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bupdaddy's review
2.0
OK, so this is not a great book. But it is charming in its badness. Our author tells us how we feel about each character, and our hero is so wonderfully good he's boring as all get out.
I guess it's a good slice of Manchester life around the turn of the 18th to 19th century, but our writer is such a clumsy observer of human character, and the period she's writing about is before she was born/when she was a little girl, so I'm not even sure of that.
***spoiler***
We also learn that marrying somebody you don't really love, because they love you and you're doing it out of pity, is a great thing to do, and besides, fate rewards you by killing your wife and the husband of the man you passionately love. So marry somebody who's solid and you don't feel passionate about.
***end spoiler***
OK, if I've sold you on this little bit of mediocrity, and you have a car trip coming up or something, the librivox version is worth getting. The narrator has, or uses, a Liverpudlian accent so well you think he's channeling John Lennon at times.
I guess it's a good slice of Manchester life around the turn of the 18th to 19th century, but our writer is such a clumsy observer of human character, and the period she's writing about is before she was born/when she was a little girl, so I'm not even sure of that.
***spoiler***
We also learn that marrying somebody you don't really love, because they love you and you're doing it out of pity, is a great thing to do, and besides, fate rewards you by killing your wife and the husband of the man you passionately love. So marry somebody who's solid and you don't feel passionate about.
***end spoiler***
OK, if I've sold you on this little bit of mediocrity, and you have a car trip coming up or something, the librivox version is worth getting. The narrator has, or uses, a Liverpudlian accent so well you think he's channeling John Lennon at times.
meghan47's review against another edition
5.0
What a lovely Manchester read - and coincidentally, Phill gave it to me on my birthday, shortly after he proposed, and parts take place in the Portico Library, where we’ll be getting married!
stuedb's review
4.0
A wonderful rags to riches story! Based in the awesome setting that is Manchester.
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