ISBN: 9781567924121

"This charming epistolary novel is sure to appeal to any lover of Victorian fiction."-BooklistA retired New Jersey bank clerk, Larry Dickerson, comes into possession of his great-great-gr… More...

"This charming epistolary novel is sure to appeal to any lover of Victorian fiction."-BooklistA retired New Jersey bank clerk, Larry Dickerson, comes into possession of his great-great-grandfather''s correspondence, an astonishing collection of the greatest nineteenth-century novelists: Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Trollope, Hardy. At first, Dickerson is bent on getting as much money as he can from this stash, and sends off an email to Stephen Nicholls, the patient and helpful head of Christie''s manuscript department in London. Nicholls leads Dickerson through the intricacies of the auction process but also helps him enter into the Victorian mind, a domain Dickerson eventually embraces with enthusiasm. That result is a book that is part suspense novel, because we wonder if Dickerson will finally decide to sell the letters or keep them for himself; part literary tour de force, because the old letters lead us into the thoughts of the foremost novelists of the period; and part humorous tale, because of Dickerson''s personality. He is a character such as the department of heads at Christie''s have seldom encountered, and we watch as this unschooled, bluff, blunt man emerges into a self-educated Victorianist. Books > Fiction > Literary List_Books<

2011, ISBN: 9781567924121

Boston: David R. Godin, 2011. First printing. Hardcover. New/new. Boston: David R Godin, 2011 First printing New/new Stated First Edition Suppose that a retired bank clerk from New J… More...

Boston: David R. Godin, 2011. First printing. Hardcover. New/new. Boston: David R Godin, 2011 First printing New/new Stated First Edition Suppose that a retired bank clerk from New Jersey has inherited a mass of valuable letters to his great-great-grandfather Let's imagine this ancestor was a book-seller in Victorian London who had corresponded at length with the leading writers of his generation To Dickens and Thackeray, Eliot and Trollope, Butler and Hardy, he put such questions as Why did you write? How do you write? From what sources did you get their characters and ideas? What do you see as the purpose or usefulness of illustrations to your novel? What do you think of the books of your peers and competitors? An intriguing conceit, no? But John Hall brings it off convincingly in this series of contemporary letters (mostly emails) between Larry Dickerson, the bank worker, bent on getting as much money as he can from this stash, and Stephen Nicholls, the patient and helpful head of Christie's manuscript department in London Nicholls leads Dickerson through the intricacies of the auction process, David R. Godin, 2011, 6<