Winter
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- ¥680
発行者による作品情報
From the author of the Costa Best Novel-shortlisted ‘The Elephant Keeper’, a poignant imagining of Thomas Hardy’s relationship with his last muse.
A celebrated author, in the winter of his life, awaits a visit from a beautiful young actress – the leading lady in a staging of his most famous tragedy. But his wife is troubled. An anxious and sickly woman, she watches the growing intimacy between her husband and the young woman, and becomes tormented by the idea that they will betray her.
In this delicately-wrought novel, Christopher Nicholson has been inspired by the true story of the first theatrical production of ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’ to paint a subtle and moving portrait of life’s little ironies, its disappointments and its desires.
Reviews
‘A superfine, thistledown novel … written in a prose of such quality that one does not notice the quality – to describe it as craftsmanlike doesn't do it justice. It is a prose beyond accomplishment, yet which refuses to astonish, and which is utterly appropriate.’ Ian Sansom, Guardian
‘Nicholson’s opening is pitch perfect … And the novel ends with a beautifully handled conceit … It is brave to set yourself up for comparison with an author as great as Hardy but this poetic and unashamedly literary book is good enough not to be embarrassed by the company it seeks to keep.’ The Times
‘Elegant … While Nicholson’s plot adds almost nothing to the historical facts, he lends the story depth by telling it from three different points of view … A memorable portrait of a failed marriage.’ Novel of the Week, Mail on Sunday
‘A gently elegiac tone permeates the novel, with its ravishing, appropriately Hardyesque sense of the intimate connection between landscape and emotion … The conclusion is a touching celebration of life over art’ Telegraph
‘Devotees of Thomas Hardy should find much to treasure in Nicholson’s third novel … Nicholson emulates Hardy’s elegant style with remarkable acuity … A wonderfully insightful — and occasionally humorous — portrait of marital unhappiness and the dynamics of desire and longing’ Sunday Times
‘A wonderful novel, moving, gripping and illuminating.’ David Lodge
‘Insightful’ Sunday Times Must Reads
‘A passionate portrayal of love in its many guises’ Country Life Magazine
About the author
Christopher Nicholson read English at Cambridge University. He has been a community development worker in Cornwall, and a radio scriptwriter and producer in London. He lives in Dorset. ‘Winter’ is his third novel.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Thomas Hardy fans will be engrossed by Nicholson's fictional account of the true story of Hardy's infatuation, at age 84, with a married 18-year-old amateur actress, Gertie Bugler, playing Tess in the local Corn Exchange production of Tess of the D'Urbervilles. This disconcerting tale is told from three alternating standpoints: Hardy's, Gertie's, and that of Hardy's second wife, Florence. Although the women's narratives are credible and entertaining, Hardy's perspective dominates and captivates through its slow rhythms, antiquated vocabulary, and above all its third-person style featuring natural imagery, meandering syntax, and melancholy observations. In classic Hardy fashion, the novel begins with a rural landscape, zeroes in on the silhouette of an old man walking with his dog, and then reveals that the dog is named Wessex and the old man is the great novelist. Even before Florence has her say, the strains on their marriage are evident, what with Hardy preoccupied by work, memories, and increasingly by Gertie. Hardy invites Gertie to tea when Florence is away, watches Gertie's performance from backstage, keeps a lock of her hair, and imagines eloping. Gertie, meanwhile, imagines a London stage career, while Florence imagines widowhood. As in his two previous novels, Nicholson (The Elephant Keeper) presents an impossible, inappropriate passion. This effort proves most remarkable for its deliciously archaic prose and portrait of the artist as an old man falling in love partly with a girl, partly with the disappearing countryside and lost youth she represents, and mostly with his own creation.
