The Ingenious Edgar Jones
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- 3,99 €
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- 3,99 €
Publisher Description
Set in nineteenth-century Oxford, and shot through with a powerful sense of magic, Elizabeth Garner's new novel will appeal both to fans of historical fiction and to the huge Susanna Clarke/Philip Pullman fanbase.
In nineteenth-century Oxford, an extraordinary child is born - Edgar Jones, a porter's son with a magical talent. Though his father cannot see beyond his academic slowness, his abilities as a metalworker and designer are quickly noticed, and become a source of tension within the family. When Edgar comes to the attention of a maverick professor at work on a museum of the natural sciences, Edgar is at once plucked from obscurity and plunged into the heart of a debate which threatens to tear apart the university. Edgar's position is a dangerous one - will he be able to control the rebellious spirit that fires his inventiveness, but threatens to ruin him, and to break up his family once and for all?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in Oxford in the 1850s, this coming-of-age story looks at the son of an Oxford University night porter with academic ambitions for his heir. Instead, "oddness" and possible dyslexia steer young Edgar Jones to apprentice with a domineering blacksmith. Plucked from the forge by a rebellious Oxford anatomy professor, Edgar soon finds himself torn between his benefactor's progressive ideas about natural history and the traditional beliefs of his father. The succinct plot doesn't help rein in character development and tone, which are all over the map: instead of bright and unconventional, Edgar frequently comes across as antisocial, and his initially doting father turns tyrannical as soon as he finds Edgar struggling to copy out his assigned Bible verses. The middle third is richly drawn almost Dickensian but a late lunge into magical realism makes for an unsatisfactory ending. Though enlivened by obvious love for Oxford, memorable villains and a well-captured sense of science's ability to awe and baffle, inconsistencies will frustrate adult readers; historically curious young adults may be more forgiving.
