基本信息出版社：Virago Press Ltd
页码：288 页
出版日期：2001年08月
ISBN：1860499015
条形码：9781860499012
装帧：平装
正文语种：英语
外文书名：全身镜
内容简介 在线阅读本书
In her place as maid to Madame Patin in the cafe next to the sea, orphan Genevieve becomes the breathless audience for her mistress's alarming folk stories, beginning with the one about the mermaid - the beauty who is also a monster - who must be killed. Genevieve happily falls into the patterns and ways of Madame Patin and contentedly cooks, cleans, gardens and serves the customers alongside her. Until, that is, Genevieve ripens to siren beauty. To avoid the mermaid's fate she must take flight. And she does, to a poet who has the hearts of all his women: his mother, his mistress, his niece, his niece's governess - and before long, his new maid's.
作者简介 Half-English and half-French, MichFle Roberts was born in 1949. DAUGHTERS OF THE HOUSE (1992) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the WH Smith Literary Award.
媒体推荐 书评
From Publishers Weekly
Traditional British storytelling expertise merges with the peculiarly French appreciation for sensual pleasures in the work of novelist Roberts, who lives in both countries and is a bestselling writer in England. Her 11th novel, the second to be published here (after Impossible Saints), is a period piece with psychological overtones and an impressionistic palette. Elegant and poetically descriptive, it evokes the seacoast of Normandy in the early 20th century, when horses and carts were still the local means of transport and superstition vied with religion for the souls of the inhabitants. The principal narrator, named GeneviŠve Delange by the nuns in the orphanage where her first 16 years were spent, hires out as maid-of-all-work at Madame Patin's cafe/bar, the only grocery and gathering place in the fishing village of Blessetot. When "cousin" Frederic Montjean arrives, GeneviŠve is dismayed that Madame Patin becomes his lover and marries him. The title refers to a full-length mirror in the bar that is a novelty to GeneviŠve when she first arrives, and is the means of her undoing. After a near-tragedy, she goes to work in the Colbert household, consisting of a formidable matron; her son, G‚rard, a poet; and her granddaughter, Marie-Louise. A British governess called Millicent cares for the child and in due course falls in love with G‚rard, whose longtime mistress, a seamstress named Isabelle, now reappears in his life. These two women tell their stories, and GeneviŠve, who also adores G‚rard, concludes that she must tell hers. "Speaking and telling, you threw joy away," GeneviŠve realizes, and innocence, too; it is fitting that the narrative ends in 1914, on the verge of WWI. Roberts's measured prose is richly suggestive, artfully conveying mystery and passion. The quiet unfolding of this keenly observed tale should please discriminating readers. Agent, Gillon Aitken.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.From Library Journal
Images of water, themes of storytelling, and the symbol of the mermaid as both dangerous and vulnerable drift through this 12th novel by French-English novelist Roberts (Daughters of the House) with mixed results. The novel begins as Genevi ve, an orphan who longs for affection and family, begins work at a caf in a new town. Roberts's richly imagistic writing brings out every detail of the coastal village, the people, and the daily activities of Genevi ve and her proprietress; you can almost see and smell the food they are preparing and hear the bustle of the town. However, as the story develops and Genevi ve must leave the caf , Roberts loses focus. Genevi ve is rescued from drowning by a poet, who takes her to keep house for his mother. At this juncture, Roberts starts alternating the point of view among several female characters, and the story shifts from being primarily about Genevi ve to being about the poet and the women who love him. The narrative tone of the early segment disappears, and the book becomes didactic and plodding. Suitable for large fiction collections. Rebecca Stuhr, Grinnell Coll. Libs., IA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
There are stories we tell others, and there are stories we tell ourselves. Each has the power to enlighten or destroy, and it is often not in our power to choose what the outcome will be. In this sensuous tale of liaisons, lust, and longing, Roberts tells the stories of three women, each in love with the same man, with the rapturous intensity of a contemporary Scheherazade. Genevieve, the servant; Millicent, the governess; and Isabelle, the mistress, are poor, working-class girls who succumb to Gerard's amorous advances. A poet of questionable talent, Gerard is a devious yet oblivious lover. Each woman becomes a storyteller out of necessity, whether to amuse Gerard or to protect themselves from the grim realities confronting unmarried and uneducated women in pre-World War I France. Does Gerard deceive each about the depth of his affection, or do they deceive themselves by creating a fantasy world that provides their only glimpse of happiness? Powerful prose and poetic imagery mark a stunning American debut for this acclaimed British novelist. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
