-
Undermajordomo Minor
- A Novel
- Narrado por: Simon Prebble
- Duración: 7 h y 45 m
No se pudo agregar al carrito
Add to Cart failed.
Error al Agregar a Lista de Deseos.
Error al eliminar de la lista de deseos.
Error al añadir a tu biblioteca
Error al seguir el podcast
Error al dejar de seguir el podcast
![Prime logotipo](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/Audible/Homestead/Prime_Logo_RGB.png)
Compra ahora por $17.09
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Grandes primeros Títulos
![The Sisters Brothers Audiolibro Por Patrick deWitt arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51r4Oy-bgeL._SL240_.jpg)
![Piranesi Audiolibro Por Susanna Clarke arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Z6MGqy1eL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Ten Thousand Doors of January Audiolibro Por Alix E. Harrow arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61POerA1v2L._SL240_.jpg)
![Lincoln in the Bardo Audiolibro Por George Saunders arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61ojNLyfNDL._SL240_.jpg)
![Noir Audiolibro Por Christopher Moore arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61vw+bqp08L._SL240_.jpg)
![A Visit from the Goon Squad Audiolibro Por Jennifer Egan arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41SVzBzz8oL._SL240_.jpg)
![Spinning Silver Audiolibro Por Naomi Novik arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61BOZEz6xPL._SL240_.jpg)
![American Spy Audiolibro Por Lauren Wilkinson arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41T15m22KgL._SL240_.jpg)
![Caraval Audiolibro Por Stephanie Garber arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51BzBvwHjvL._SL240_.jpg)
![Beautiful Audiolibro Por Juliet Marillier arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51vWjbWeBmL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Hike Audiolibro Por Drew Magary arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ODo8AOXDL._SL240_.jpg)
![Remote Control Audiolibro Por Nnedi Okorafor arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/516i+m1zJeL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Golem and the Jinni Audiolibro Por Helene Wecker arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/517cLLptX7L._SL240_.jpg)
![The Siren Audiolibro Por Kiera Cass arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/518SF2X3HUL._SL240_.jpg)
![Frankenstein Audiolibro Por Mary Shelley arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41h9-xvUeFL._SL240_.jpg)
![Lost Boy Audiolibro Por Christina Henry arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51H6r4UlM-L._SL240_.jpg)
![Practical Magic Audiolibro Por Alice Hoffman arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51etPmPcG+L._SL240_.jpg)
![Some Can See Audiolibro Por J.R. Erickson arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51znWOMeMWL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Pale Blue Eye Audiolibro Por Louis Bayard arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/415HvHelBnL._SL240_.jpg)
![Entreat Me Audiolibro Por Grace Draven arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515MgfPv8iL._SL240_.jpg)
![Jane Steele Audiolibro Por Lyndsay Faye arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61C2JkxE9pL._SL240_.jpg)
![Don't Go Audiolibro Por Lisa Scottoline arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51wd6SaKKwL._SL240_.jpg)
![Suttree Audiolibro Por Cormac McCarthy arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51tuN5KWJ0L._SL240_.jpg)
![Wicked Audiolibro Por Gregory Maguire arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51vIl4HuucL._SL240_.jpg)
![Realm of Knights Audiolibro Por Jennifer Anne Davis arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51LauB5k4TL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Crimson Petal and the White Audiolibro Por Michel Faber arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51+2SSma53L._SL240_.jpg)
![Silver Sparrow Audiolibro Por Tayari Jones arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Wj6uFWKWL._SL240_.jpg)
![Walk on Earth a Stranger Audiolibro Por Rae Carson arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61KGDEHWa8L._SL240_.jpg)
![Bitter Greens Audiolibro Por Kate Forsyth arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61EQmYC4nBL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Fourth Bear Audiolibro Por Jasper Fforde arte de portada](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51S-KUdmmgL._SL240_.jpg)
Resumen del Editor
From the best-selling, Man Booker-shortlisted author of The Sisters Brothers comes a brilliant and boisterous novel that reimagines the folk tale.
