Burning Bright (Paperback)
Tracy Chevalier (author)Published: 04/02/2008
'A visual delight' The Times
'A splendidly vital recreation of Georgian London' Sunday Times
'Tell me, then: would you say you are innocent or experienced?'
1792. Uprooted from their quiet Dorset village to the riotous streets of London, young Jem Kellaway and his family feel very far from home. They struggle to find their place in this tumultuous city, still alive with the repercussions of the blood-splattered French Revolution.
Luckily, streetwise Maggie Butterfield is on hand to show Jem the ropes. Together they encounter the neighbour they've been warned about: radical poet and artist William Blake. Jem and Maggie's passage from innocence to experience becomes the very stuff of poetic inspiration...
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 9780007178360
Number of pages: 416
Weight: 270 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 26 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'A subtle clarity of style, quirky but seldom over-drawn characters, engaging touches of domestic detail and a splendidly vital recreation of Georgian London'
Sunday Times
'Vivid, romantic and pacey'
Daily Mail
'Those who admired Chevalier's atmospheric evocation of 17th-century Delft will find much to enjoy in her vivid reconstruction of late 18th-century London'
Guardian
'Burning Bright is an ambitious, impressively-researched novel...You can almost smell the smoke and mildewed clothes, see the gaunt, pock-marked faces of people struggling to survive and sense Jem's wonder as he gazes across the murky Thames to a perplexing world'
Daily Express
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“Burning Bright”
I found the story very poor. Chevalier could have done much more with it. I absolutely loved all her previous books but this one I found extremely mediocre..
“Lacks a strong plot”
This book is full of memorable characters and evocative locations, but it felt like the plot was lacking a strong direction. Many of the plot strands seemed to just fizzle out, and the whole novel itself came to an... More
“Charming but not up to her usual Standard”
Although I enjoyed reading 'Burning Bright', I didn't think that it was in the same league as most of Chevalier's other novels. There is no doubt that she can evoke a sense of place within her... More
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