Location: Home > Fiction > Children's Books > Oscar and Lucinda

Oscar and Lucinda

Author: Peter Carey
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Category: Book

List Price: ~~Ł8.99~~
Buy Used: Ł0.01
You Save: Ł8.98 (100%)

New (11) Used (123) Collectible (7) from Ł0.01

Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

17 reviews
Sales Rank: 50030

Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 528
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 1.2

ISBN: 0571153046
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780571153046
ASIN: 0571153046

Publication Date: August 5, 2004
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence!

Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 6-10 of 17

« PREV

1 2 3 4

Disappointing and unengaging May 27, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I really like Peter Carey's writing so it's hard to write a critical review but I have struggled to read this book and have finally abandoned it at page 155. I think that's a respectable attempt but these days life is too short to waste time reading a book that has not engaged.

The problems with it are that the language whilst inventive and packed full of vivid images, somehow creates a distancing effect. Sadly, I found myself to be only mildly interested in either Oscar or Lucinda. I appreciate their quirkiness, the odd events of their lives that propel them but I just don't care about them at all.

I really loved Carey's recent book Theft and came this thinking I was going to get somethign even better. It did after all win the Booker. But as I read the first 155 pages I couldn't help feeling that the author was still learning his craft. All the talent and unique prose style is there but I felt emotionally shut out from the two main characters. With regret I give up.

4 out of 5 stars

An epic historical novel February 4, 2006
4 out of 6 found this review helpful

The narrator proposes to tell the story of his great-grandfather, the Reverend Oscar Hopkins, who lived from 1841 to 1866. He grew up in Hennacombe, a small village in Devon, before moving to London where he became an obsessive gambler under the influence of his friend Wardley-Fish. Later the Church Missionary Society sent him to New South Wales "to bring the word of Christ" to Australia. It is during the passage on the Leviathan that Oscar meets the heiress Lucinda Leplastrier who is to be later known as the Glass Lady and who is also a gambler, though more of the compulsive kind. Will they both win at the most difficult game of all - love?
A strong, rich and complex novel featuring an original love affair with a thoroughly researched historical background.

4 out of 5 stars

Nice guys finish last August 15, 2005
11 out of 12 found this review helpful

Reviewer: Bianca from Marlow UK
All that denial and pain and hopes of redemption getting dashed... I felt like my heart had been attacked with a cheesegrater by the time I finished, this book is SAVAGELY sad. Squint, though, and you will see a glittering dark humour in the tragedy as unworldly Oscar is brought down to earth with a crunch and independent Lucinda sees the precipice she approaches too late so high does she hold her head. But they are the most wonderful characters (of course they are, if Carey hadn't made me feel so tenderly for them I wouldn't want to beat him up right now).
Carey's prose has a haunting sensuality to it, especially considering that any sex which does go on is very much on the periphery, just out of sight. Instead, like the luminous descriptions of sea life so lovingly written by Oscar's bible bashing father, every sentence tingles with the beauty of minute observation. It heightens your senses so delicately that whenever pain and discomfort descend upon a character (most of the time) it positively stings. And wrap up warm when reading the Devon chapters.
A 'Spectator' review calls it Dickensian, which should give you some idea of the scope, the complexity, and the universe of characters delineated within. Like Dickens you will find Carey has an eye for detail and an appreciation of the ridiculous which is often biting. These frail creatures play out their lives on the backdrop of colonial Australia, a place where progress is at war with the harsh forces of nature and frail notions of 'civilisation' tainted with the blood of the culture it seeks to replace.
And I haven't even mentioned the gambling, but then I think that it is better understood as a device, a prism would be an appropriate comparison considering the glass theme. Through this prism we see the complex characters of Oscar and Lucinda refracted into bands of conflicting desires and compulsions. Also this idea of Oscar's, that to chose God and a life of renunciation is itself a gamble; the bet of your worldly life for the winnings of the afterlife.
It's not a sure thing that you'll enjoy this book, but take a chance on it anyway, that's my tip.

5 out of 5 stars

Absurd and Delightful March 7, 2005
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

I can understand why people may give up on this book but alas! Do continue, for the time you devote will pay off spectacularly.

It took me a few attempts to finish reading this novel; Carey's intensly descriptive attention to detail takes some getting used to. However, by the time I had really 'got into it' my personal dedication to the characters had become great and I became engrossed by the two protagonists: Oscar and Lucinda.

The short and neatly contained chapters act almost as stories in themselves and within these small bursts of narrative subtly emerges an outline of the harsh reality of a nation in its infancy. Like the English in an unsympathetic Australian climate we see two peculiars, a square peg and an odd bod, raging and scurrying through the expectations of society.

Nothing prepered me for the impact this book had on me and its electrifying ending shook me to the core. The story and its protagonists are absurd and obscure, intense and strangely romantic but moreover; utterly delightful.

3 out of 5 stars bizarre December 7, 2002
2 out of 9 found this review helpful

Now this is truely one bizarre chunk of a book. Although I agree much of the story is slightly unbelievable the characters are well rounded and you can believe in them as if they were real and sometimes predict how they will behave..although they never fail to suprise! I don't know what I expected when I first opened this book, I suppose I only bought it because I would like to see the film and thought I should read the book first (slightly out of character for me but nevermind). Despite my reservations the futher I read, I did manage to stick with it and was pleasantly rewarded although the story does tend to wander sometimes. If you can be bothered to keep wading through it all it does throw up a few gems, although the ending is a bit of a let down. I had an inkling that Oscar and Lucinda would not end up happily (together) but what did happen was a stupid (on Oscar's part) twist, which if I thought about it, I could have guessed was coming without finishing it...but I am glad that I did. So, I advise anyone who cares to, to roll up their sleeves and put on their determined face if they truely wish to read this book.