A Much Married Man (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Anthony Anscombe could remember the precise moment he fell madly and irrevocably in love with Amanda Gibbons..." (more)
Key Phrases: iced ink, white drawing room, Forge Cottage, Steepness Farmhouse, Winchford Priory (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Britain's moneyed upper crust comes in for a slapstick razzing in this class-skewering 10th book (after novels Godchildren and Streetsmart) by Condé Nast U.K. managing director Coleridge. The titular much-married man is Anthony Anscombe, the thoroughly decent but naïvely innocent scion of a private English merchant bank family, who also happens to be a country squire responsible for the well-being of a picturesque village and 2,000 acres of "magical" land to which his family has held title for 370 years. The eccentric locals love Anthony, and Anthony loves haplessly: over four decades, he marries three unsuitable women, sires five children and shepherds five stepchildren through turbulent upbringings. Aside from his bank duties, which provide ample fodder for Coleridge's wry satire, Anthony is called upon to undertake a load of unpleasant chores, such as confronting his philandering father-in-law at the latter's "floating lovenest" and defending his rapist stepson, Morad. Throughout, Anthony remains the epitome of a gentleman, unfailingly patient with the demanding women in his life (the first a diva waif, the second a priggish homebody and the third a monstrous money-grubber). This well-informed comedy of stiff-upper-lip manners reads, charmingly, as if sprung from a writerly union between Iris Murdoch at the high end and Harold Robbins at the low. (June)
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From The New Yorker

Anthony Anscombe is the scion of an English banking family and the inheritor of an estate that includes a small Cotswold village. Decent to the point of passivity, he goes through three marriages (and an extramarital liaison), each seemingly less well-advised than the last. Coleridge’s laid-back narrative breezes through forty years of Anscombe’s life with broad but acute satiric touches. The book is pitched as an uproarious comedy of manners, but it devolves into a gentle meditation on love, responsibility, and family in which Coleridge conveys the existential vertigo of middle age: "There were times when Anthony wondered how it had all worked out like this; he felt he had ended up at the epicentre of an enormous adhesive spider’s web, upon which legions of ex-lovers, ex-wives, children and extended families were stuck for ever, all looking to him to feed, house and educate them."
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; 1st edition (June 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312363834
• ISBN-13: 978-0312363833
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #973,999 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Perfect beach read, July 27, 2007

By	Middleburger (Washington DC area) - See all my reviews

Who says the joys of frivolity aren't worth a quick read? Really enjoyed "A Much Married Man." I told a friend to buy this light and airy souffle of a book and he nearly did not, based on these reviews here on Amazon, which nearly all miss the mark. Let me set the record straight.

This book is a minor classic on par with Trollope. It's not literary by any stretch, but it is way better written than the average eurotrash summer novel. Coleridge's comedy of manners never misses a beat in its satire of late 20th century English and Mediterranean upper-class life. The dialog is perfect, the settings and the characters are authentic and the plots ring true to life. Parts of the book are laugh-out-loud funny. And as for the benefits of having a major lifestyle magazine editor for an author, there are no off-details, even down to the cars, the luxury shopping lists, the cooking, the landscaping and the decorating. If you can differentiate between a "Tatler" and a "Taki," if you can place Annabel's and distinguish between Mustique and Mauritious, if you know the basics of the Barings bank scandal and if you've ever read dailies from three different European countries at once, you will smile and you will laugh at least twice a chapter. Addressing the "moral" concerns of one of these reviewers, I would point out that Coleridge is fair-minded enough to find as many faults as virtues in all his characters, the best of which (the mysterious muse, Amanda Gibbons) will stay with you long after you turn the final page. A great beach read for gossip-loving fiction readers.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bird's Eye View into British Aristocracy, July 30, 2007

By	Bonney Pallasch (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In my opinion, you must trade credulity for an irrestible read. It is doubtful that even a quarter of the events in this book could have happened to one man - also doubtful that such a character would gladly surround himself with children - some not even related. The ending reminded me of "We'll rent a barn; we'll have a show!" the answer to all problems in old Judy Garland movies. Having said this, it's still true that if you love glimpses into the lifestyles of the rich and famous, you will find this book impossible to but down. One of the key words should be "feudal" - surely this describes Anthony lifestyle at Winchford. All those spare homes in which to deposit friends and illegimate offspring! How delicious! - and the bits with Dita as chatelaine of a grand English county home are fascinating.
Buy it and take it on vacation along with the latest "Hello!" - you won't be disappointed!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Promising beginning, disappointing end, July 5, 2007

By	J. Groom (Washington, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Starts out very promising and entertaining with Amanda the wild bride who runs away, then Sandra, the nanny turned bride, then Nula, the new age nut case who he doesn't marry, but just becomes irritating when he married the social climber Dita, especially with her rapist son Morad. The "hero", Anthony Ascombe, is a good but weak man who puts up with way too much from his weird women, but this finally becomees too much with Dita and Morad, although they are both very good character studies, one of the nasty side of adolescent lust in a spoiled rich kid, and the other in the spoiled but very polished social climbing wife Dita. W

Spoiler Alert for comments below:
hen one of his step sons ruins his bank with out of control spending, and Morad gets acquited for rape, and Anthoney loses his bank and then immediately rebounds to host the music fair on the property, it shows that this author has no concept of crime and punishment, morality, etc. I did not even finish the very end, I was so disgusted. First 3 quarters, or a 7.5, last quarter is 2.5