A love story, an adventure story, a fable without a moral, and an ink-black comedy of manners, Undermajordomo Minor is Patrick deWitt's long-awaited follow-up to the internationally best-selling and critically acclaimed novel The Sisters Brothers.
Lucien (Lucy) Minor is the resident odd duck in the bucolic hamlet of Bury. Friendless and loveless, young and aimless, Lucy is a compulsive liar, a sickly weakling in a town famous for producing brutish giants. Then Lucy accepts employment assisting the Majordomo of the remote, foreboding Castle Von Aux.
While tending to his new post as Undermajordomo, Lucy soon discovers the place harbors many dark secrets, not least of which is the whereabouts of the castle's master, Baron Von Aux. He also encounters the colorful people of the local village - thieves, madmen, aristocrats, and Klara, a delicate beauty whose love he must compete for with the exceptionally handsome soldier, Adolphus. Thus begins a tale of polite theft, bitter heartbreak, domestic mystery, and cold-blooded murder in which every aspect of human behavior is laid bare for our hero to observe.
Undermajordomo Minor is an adventure, a mystery, and a searing portrayal of rural Alpine bad behavior, but above all it is a love story, and Lucy must be careful, for love is a violent thing.
Relacionado con este tema
-
The Pale Blue Eye
- De: Louis Bayard
- Narrado por: Charles Leggett
- Duración: 15 h y 26 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
When the body of a suicide victim disappears at West Point Military Academy in 1831, only to be discovered hours later missing its heart, the Academy calls on retired detective Gus Landor to investigate. Landor is something of a legend among his peers, noted for an uncanny, Holmesian ability to read people. When Edgar Allan Poe, a new cadet, comes forth with his own cryptic conclusion—that the man Landor is looking for is a poet—Landor is intrigued and enlists Poe as his assistant.
-
-
Could not get through it
- De Amazon Customer en 10-25-15
De: Louis Bayard
-
A Strange Scottish Shore
- De: Juliana Gray
- Narrado por: Gemma Massot
- Duración: 12 h y 18 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
Scotland, 1906. A mysterious object discovered inside an ancient castle calls Maximilian Haywood, the new Duke of Olympia, and his fellow researcher Emmeline Truelove north to the remote Orkney Islands. No stranger to the study of anachronisms in archeological digs, Haywood is nevertheless puzzled by the artifact: a suit of clothing that, according to family legend, once belonged to a selkie who rose from the sea and married the castle's first laird. But Haywood and Truelove soon realize they're not the only ones interested in the selkie's strange hide.
-
-
Time travel escape
- De M M en 11-07-17
De: Juliana Gray
-
A Most Extraordinary Pursuit
- De: Juliana Gray
- Narrado por: Nicola Barber
- Duración: 11 h y 10 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
February, 1906. As the personal secretary of the recently departed duke of Olympia - and a woman of scrupulous character - Miss Emmeline Rose Truelove never expected her duties to involve steaming through the Mediterranean on a private yacht, under the prodigal eye of one Lord Silverton, the most charmingly corrupt bachelor in London. But here they are, improperly bound on a quest to find the duke's enigmatic heir, current whereabouts unknown. Maximilian Haywood was last seen at an archaeological dig on the island of Crete.
-
-
This Book Would Have Been A Hot Mess...
- De Alexis en 10-06-16
De: Juliana Gray
-
The Continent
- De: Keira Drake
- Narrado por: Fiona Hardingham
- Duración: 10 h y 43 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
For her 16th birthday, Vaela Sun receives the most coveted gift in all the Spire - a trip to the Continent. It seems an unlikely destination for a holiday: a cold, desolate land where two nations remain perpetually locked in combat. Most citizens lucky enough to tour the Continent do so to observe the spectacle and violence of battle, a thing long vanished in the peaceful realm of the Spire.
-
-
amazing!!
