Best book I have read in a long time and not at all what I was expecting. In my ignorance I assumed it would be a standard Victorian novel of repression, societal restriction and restless romanticism as the heroine spends her waking hours on the Cobb vainly wishing for the return of her lost love. What I hadn't realised was that the book is a post-modern reinvention of the Victorian novel, so although all the above is true, the book comes with a playful narrator who offers alternative endings, can see into the future and play with his characters, and also (hurrah) makes the servants real people with motive and drive rather than wall paper and devices to further the plot. I enjoyed it far more than expected and only wish I'd read it when we holidayed in Lyme, as the town plays such a large part in the early sections of the book. More Fowles please.
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