This title is presented with a new introduction by the author. Robert Merivel is a dissolute young medical student when an accident of fate leads him to the attention of King Charles II. Finding favour with the King, Merivel embarks on the time of his life, enthusiastically enjoying the luxury, women and wine of the vibrant royal court, until he is called upon to serve his monarch in an unusual role. However, when he fails at the one thing the King demands of him he is cast out from his new found paradise. Determined to be restored to the King's favour, Merivel begins a journey to self-knowledge that takes him to the depths of seventeenth-century society.

About the Author

Rose Tremain lives in North London and Norwich, with the biographer Richard Holmes. Her books have won many prizes including the 2008 Orange Prize, the Whitbread Novel of the Year, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Prix Femina Etranger, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Angel Literary Award and the Sunday Express Book of the Year. Restoration was shortlisted for the Booker and made into a film; The Colour was shortlisted for the Orange and selected by the Daily Mail Reading Club. Her most recent collection, The Darkness of Wallis Simpson, was shortlisted for both the First National Short story Award and the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. Two of her books (The Colour and The Way I Found Her) are in development as films, and she is currently working on a TV screenplay to star Sir Ian McKellen.

Prizes

'A most beautiful and original novel' Independent

Reviews

The double import of Tremain's title--it refers both to the reign of the 17th-century Restoration King Charles II and to the restoration to the protagonist of his beloved home and aspirations for his life--is one of the subtle delights of this accomplished novel, shortlisted for the Booker and winner of other awards in Britain. The story is of one man's rise and fall and rise again, of his discovery of love and faith, and his emotional maturation in a crucible of harrowing experiences. In a larger sense, however, it is a social, cultural and psychological picture of that age, when bluebloods lived in gaudy excess but others were expected to be content in their ``appointed stations.'' Through the whim of his adored monarch, narrator Robert Merivel becomes veterinarian to the Royal Dogs, unofficial Fool, and ``paid cuckold,'' when he marries the King's mistress, Celia Clemence, on condition that he himself will never fall in love with her. Having unwittingly succumbed to that forbidden emotion, Merivel is cast off by both wife and King, and must join his dour Quaker friend Pearce working in a lunatic asylum in remote, bleak Whittlesea. Another tragic loss sends him back to plague-ridden London, where his life comes full turn. Merivel embodies the contradictions of his era: though he is vain, frivolous and cynical, he is also a man of sensibility, intelligence and imaginative daring; his wry, witty voice holds the reader absorbed. A thoroughly satisfying read, the complex plot is augmented by acutely observed historical detail, nuanced character development, humor and poignancy. (Apr.)

"A most beautiful and original novel."
-- "Independent
""Triumphant."
-- "Sunday Telegraph"

Restoration is all that its title implies: a tale of the restoration of gaiety, self-indulgence, and worldiness after the austerity of the Puritan regime; the restoration of energy and life to London after the plague and the Great Fire; and the restoration of purpose and meaning to the life of Robert Merivel after King Charles II withdraws the patronage which had plunged it into enervating luxury. It is a beautifully crafted work in which almost every event and character, as well as the narrator's relationship with the reader, richly illuminate Merivel's life and temperament. Exquisite balance and symmetry as well as passages of lyrical description are certain to please discriminating readers. British author Tremain has written Letter to Sister Benedicta (LJ 9/1/79) and The Colonel's Daughter and Other Stories (LJ 5/15/84), among other works.-- Cynthia Johnson Whealler, Cary Memorial Lib., Lexington, Mass.