A magnificent new novel from the bestselling author about Bram Stoker's intense relationships with the actors Henry Irving and Ellen Terry, while working together at the Lyceum Theatre, and the inspirations that led to the creation of Dracula.
Joseph O'Connor was born in Dublin. His books include eight
previous novels- Cowboys and Indians (Whitbread Prize shortlist),
Desperadoes, The Salesman, Inishowen, Star of the Sea (American
Library Association Award, Irish Post Award for Fiction, France's
Prix Millepages, Italy's Premio Acerbi, Prix Madeleine Zepter for
European novel of the year), Redemption Falls, Ghost Light (Dublin
One City One Book Novel 2011) and The Thrill of it All. His fiction
has been translated into forty languages. He received the 2012
Irish PEN Award for outstanding achievement in literature and in
2014 he was appointed Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing
at the University of Limerick.
www.josephoconnorauthor.com
Dazzling...the panache and subtlety of his prose perfectly match
that gusto and creative finesse of the High Victorian world his
novel wonderfully evokes
*Sunday Times*
A novel I'd recommend to anyone: a rollicking and moving story...
Delicious and clever late-Victorian gothic
*Radio Times*
An ingenious novel… O’Connor’s work is hugely impressive and
utterly haunting
*Sunday Mirror*
Joseph O’Connor is a very great artist and storyteller. The
quotient of enjoyment in his extraordinary new novel is
stupendous
*Sebastian Barry*
A hugely entertaining book about the grand scope of friendship and
love, it is also, movingly – at times, astonishingly – a story of
transience, loss and true loyalty
*Guardian*
A work of Gothic splendour...O'Connor's writing is always intensely
atmospheric. As a romp through Ripper-ravaged London, Shadowplay is
mightily entertaining. But as a meditation on hidden sexuality, it
is powerful and poignant
*Literary Review*
A fabulous novel that tells the otherwise largely unknown story of
the man behind Gothic horror's most enduring character… The
narrative stretches decades, and throbs with theatrical vigour.
This is writing at its most immersive, full of Dickensian
pulchritude and pathos. It should, and might well, win prizes
*i*
A rollicking tale… an affecting depiction of artistic and social
emancipation… O’Connor’s well-researched theatrical caper offers
total immersion in a romantic, lost London... be nourished by a
colourful tale of secret love and public performance
*The Times*
There are few living writers who can take us back in time so
assuredly, with such sensual density, through such gorgeous
sentences. Joseph O’Connor is a wonder, and Shadowplay is a
triumph.
*Peter Carey, twice winner of the Booker Prize*
Gorgeously dark… Shadowplay is an accomplished, compelling read
*Herald*
A hugely entertaining and atmospheric novel, one can almost smell
the greasepaint
*Deborah Moggach*
A mesmerising read, meticulously researched, with beautiful
prose...O'Connor has the gift of conjuring up any
location....Wonderful suspense a la Wilkie Collins
*Sunday Independent*
Wonderful. The writing is beautiful.
*Derek Jacobi*
This is a marvellous novel: at once freewheeling, exultant, fully
inhabiting the momentary, transitory nature of its world; and
intensely aware of the limitations – too frequently self-imposed –
of our painfully fleeting lives.
*Dublin Review of Books*
One of Ireland's finest writers
*Washington Post*
Three famous Victorians carry this sparkling historical novel: Sir
Henry Irving, the great actor-manager; Ellen Terry, his leading
lady; and Bram Stoker, the young Irishman who worked for Irving as
a theatre manager before writing Dracula. From their entangled
lives Joseph O’Connor weaves a story of love and loyalty, rich in
wit and imagination.
*Daily Mail*
One of the best writers working today
*Alice Walker*
In gorgeous sentences, Joseph O’Connor captures the essence of
three very different artistic temperaments in all their nobility
and glorious absurdity
*Sunday Express*
Joseph O'Connor is the only writer I know who can make you laugh
and cry in the same sentence.
*Lawrence Norfolk*
Joseph O'Connor is the only writer I know who can make you laugh
and cry in the same sentence.
*Lawrence Norfolk*
Magnificent
*John Boyne*
A virtuoso act of literary ventriloquism. Shadowplay is funny,
smart, tender, wise and written with inch-perfect precision
*Colum McCann*
A thrilling novel, exquisitely contrived to show the characters
whose loves and lives inspired Dracula. A great tribute, and a work
of art. Deeply affecting.
*Essie Fox*
As fascinating and memorable as anything O'Connor has done. The
writing, too, as thrilling as ever. A great writer performing
Olympian literary storytelling.
*Sir Bob Geldof*
O’Connor is a true master of historical fiction, able to illuminate
a bygone age with skill, wit and imagination
*Mail on Sunday*
A lushly enjoyable pastiche of fin-de-siècle prose, in which
Victorian euphemism is an authenticating stamp that double as a
source of humour
*Observer*
A luminous and masterly depiction of Bram Stoker’s time at the
Lyceum, this wonderful book explores the complex nature of love and
creativity. Utterly captivating.
*Sophia Tobin*
Beautifully written. O’Connor creates a vivid and vigorous world of
his own
*Spectator*
Beautifully written and gorgeously atmospheric
*Best*
A beautifully written masterpiece
*SHEmazing!*
A vividly written and atmospheric meditation on the creative
process
*Daily Mail*
O’Connor is masterly at evoking the late Victorian era; its train
journeys, street scenes, formality and banter… O’Connor is masterly
at evoking the late Victorian era; its train journeys, street
scenes, formality and banter
*Financial Times*
Rich and vivid
*Daily Telegraph*
Joseph O'Connor has written an entertaining novel that combines
narrative with transcripts of recordings, diary entries and other
notes. It steeps viewers in the theatre of Irving and Terry in the
late 1870s and beyond, providing much informative colour at the
same time as delving deeply and frankly into a series of
relationships that are generally convincing.
*British Theatre Guide*
O’Connor tells his story in rich and stylish prose
*Times Literary Supplement*
A rousing story about a remarkable woman
*Mail on Sunday, *Summer reads of 2019**
Joseph O’Connor’s vivid descriptive writing evokes Stoker’s
memories of the post-famine Ireland of his youth and of Irving’s
company’s fraught tours of America… [his] fine writing, his wit and
sympathy create a richly enjoyable backdrop for some familiar
characters
*Tablet, *Novel of the Week**
Enthralling… Brings to teeming life the London of the late
Victorian and Edwardian eras
*Irish Times*
Brilliant... alternately deeply moving and laugh-aloud funny
*History Today*
A thrilling novel, exquisitely contrived to show the characters
whose loves and lives inspired Dracula. A great tribute, and a work
of art. Deeply affecting.
*Essie Fox*
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