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45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful, moving, intimate portrait of a physician., April 19, 1999
I was encouraged to read this book because I had seen and thoroughly enjoyed the film by the same title. As a practicing physician and lover of early Baroque music, I found myself deeply moved by Rose Tremain's novel. The story is narrated in the first person by Rober Merivel, a physician during the reign of Charles II, the English king restored to the throne after the end of the English civil war and the regime of Oliver Cromwell. I was profoundly impressed at how Tremain, a female, was able to so intimately and accurately write from a masculine perspective. In addition, she was able to clearly express the fears, anxieties, and growing pains of a physician that still hold true today. Her portrayal of the close friendship between Merivel and "Pearce," a Quaker, and fellow physician reminded me of my own professional relationships with some of my colleagues. I wonder if she has had some close relationships with physicians. It certainly speaks well for her research on the historical and scientific background for this book. Tremain's description of the practice of 17th century Euopean medicine was fascinating and well portrayed. I found the growth of Merivel as a human being most engaging of all. His trials and tribulations, his evolution from a self-centered hedonistic court fop to a serious and senstitive man is beautifully and poignantly portrayed. Tremain's work also has some thinly veiled commentary our own times, times not unlike the Restoration wherein, as Charles II describes at the novel's end, " Even in an age in which we wisely practise the excellent art of oblivion, certain things remain." There is a very amusing and ironic moment in the novel where Merivel, a newly appointed Overseer of the Poor in his shire, is instructed in the differences between the "Idle, Able, and Impotent Poor." His own commentary on how this may be applied to the aristocracy and hangers on at court is just one very entertaining and particularly barbed example of the author's view of our own times. I would put this novel in the same class as "The Citadel" by A.J. Cronin, being a story of a physician's life and of the times in which he lives and works. I recommend this book to anyone interested in going into medicine, in the midst of training, or in the practice of the healing arts. I would also recommend it to anyone searching for meaning in these difficult not-so-modern times. My only two regrets are that the story came to an end and that I am unable to personally express my gratitude to the author for writing this work. It left a deep impression on me, one that makes me feel better about our common humanity over the ages.
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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful novel full of energy, historical setting., November 25, 1998
By A Customer
Restoration is full of energy and continually fascinating. I loved it. It's one of those novels in which all the elements are satisfyingly resolved by the end of the story. The setting, seventeenth century England, reflects an astonishing amount of research into the life of that time: a Quaker community established to heal the insane, with its division of patients by their potential for harm; details of dress (Robert Merivel, the hero, often tells us how he removes his wig, or puts it on, and the condition of his scalp underneath); chocolate cake as a normal breakfast food; and seventeenth century medicine. Robert is trained as a doctor, but has lost his will to practice after the death of his parents by fire, and the book is about his restoration and accession to maturity following this loss. Robert begins as a fool for King Charles II, marrying the King's mistress but forbidden to touch her, and it is this relationship to the King that shapes his life in the story. One aspect of Robert's restoration is his work with the patients at the Quaker asylum: in addition to the ideas and attitudes of the time, we are allowed to see Robert developing his own notions of the causes and cures of madness, which are applied with some success and some ruinous results. Robert's dear friend Pearce, a lugubrious Quaker who introduces him to the asylum, is a beautifully developed character of great depth, annoying and admirable and pathetic; they are orphans together. Two aspects of the novel I found especially powerful: descriptions of the Great Fire of London, including the geography of its spread and the behavior of the fleeing crowds, and Robert's love for King Charles. Nowhere else have I ever seen conveyed so well the notion of tender love for a King as a wise and mature parent, a love essential to European ideas of kingship before the eighteenth century. The intensely personal nature of Robert's devotion to the King-as-Parent is a fable, a fairy story, but it is brilliantly woven into a realistic story of adventure, failure and grace.
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
personal restoration, May 20, 2001
Robert Merival believes he has a wonderful place in the court of King Charles II. He has been given the honour of marrying one of the King's most treasured concubines who needs to be temporarily removed from court to avoid the King's wife. They are given an estate and an income in return for the promise that Robert will not lay a finger on his wife. Robert becomes quite comfortable in his new found luxury, splurging on food, drink, toys and furnishings, believing himself to be quite the gentleman. However, he begins to become aware of one small problem, he is falling in love with his wife. Through certain events he comes to realise that he was not chosen to be married to the King's lover because of their friendship, but because he was the only fool that would do it without question. He is a laughing stock. When everything is taken away from him, his wife, his estate and money, he seeks out an old friend who works in a lunatic asylum. This is where Robert begins his personal restoration. Through studying and attempting to help and cure the people of their madness, he begins to see just exactly what kind of person he is. Rose Tremain is wickedly comedic, with stories of people that we can laugh with and relate to, despite centuries separating us. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, as I have done with all of the others I have read from this wonderful author.
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