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‘A stellar literary event . . . written with panache and an enviable economy . . . the biggest risk of her literary life’ Margaret Atwood
According to Queeney is a masterly evocation of the last years of Dr Johnson, arguably Britain’s greatest Man of Letters. The time is the 1770s and 1780s and Johnson, having completed his life’s major work (he compiled the first ever Dictionary of the English Language) is running an increasingly chaotic life. Torn between his strict morality and his undeclared passion for Mrs Thrale, the wife of an old friend, According to Queeney reveals one of Britain’s most wonderful characters in all his wit and glory. Above all, though, this is a story of love and friendship and brilliantly narrated by Queeney, Mrs Thrale’s daughter, looking back over her life.
According to Queeney is a masterly evocation of the last years of Dr Johnson, arguably Britain’s greatest Man of Letters. The time is the 1770s and 1780s and Johnson, having completed his life’s major work (he compiled the first ever Dictionary of the English Language) is running an increasingly chaotic life. Torn between his strict morality and his undeclared passion for Mrs Thrale, the wife of an old friend, According to Queeney reveals one of Britain’s most wonderful characters in all his wit and glory. Above all, though, this is a story of love and friendship and brilliantly narrated by Queeney, Mrs Thrale’s daughter, looking back over her life.
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Reviews
A dark, often hilarious and deeply human vision . . . a major literary accomplishment
Poignant, pierced with truth, According to Queeney reaches into the dustier realms of history, bringing vividly to life a group of remarkable personalities with all their frailties, absurdities and cruel sensitivities
Bainbridge is brilliant at combining established fact and compelling fiction
This is a small, wise book of small prose miracles . . . It is a larger miracle in this way: it makes us feel we see Johnson and his friends in unexpected and unfamiliar ways which are nevertheless convincing and authentic
Deftly brilliant . . . Her novel may be called According to Queeney, but it is Bainbridge's unique and acute slant on life, and death, that everywhere transforms it into the slim, packed masterpiece it is
Thought-provoking and bleakly beautiful . . . brilliant . . . Bainbridge has shown herself to be working at the peak of her form
Its subjects - guilt, passion, misunderstanding and suffering - are those that she has addressed throughout her career, but never so perfectly as in this book
Majestically deft . . . Absolutely wonderful
This is a triumph, subtle, rich and heartrending . . . Anything worth reading is of course worth reading twice, and this is worth reading many times
These real people are superbly recreated in fictional form . . . Bainbridge's spare prose is perfectly suited to her purpose, conveying an immediate sense of experience, in the muddle and intensity of the present. This is a highly intelligent, sophisticated and entertaining novel