Items related to BLESS THE THIEF
A first novel of remarkable ingenuity, Bless the Thief is a fast-paced literary mystery involving a secret society, art forgery, and the Hindenburg disaster.
Born to an American mother and a British father, Tom Lynch lives with his mother in America until she sends him off to his appointed guardian in England, Patrick Grimshaw. Grimshaw becomes a surrogate father to Tom, who never knew his real father, and he inducts Tom into the mysterious Delaquay Society, an organization based on the works of Alfred Delaquay, a book illustrator of considerable genius and perversity. The books Delaquay illustrated were produced by hand, seldom in editions of more than one, and their reproduction or sale is prohibited by the Society. As its youngest-ever English secretary, Tom becomes increasingly involved with the Delaquay Society, until a breach of the Society's conventions of secrecy blows apart its hermetic and obsessively closed world and he is caught up in the resulting chaos. As the manner of his life begins to exact a heavy toll, so the Society takes its own terrible revenge, and Tom Lynch comes finally to understand who he really is and where he came from.
Born to an American mother and a British father, Tom Lynch lives with his mother in America until she sends him off to his appointed guardian in England, Patrick Grimshaw. Grimshaw becomes a surrogate father to Tom, who never knew his real father, and he inducts Tom into the mysterious Delaquay Society, an organization based on the works of Alfred Delaquay, a book illustrator of considerable genius and perversity. The books Delaquay illustrated were produced by hand, seldom in editions of more than one, and their reproduction or sale is prohibited by the Society. As its youngest-ever English secretary, Tom becomes increasingly involved with the Delaquay Society, until a breach of the Society's conventions of secrecy blows apart its hermetic and obsessively closed world and he is caught up in the resulting chaos. As the manner of his life begins to exact a heavy toll, so the Society takes its own terrible revenge, and Tom Lynch comes finally to understand who he really is and where he came from.
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From the Back Cover:
Praise for Bless the Theif
"Full of passion, charged with a sense of the transforming
power of art and with the reality of good and evil. It is an
impressive and unusual debut."
The Observer
"Elegantly written and intriguing."
--The Literary Review
"Wall's writing can be luminous in its clarity; and Tom's
descent into his own fin-de-siècle hell of alcoholism
and forgery are superbly done."
--The Spectator
"An ambitiously twisty intellectual adventure....Profundities--real ones--survive felicitously and well inside an often
sordid tale of mystery and high squalor."
--Kirkus Reviews
About the Author:
"Full of passion, charged with a sense of the transforming
power of art and with the reality of good and evil. It is an
impressive and unusual debut."
The Observer
"Elegantly written and intriguing."
--The Literary Review
"Wall's writing can be luminous in its clarity; and Tom's
descent into his own fin-de-siècle hell of alcoholism
and forgery are superbly done."
--The Spectator
"An ambitiously twisty intellectual adventure....Profundities--real ones--survive felicitously and well inside an often
sordid tale of mystery and high squalor."
--Kirkus Reviews
Alan Wall was born in Bradford in the West Riding of Yorkshire and was educated there and at Pembroke College, Oxford. His previous book, Jacob, written in verse and prose, was short-listed for the Hawthornden Prize. Since 1994 he has written regularly for The Spectator, Agenda, and The Jewish Quarterly. He is married with three children and lives in London.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherRandom House UK
- Publication date1997
- ISBN 10 0436203987
- ISBN 13 9780436203985
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages211
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. First American edition, first printing of Wall's second novel. A bibliomystery. Light edgewear to the base of the spine. In fine / near fine unread condition. Seller Inventory # 1909
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. This book is in very good condition and will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. See all our books here, order more than 1 book and get discounted shipping. Seller Inventory # 6545-9780436203985
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Bless the Thief; PROOF
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Book Description Condition: Fine. First Edition. Alfred Delaquay, 19th-century illustrator and genius, has left a beautiful and powerful legacy. Tom Lynch has become both devotee and guardian. But the history and nature of Delaquay's works, combined with Tom's youth and growing arrogance, serve to threaten the destruction of both. Debut novel from the Booker longlisted author. Uncorrected proof copy in fine, unread condition. Seller Inventory # 000211
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