacy. Orton orchestrates these histories to echo protagonist Armour's contemporary struggle with ambition, disappointments and love. The narrative, rife with penetrating images, deftly wheels between the deal making and subterfuge of the modern-day art market and a haunting 19th-century epistolary soul-searching. This is a stimulating, literate story of the corrupting or redeeming powers of both art and artifice. (Oct.) FYI: Orton manages Second Story Books in Seattle.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint; 1ST edition (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582430233
• ISBN-13: 978-1582430232
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,075,396 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beach Book for Intellectuals, May 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Lost Glass Plates of Wilfred Eng (Hardcover)

With apologies to our host, I bought my copy of Lost Plates from the author himself, at the shop he runs. He seemed humbly grateful, insisting on adding an inscription to his autograph ("To D---, with many thanks," as though I'd somehow aided in launching the book). Orton needs no assistance. Besides being a well-written, cleverly executed story that he refrains from sprinkling with ubiquitous Seattle references, Lost Plates showcases Orton's mastery of juxtaposition. The text is offset by diary entries, the first seemingly unrelated to the story but which later become interrelated and offer insight and perspective. The greed and lack of integrity that sometimes exist at the highest levels of the museum culture is set against one minor character's purism. And Robert Armour himself, we suspect, is reliving Wilfred Eng's own life crisis: Do I commit to my art or my partner? A compelling read; set aside time because you won't want to stop.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Triumph!, November 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Lost Glass Plates of Wilfred Eng (Hardcover)

Thomas Orton meticulously weaves the threads of passionate love, wrenching betrayal, and art world intrigue into this seamless, superbly written novel. His astute protrayal of the art world enlivens the book, his characters are wonderfully complex, and his storyline unfolds with great intrigue and surprise. Orton's beautiful, sophisticated writing style makes me eagerly await his future work.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 3 1/2 stars. An enjoyable book and a fine debut., March 19, 2002

By 

Fanoula Sevastos (Lyndhurst, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lost Glass Plates of Wilfred Eng (Paperback)

Robert Armour, a photo dealer and historian, is called by Judith Lund, a rich and fledgling artist, to appraise a group of glass plates (photo negatives.) He suspects they are self-portraits of famous nineteenth century photographer Wilfred Eng. When he later discovers more glass plates in Judith's basement which he believes are nudes of Eng's mistress Ellen, he sets out to dupe Judith into believing they're worthless and introduce them to the world himself.

He teams up with Parker, a former associate, and together they put a plan in motion which ends up with more complications than Armour bargained for. In the meanwhile, the more he involves himself in the research of Eng's life and the stealing of the plates, the more distant Armour becomes in his personal relationships with girlfriend Diane and her son Budge, a relationship further complicated by Diane's growing affection for her ex-husband's attentions.

Most of this is fairly engaging, despite the fact that Orton often takes us into territory which doesn't really further the novel. Where Orton really shines is in his creation of Wilfred Eng's personal and professional history. This is where the story is most involving, as we learn about Eng's contributions to the art world, his personal shortcomings, and his love affair with Ellen. Much of this is revealed in Ellen's own voice via a journal she kept during the affair, which Armour is reading. It's a complicated, believable, involving biography that meanders through the novel. It is also set up in such a way that loosely parallels Armour's own personality and ultimately, self-discovery.

Despite a few typical first-novel pitfalls, this is a fine debut.