The Times [London]
". . . To read a book by her is to savour colour, sound, taste, texture and touch as never before." --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
“To read The Looking Glass...is to experience a succession of pleasures.” —The Washington Post Book World
“Erotic tension blooms in sensual prose....[Roberts] has a gift for making the ordinary extraordinary.” —People
“[A] hypnotically sensuous new novel....[Its] assured, image-rich language...adds up to a palpable immediacy, an intimacy not usually associated with historical fiction.” —Los Angeles Times
“The Looking Glass holds up a mirror to the dark sources of creativity at every stage of its carefully interlocked narrative....The gorgeous surfaces of the world, its earthy passions, lend the novel a sensual texture...that reflects desire, glimpsing the springs of creativity and the contours of a bygone age.” —The New York Times Book Review
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
编辑推荐 From Publishers Weekly
Traditional British storytelling expertise merges with the peculiarly French appreciation for sensual pleasures in the work of novelist Roberts, who lives in both countries and is a bestselling writer in England. Her 11th novel, the second to be published here (after Impossible Saints), is a period piece with psychological overtones and an impressionistic palette. Elegant and poetically descriptive, it evokes the seacoast of Normandy in the early 20th century, when horses and carts were still the local means of transport and superstition vied with religion for the souls of the inhabitants. The principal narrator, named GeneviŠve Delange by the nuns in the orphanage where her first 16 years were spent, hires out as maid-of-all-work at Madame Patin's cafe/bar, the only grocery and gathering place in the fishing village of Blessetot. When "cousin" Frederic Montjean arrives, GeneviŠve is dismayed that Madame Patin becomes his lover and marries him. The title refers to a full-length mirror in the bar that is a novelty to GeneviŠve when she first arrives, and is the means of her undoing. After a near-tragedy, she goes to work in the Colbert household, consisting of a formidable matron; her son, G‚rard, a poet; and her granddaughter, Marie-Louise. A British governess called Millicent cares for the child and in due course falls in love with G‚rard, whose longtime mistress, a seamstress named Isabelle, now reappears in his life. These two women tell their stories, and GeneviŠve, who also adores G‚rard, concludes that she must tell hers. "Speaking and telling, you threw joy away," GeneviŠve realizes, and innocence, too; it is fitting that the narrative ends in 1914, on the verge of WWI. Roberts's measured prose is richly suggestive, artfully conveying mystery and passion. The quiet unfolding of this keenly observed tale should please discriminating readers. Agent, Gillon Aitken.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.From Library Journal
Images of water, themes of storytelling, and the symbol of the mermaid as both dangerous and vulnerable drift through this 12th novel by French-English novelist Roberts (Daughters of the House) with mixed results. The novel begins as Genevi ve, an orphan who longs for affection and family, begins work at a caf in a new town. Roberts's richly imagistic writing brings out every detail of the coastal village, the people, and the daily activities of Genevi ve and her proprietress; you can almost see and smell the food they are preparing and hear the bustle of the town. However, as the story develops and Genevi ve must leave the caf , Roberts loses focus. Genevi ve is rescued from drowning by a poet, who takes her to keep house for his mother. At this juncture, Roberts starts alternating the point of view among several female characters, and the story shifts from being primarily about Genevi ve to being about the poet and the women who love him. The narrative tone of the early segment disappears, and the book becomes didactic and plodding. Suitable for large fiction collections. Rebecca Stuhr, Grinnell Coll. Libs., IA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
There are stories we tell others, and there are stories we tell ourselves. Each has the power to enlighten or destroy, and it is often not in our power to choose what the outcome will be. In this sensuous tale of liaisons, lust, and longing, Roberts tells the stories of three women, each in love with the same man, with the rapturous intensity of a contemporary Scheherazade. Genevieve, the servant; Millicent, the governess; and Isabelle, the mistress, are poor, working-class girls who succumb to Gerard's amorous advances. A poet of questionable talent, Gerard is a devious yet oblivious lover. Each woman becomes a storyteller out of necessity, whether to amuse Gerard or to protect themselves from the grim realities confronting unmarried and uneducated women in pre-World War I France. Does Gerard deceive each about the depth of his affection, or do they deceive themselves by creating a fantasy world that provides their only glimpse of happiness? Powerful prose and poetic imagery mark a stunning American debut for this acclaimed British novelist. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
