The Street Philosopher [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

Matthew Plampin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 12, 2009

An elegant, powerful novel, set in Victorian England, a time not so different from our own! perfect for fans of THE INTERPRETATION OF MURDER and THE SHADOW OF THE WIND Ambitious young journalist Thomas Kitson arrives at the battlefields of the Crimea as the London Courier's man on the ground. It is a dangerous place, full of the worst horrors of war but Kitson is determined to make his mark. Under the tutelage of his hard-bitten Irish boss Cracknell, and assisted by artist Robert Styles, he sets about exposing the incompetence of the army generals. Two years later, as Sebastopol burns, Thomas returns to England under mysterious circumstance. Desperate for forget the atrocities of the Crimea, he takes a job as a 'street philosopher', a society writer reporting on the gossip of the day. But on the eve of the great Art Treasures Exhibition, as Manchester prepares to welcome Queen Victoria, Thomas's past returns to haunt him in the most horrifying way!

Editorial Reviews

Review

'A galloping good story' The Times 'Lust, avarice, envy, revenge all play their part in this brilliantly told, well-paced story, which also begs the question, so relevant today, of just how close to action journalists and recorders of war should be allowed' Daily Mail 'Plampin's historical research is impressive, as is his command of detail!.his true gift of descriptive power' Independent on Sunday

About the Author

Matthew Plampin was born in 1975 and grew up in Essex. He read English and History of Art at the University of Birmingham and then completed a PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. He now lectures on nineteenth-century art and architecture. This is his first novel.

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Oakhill Publishing Limited; Unabridged edition (November 12, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 1846487293
• ISBN-13: 978-1846487293
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Street Philospher, December 18, 2009

By 

J Hilfloss "Willing Participant" (Massapequa, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Street Philosopher (Kindle Edition)

I love this book! The story is complex but compelling, so you follow eagerly through each twist and turn. I am a German-American with a British Husband who bought this book in London at the airport, and I cannot wait for the author's next work, The Gunmaker's Gift, to come out in February. My ONLY complaint, why isn't this darn book on the market as a hardcopy in the US yet?!?!? It is a beautiful and earthbound story, narrated by different characters as the story moves on. Plampin has internalized the medium of filmaking in his novel striking clear and poignant images as he leads us through the narrative. I can see this story becoming a film. He writes women the way that Jane Austin wrote men, you see the female characters through the eyes of a gracious and forgiving man, and I consider this a gift that lends the complex story, with multiple narrators, an overarching unity and makes the work feel satisfying and whole by the time you reach the end. More more more!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, June 12, 2010

By 

K. Huff (Radnor, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Street Philosopher (Paperback)

Thomas Kitson is a journalist, sent out the Crimea in 1854 to be the junior correspondent for the London Courier. The Courier team includes the senior correspondent, Richard Cracknell, a loose cannon who has an affair with the commanding officer's wife and pens scurrilous pieces for the newspaper; and Robert Styles, a young illustrator who quickly becomes disillusioned by the war. The war, culminating with the battle of Sebastopol, is interchanged with a second story line, in Manchester two years later, when Kitson is a social commentator for a local paper (a "street philosopher"), and trying desperately to run from the past. What, exactly, happened out in the Crimea?

This is one of those "unputdownable" books. I read it nearly in one sitting, on an airplane ride back to the States after vacation. I needed a distraction from the 300-pound gorilla groping his girlfriend in the seat next to me, and this book was perfect towards that end. I was glued to this book from start to finish, reading on and on to find out what would happen next.

At first, I thought I wasn't going to like the shifts in time--usually they don't work so well, but here they're done subtly. There are quite a lot of battle scenes, but the author's descriptions of them are particularly well-done. The author clearly knows his mid-nineteenth century history, but he doesn't overburden the reader with his knowledge, instead allowing the reader to take things in gradually. At the same time, the mid-nineteenth century, both in the Crimea and in Manchester, comes alive for the reader.

The story, too, is very well-written, and the plot unfolds gradually. There are hints of the unspeakable things that happened in the Crimea, but they aren't revealed until much later. The plot is complicated, and sometimes leaves the reader with more questions than answers, but not overly so. It looks as though rights for this book haven't sold in the US (at least not yet), which is a shame, because this is a truly entertaining novel.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Boring, didn't finish it., September 10, 2010

By 

Topolino "Lisa" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: The Street Philosopher (Paperback)

THis was disappointingly boring. I mean, it takes place in Victorian England, and Crimea, includes battles, lust, and mysteries...but it put me to sleep. The author's prose is only ok, his characters seem flat and cliche, and for a period ripe with possibilities for a great story...there just isn't one. Skip it.