A novel about one family's experiences in the Crimean War. When the Battle of Inkerman was over, five survivors were assembled in front of a camera. A sixth figure - Master Georgie - added symmetry to the group. In the distance a young woman circled round and round like a bird above a robbed nest. Combining a breathtaking eye for beauty with a visceral understanding of mortality, Beryl Bainbridge exposes her enigmatic hero as tenderly and unsparingly as she reveals the filth and misery of war, and creates a novel of luminous depth and extraordinary intensity.
A masterwork of love, guilt, and friendship set in Victorian Liverpool and Eastern Europe during the Crimean War. Photography is the common thread weaving together three different points of view that span the years from 1846 to 1854. The first '
plate' opens with the account of Myrtle, a young orphan girl, as she is taking a photograph of her adoptive father, Mr. Hardy, who has just passed away in Liverpool. The sudden and unsavory circumstances of Mr. Hardy's death bind Myrtle and the other characters of this story together as history propels them toward the frontlines of the Crimean War. Myrtle's adoptive brother, George Hardy, or '
Master Georgie' as he is called, is an amateur photographer and handsome surgeon. When he heads east in 1854 to offer his medical services to the conflict raging between Russia and Turkeya war it seems England will inevitably enterMyrtle follows him, as does George's brother-in-law, a high-minded geologist named Dr. Potter. The group travels to Valetta, Malta, and Constantinople, then on to Varna, where George will be stationed. As the caravan proceeds, the group crosses paths with Pompey Jones, a street urchin, photographer's assistant, and sometimes fire breather, who is a dear friend of George's and was with him the day his father died. It soon becomes clear that George's affections are torn between Pompey and Myrtle. Dr. Potter, meanwhile, pines for the affections of his wife, who is hundreds of miles away. The conflicting emotions in the travelers' hearts are amplified by the misery, disease, and filth they must endureas well as the other, more unthinkable, horrors of war. A sparse yet vivid historical novel, Master Georgie delves into themes of distorted truth, the psychological effects of war, unrequited love, and the will to survive. Called '
a true novelist's novel' by the Guardian, it was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Beryl Bainbridge including rare images from the author's estate
'It is hard to think of anyone now writing who understands the human heart as Beryl Bainbridge does' THE TIMES
'Another masterly exploration by an author at the peak of her form ...She was always good at funny dialogue and acute observation of the oddities of human behaviour, but her recent historical explorations have given full reign to her startling powers of description ... Bainbridge has never written better' DAILY TELEGRAPH
'George Hardy, an affluent doctor living in Liverpool in the 1840s, attracts loyal friends from across the class divide. Myrtle, an orphaned slum-child, worships the ground he walks on. Pompey Jones, a cynical and mischievous street boy, makes the most of George's misplaced affection. George's brother-in-law, Dr Potter, a loquacious geologist, also holds him in high esteem, thinking little of following the doctor and his family to the Crimea weeks before the outbreak of war. This is a superb evocation of an age and a formative period in the history of the British Empire but, like all of Bainbridge's work, it is much more than that. It is one of those books you long to consume in one sitting. Shortlisted for the 1998 Booker prize.' (Kirkus UK)
Author
About Beryl Bainbridge
Beryl Bainbridge wrote seventeen novels, two travel books and five plays for stage and television. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times, she won literary awards including the Whitbread Prize and Author of the Year at the British Book Awards. She died in July 2010.
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize: A masterwork of love, guilt, and friendship set in Victorian Liverpool and Eastern Europe during the Crimean War. Photography is the common thread weaving together three different points of view that span the years from 1846 to 1854.
Master Georgie features in the following genres: Modern and Contemporary Fiction, eBooks of the Month, Historical Fiction, General Fiction, Fiction, Recommendations
Ebook, Paperback. Not Available.
Master Georgie was written by Beryl Bainbridge and published by Open Road Media
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