Mr. Timothy [Hardcover]

Louis Bayard (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: HarperCollins; First edition. edition (1993)
• ASIN: B0022X3JKQ
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)

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59 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Dickens of a Tale!, November 1, 2003

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S. Berner (Cocoa, Fl USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mr. Timothy (Hardcover)

As readers or, like myself, avowed non-readers of the various novels that purport to be sequels to the great novels (think "Scarlett") can attest, it is usually a fool's errand to attempt such a thing. But, once in a great while, o.k., probably never before, someone pulls off the trick. That someone is Louis Bayard. Mr. Timothy is, as we realize early on, none other than Tiny Tim Cratchitt, all grown up under the, probably less than we expected, tutelage of his "Uncle" N (for "neezer). He is, at 23 trying to find himself after a life less than splendid, by taking up living quarters in a brothel in the seedier section of London (No, don't bother re-reading that. You read it correctly the first time.) Into his life comes, among other things, a child thief not unlike a certain "dodger", a frightened (and with good reason) 10 year old Italian girl, several corrupt policemen, a one-handed body retriever, a "Columbo"-lik detective, and some of the most horrendous villains ever written. All of this is recounted in almost magical prose, with a period feel that few other modern authors even approach. "Mr. Timothy" may not be anyone's original idea of how "A Christmas Carol" might continue, but it is absolutely true to the realities of the time and place in which it occured. Indeed, its portrait of London and its people are nothing short of Dickensian. Read this, savor it, and then... readit again!

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not A Christmas Carol. . .but Excellent, December 16, 2003

By 

Timothy Haugh (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mr. Timothy (Hardcover)

It is a risky and difficult task to take on a famous piece of literature. Everyone who falls in love with a book likes to imagine how the story continues after the author decides to leave it. A writer who challenges a reader's imagination does so at his own risk. Failures are legion. But that is just what Louis Bayard has decided to do with Mr. Timothy, a novel based on characters from Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

As the title suggests, the story focuses on Tiny Tim Cratchit, now grown-up and healthy except for occasional twinges in the leg and a slight limp. Despite the support of the still living and reformed Scrooge, Tim is cast adrift upon the death of his father, Bob, and has thrown his lot in with a group of prostitutes where he earns his room & board by teaching the madam to read and write. While there, he becomes entangled with a young, troubled girl. In the process of trying to save the girl he discovers a ring of slavery and murder.

It's quite a plot!--not original but deftly handled and interesting mainly because of the risks he takes with character. Here are characters we know--the Cratchits, Scrooge--who Bayard has made his own without losing touch with the foundations Dickens has laid. Despite the happy ending we might have imagined at the end of A Christmas Carol, Bayard has not hesitated handing around death, weakness and despair to the Cratchits along with strength and goodness. He is not catering to his readers but challenging them, particularly rabid Dickens fans like myself, and he succeeds. Whatever I ultimately felt about the plot, I totally believed that this is what could have become of the Cratchits. Because of that, I enjoyed this novel immensely.

And Bayard has added a cast of new characters almost Dickensian in scope and many--Gully, Colin, Philomela, and a host of others--just as memorable. Intertwining these characters and their stories with reminiscences of how the Cratchits got from Dickens to now, Bayard has created a powerful piece of fiction. Having no knowledge of Bayard's other work, I had no idea what to expect from him but I am very pleased with the result and I think any reader, Dickens fan or not, will find a good read here.

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars dark Victorian Gothic, November 7, 2003

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Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mr. Timothy (Hardcover)

Tiny Tim is tiny no longer. He is a twenty-three year old man who no longer needs a crutch to walk. The only sign of his childhood malady is a pronounced limp that hurts at certain times of the years. Haunted by his father's death, he has distanced himself from the rest of the Cratchits and even his uncle Ebenezer Scrooge. He lives in a brothel teaching the madam how to read and when his money runs out, he looks for treasures to be found in the Thames River at low tide.

One day he finds the dead bodies of two young girls that have a brand on their upper arm, the same type that he saw on a dead child in a London alleyway. When Philomela, a ten year old girl, comes into his life trying to escape a wealthy and powerful aristocrat, Timothy finds that to keep his own humanity he must rescue her from those who branded her and put them out of business.

This dark Victorian Gothic is a moving and powerful tale of where good and evil resides side by side in London of 1860. Louis Bayard has written an outstanding morality thriller that has Mr. Timothy risking his own life, time and time again to help a poor and helpless orphaned girl who is already hardened by the knocks life has thrown at her. Timothy finds an unexpectedly ally in a street smart urchin who is wise beyond his years and refuses to let the evil that lurks around each corner get a grip on him.

Harriet Klausner