- De Newtothis en 05-29-18
De: Keira Drake
-
Cover Her Face
- De: P. D. James
- Narrado por: Penelope Dellaporta
- Duración: 9 h y 2 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
Headstrong and beautiful, the young housemaid Sally Jupp is put rudely in her place, strangled in her bed behind a bolted door. Coolly brilliant policeman Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard must find her killer among a houseful of suspects, most of whom had very good reason to wish her ill. Cover Her Face is P. D. James' electric debut novel, an ingeniously plotted mystery that immediately placed her among the masters of suspense.
-
-
OK but...
- De NoelleJ en 11-14-14
De: P. D. James
-
Instruments of Darkness
- A Novel
- De: Imogen Robertson
- Narrado por: Wanda McCaddon
- Duración: 11 h y 22 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
In the year 1780, Harriet Westerman, the willful mistress of a country manor in Sussex, finds a dead man on her grounds with a ring bearing the crest of Thornleigh Hall in his pocket. Not one to be bound by convention or to shy away from adventure, she recruits a reclusive local anatomist named Gabriel Crowther to help her find the murderer, and historical suspense's newest investigative duo is born.
-
-
Not The Best, But Not Too Bad...
- De MJ en 01-13-13
De: Imogen Robertson
-
The Pale Blue Eye
- De: Louis Bayard
- Narrado por: Charles Leggett
- Duración: 15 h y 26 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
When the body of a suicide victim disappears at West Point Military Academy in 1831, only to be discovered hours later missing its heart, the Academy calls on retired detective Gus Landor to investigate. Landor is something of a legend among his peers, noted for an uncanny, Holmesian ability to read people. When Edgar Allan Poe, a new cadet, comes forth with his own cryptic conclusion—that the man Landor is looking for is a poet—Landor is intrigued and enlists Poe as his assistant.
-
-
Could not get through it
- De Amazon Customer en 10-25-15
De: Louis Bayard
-
A Strange Scottish Shore
- De: Juliana Gray
- Narrado por: Gemma Massot
- Duración: 12 h y 18 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
Scotland, 1906. A mysterious object discovered inside an ancient castle calls Maximilian Haywood, the new Duke of Olympia, and his fellow researcher Emmeline Truelove north to the remote Orkney Islands. No stranger to the study of anachronisms in archeological digs, Haywood is nevertheless puzzled by the artifact: a suit of clothing that, according to family legend, once belonged to a selkie who rose from the sea and married the castle's first laird. But Haywood and Truelove soon realize they're not the only ones interested in the selkie's strange hide.
-
-
Time travel escape
- De M M en 11-07-17
De: Juliana Gray
-
A Most Extraordinary Pursuit
- De: Juliana Gray
- Narrado por: Nicola Barber
- Duración: 11 h y 10 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
February, 1906. As the personal secretary of the recently departed duke of Olympia - and a woman of scrupulous character - Miss Emmeline Rose Truelove never expected her duties to involve steaming through the Mediterranean on a private yacht, under the prodigal eye of one Lord Silverton, the most charmingly corrupt bachelor in London. But here they are, improperly bound on a quest to find the duke's enigmatic heir, current whereabouts unknown. Maximilian Haywood was last seen at an archaeological dig on the island of Crete.
-
-
This Book Would Have Been A Hot Mess...
- De Alexis en 10-06-16
De: Juliana Gray
-
The Continent
- De: Keira Drake
- Narrado por: Fiona Hardingham
- Duración: 10 h y 43 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
For her 16th birthday, Vaela Sun receives the most coveted gift in all the Spire - a trip to the Continent. It seems an unlikely destination for a holiday: a cold, desolate land where two nations remain perpetually locked in combat. Most citizens lucky enough to tour the Continent do so to observe the spectacle and violence of battle, a thing long vanished in the peaceful realm of the Spire.
-
-
amazing!!
