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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Musk and Amber - Farinelli plus Amadeus plus Zenda!,
By John Gough "John Gough - Deakin University" (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Musk and Amber (Hardcover)
A.E.W. Mason may be remembered for "Four Feathers", and "The Drum" -- great tales of daring-do. But he achieved more.
His stories of the French police Inspector Hanaud (and his companion Mr Ricardo -- Mason, himself, in part) predate Christie's great Belgian sleuth Poirot, including Poirot's amusing mangling of English. But there is more: plays, especially, which may have dated, in our era of the cinema, that has erased memory of the theatrical hits of Maugham, James, Galsworthy, Shaw, Milne, and so many others who wrote for the theatre (where the big money was, then) who are now recalled only for their novels -- Lawrence, Joyce, Huxley, and so on. Yet I am happy to accept the judgment of Mason himself, and his biographer, Roger Lancellyn Green, that "Musk and Amber", Mason's second last book, written in his early seventies, and published in 1942 (when the world had much else on its mind), is his finest. What is it about? See below This is a story that, like others of Mason's ("Four Feathers", notably, especially in the Korda version -- the others are pale imitations, or worse), ought to be filmed. It certainly ought to be reissued, as a book. This is, like Baron Corvo's "Hadrian the Eighth" (the fictional story of a remarkable Pope), a minor classic of literature that ought to be better known. Similarly, Mason ought to be better remembered, worthy to stand alongside "Treasure Island" and "Kidnapped"'s Stevenson, and "Zenda"'s Hope, and Conan Doyle, and Rider Haggard. Similarly, some version of his biography ought to be better known. Like Maugham, and Compton Mackenzie, Mason was an active, and ingeniously successful spy during World War I. Like Hemingway, he was an adventurer, always on the look out for a fresh escapade, and an idea for a story. With "Musk and Amber", a story of revenge, set in Eighteenth century England and the nations that constituted proto-Italy at that time (notably, the Kingdom of Naples and the Republic of Venice), and located in the upper-middle class and aristocratic world of Grand Opera, and the castrati! A fine classic novel of character, manners, heroism, suffering -- think of the plotting and revenge of "The Count of Monte Cristo" mixed, perhaps, with the art and character conflict of "Amadeus" and the extravagant romance of "Phantom of the Opera". PLOT SPOILER *** PLOT SPOILER!!! The young lord of an Eighteenth century estate in England is brutally cheated out of his inheritance by a half-sister and her cousin. The youth has early been heard to sing beautifully: a friend of his father's accidentally hears the lad singing. His talent is undeniable: even the composer Handel has visited the estate, and commented favourably. But this is the age of the great castrati -- adult males who have been castrated as children to preserve their unusual soprano voices. The recent film "Farinelli" is the story of one of these, as famous across Europe in his time as are the great film stars of our modern era. The youth is abducted as he visits Naples with his scheming relatives, and is there castrated, and handed to an Italian family, who convince him to become a professional singer. And so he does, but all the while plotting his revenge -- not only the famous dish best served cold, but one that, according to Thomas Browne, as fragrant as "musk and amber", as in the title. There is far more. Eventually, after adventures, and desperate escapes, the young adult star of the opera houses, finds his revenge (as satisfying as any thrilling swordplay in an Erroll Flynn film), and THEN, walks away from his inheritance. The last scenes are as sad as the ending of "The Lord of the Rings". Very highly recommended, John Gough -- Deakin University -- jugh@deakin.edu.au
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