The Meaning of Night: A Confession Novel ☑️ Recommended
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Review
This is a strange novel. One that I picked up at a store as an impulse buy, read the first couple of paragraphs and thought I’d give it a try. I got it home, eager to continue reading, finished the first chapter and put it down, not to pick it up again for several months. It was a bit of a bore. The narrator was weird and hard to connect with, I didn’t get why he was doing what he was doing and I didn’t have the patience to wait it out. I just wasn’t interested and there were many other books that kept falling into my hands that were more appealing. Then one night I was bored and decided to give it another try.
I pushed through the beginning again and discovered that the narrator was actually a little more than the average murderer, he had a purpose, he had a goal and he had a very interesting back story. It’s not an easy read. It actually reminded me of the many Wilkie Collins mystery novels I’ve read over the years. Slow pace, lots of intellectual musings, unrequited love, and a bloody murder that was so shocking (I really didn’t think he’d go through with it!) that I had to read it twice. Even though the narrator is a murderer, you really feel like his actions are justified; I found myself pulling for him in the end. If you decide to give it a read, you’ll need to devote yourself to it; slog through the boring bits and keep going, it’s worth it in the end.
Summary
As a young boy, Edward Glyver always believed he was destined for greatness. A chance discovery convinces him that he was right: greatness does await him, along with immense wealth and influence. Overwhelmed by his discovery, he will stop at nothing to win back a prize that he knows is rightfully his.
Glyver's path to reclaim his prize leads him from the depths of Victorian London, with its foggy streets, brothels, and opium dens, to Evenwood, one of England's most beautiful and enchanting country houses, and finally to a consuming love for the beautiful but enigmatic Emily Carteret. His is a story of betrayal and treachery, of death and delusion, of ruthless obsession and ambition. And at every turn, driving Glyver irresistibly onward, is his deadly rival: the poet-criminal Phoebus Rainsford Daunt.
The Meaning of Night is an enthralling novel that will captivate readers right up to its final thrilling revelation.
ISBN-10 9780393330342
ISBN-13 978-0393330342
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart | W. W. Norton & Company
The Meaning of Night Release Date: September 17, 2006
722 pages
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