' 'Bitter, balanced and sophisticated...Powerful tale of female need, desire and projection ... highly compelling' LITERARY REVIEW 'A gift to treasure' THE TIMES
The Looking Glass, Roberts's ninth novel, is set in France in the years around World War I, and tells, from various points of view, the story of a poet and storyteller, Gerard Colbert, who dies in the trenches before he is able to begin his best work. Caught in the classic conflict between the need to write and the need to love, Gerard uses the many women in his life as fodder for his work and food for his ego. Five women tell the story of their relationships with him: Millicent, his niece's English governess, who has her own literary aspirations; Isabelle, the married seamstress who becomes his mistress, and drifts into part-time and satisfying promiscuity when she is widowed and finds he has less time for her; Marie-Louise, his niece, who becomes the chronicler and keeper of his legend; Yvonne, a neighbour's daughter, who has her own, cynical version of his story to tell to future biographers; and Genevieve, the fey orphan from a convent whose life he saves. Genevieve, who begins and ends the story is, in many ways, the most compelling of these women: her head as full of fantasies as her body is of burgeoning desires. She, and Gerard's other women, find themselves imprisoned in a strange emotional bond, which forces them to reflect on creativity and gender, memory and desire, different ways of telling stories, and the preservation, by women, at the cost of their own artistic yearnings, of a dead (male) artist's myth and memory. Roberts's lush prose is more painterly than ever, in keeping with the period setting; she luxuriates in lyrical descriptions of seascapes and rural repasts. Admirers of Roberts and her favoured themes - art, desire and the joys of the flesh - should feast on these looking glass reflections. Review by AAMER HUSSEIN (Kirkus UK)
With wry wit and understated compassion, French-British author Roberts ("Impossible Saints", 1998, etc.) studies the ironies of loving-and of truly knowing the hearts and minds of those whom one loves. Roberts's flavorful new novel consists of two stories related sequentially, though otherwise more or less discrete. The first is orphaned Genevieve Delange's narrative of her early years in a home run by stern, unloving nuns, the refuge she found in hearing and thereafter inventing "stories "(the most formative of them is a fable about a mermaid attempting to live outside her element), and her brief happiness in the employ of an indulgent mistress-until the latter's coarse new husband compromises the servant girl, and Genevieve is sent packing. Thereafter, the novel is divided into several first-person narratives, juxtaposing Genevieve's account of her new life in the home of amorous bachelor poet Gerard Colbert, with the stories told about him by Gerard's domineering mother, his young niece Marie-Louise, her English governess Millicent, and Gerard's out-of-town married mistress Isabelle. All these women are to one degree or another infatuated, if not deeply involved with, the taciturn (though, one presumes, smoldering) Master of the House-and Roberts's tricky structure suggests a series of mirrors in which these females observe themselves falling under his spell. Comparisons to "Jane Eyre "are doubtless inevitable, though the Gothic momentum that animates Bronte's romantic masterpiece is largely missing here, because Roberts seems determined to give each of her women sufficient space in which to reveal the secrets of her heart. This jars against the reader's compelling interest in Genevieve, whose complex relationships with all the Colberts and rueful sense of her own lowly place ("Sooner or later the mermaid had to return to the sea, which was her only true home") ought, one feels, to have received higher narrative and thematic priority. Nevertheless, a vividly imagined story that keeps nagging away at the corners of your mind. "The Looking Glass "is well worth peering into. (Kirkus Reviews)
Review
“To read The Looking Glass...is to experience a succession of pleasures.” —The Washington Post Book World
“Erotic tension blooms in sensual prose....[Roberts] has a gift for making the ordinary extraordinary.” —People
“[A] hypnotically sensuous new novel....[Its] assured, image-rich language...adds up to a palpable immediacy, an intimacy not usually associated with historical fiction.” —Los Angeles Times
“The Looking Glass holds up a mirror to the dark sources of creativity at every stage of its carefully interlocked narrative....The gorgeous surfaces of the world, its earthy passions, lend the novel a sensual texture...that reflects desire, glimpsing the springs of creativity and the contours of a bygone age.” —The New York Times Book Review