- De Newtothis en 05-29-18
De: Keira Drake
-
Cover Her Face
- De: P. D. James
- Narrado por: Penelope Dellaporta
- Duración: 9 h y 2 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
Headstrong and beautiful, the young housemaid Sally Jupp is put rudely in her place, strangled in her bed behind a bolted door. Coolly brilliant policeman Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard must find her killer among a houseful of suspects, most of whom had very good reason to wish her ill. Cover Her Face is P. D. James' electric debut novel, an ingeniously plotted mystery that immediately placed her among the masters of suspense.
-
-
OK but...
- De NoelleJ en 11-14-14
De: P. D. James
-
Instruments of Darkness
- A Novel
- De: Imogen Robertson
- Narrado por: Wanda McCaddon
- Duración: 11 h y 22 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
In the year 1780, Harriet Westerman, the willful mistress of a country manor in Sussex, finds a dead man on her grounds with a ring bearing the crest of Thornleigh Hall in his pocket. Not one to be bound by convention or to shy away from adventure, she recruits a reclusive local anatomist named Gabriel Crowther to help her find the murderer, and historical suspense's newest investigative duo is born.
-
-
Not The Best, But Not Too Bad...
- De MJ en 01-13-13
De: Imogen Robertson
-
The Taker
- De: Alma Katsu
- Narrado por: Laurel Lefkow
- Duración: 14 h y 48 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
On the midnight shift at a hospital in rural Maine, Dr. Luke Findley is expecting another quiet evening of frostbite and the occasional domestic dispute. But the minute Lanore McIlvrae—Lanny—walks into his ER, she changes his life forever. A mysterious woman with a past and plenty of dark secrets, Lanny is unlike anyone Luke has ever met. He is inexplicably drawn to her...despite the fact that she is a murder suspect with a police escort.
-
-
Too dark for my taste
- De Margaret en 05-04-14
De: Alma Katsu
-
My Beautiful Enemy
- De: Sherry Thomas
- Narrado por: Charlotte Anne Dore
- Duración: 9 h y 25 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
Catherine Blade's uncommon beauty and daring have taken her far in the world, but she still doesn't have the freedom to live life as she chooses. Finally given the chance to earn her independence, who should be standing in her way but the only man she's ever loved - the only person to ever betray her. Despite the scars Catherine left him, Captain Leighton Atwood has never been able to forget the mysterious girl who once so thoroughly captivated him.
-
-
my least favorite from this author, and still good
- De Christina en 09-04-14
De: Sherry Thomas
-
Except the Dying
- A Murdoch Mystery, Book 1
- De: Maureen Jennings
- Narrado por: David Marantz
- Duración: 8 h y 11 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
In the cold Toronto winter of 1895, the naked body of a servant girl is found frozen in a deserted laneway. The young victim was pregnant when she died. Detective William Murdoch soon discovers that many of those connected with the girl's life have secrets to hide. Was her death on attempt to cover up a scandal in one of the city's influential families?
-
-
If you like the show - don't buy
- De Sarah en 06-09-16
De: Maureen Jennings
-
Born of Persuasion
- Price of Privilege, Book 1
- De: Jessica Dotta
- Narrado por: Amanda McKnight
- Duración: 13 h y 9 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
The year is 1838, and seventeen-year-old Julia Elliston's position has never been more fragile. Orphaned and unmarried in a time when women are legal property of their fathers, husbands, and guardians, she finds herself at the mercy of an anonymous guardian who plans to establish her as a servant in far-off Scotland. With two months to devise a better plan, Julia's first choice - to marry her childhood sweetheart - is denied. Then, a titled dowager offers to introduce Julia into society, opening a realm of possibilities.
-
-
Debut Book in Series
- De Carrie Fancett Pagels en 10-31-13
De: Jessica Dotta
-
Detective Gretel
- De: P.J. Brackston
- Narrado por: Kate Reading
- Duración: 40 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
In the sleepy Bavarian town of Gesternstadt, gossip was viewed by many as a local sport, a popular hobby, a harmless pastime that showed only the depth and enduring nature of the interest of one neighbour for another. In Gretel’s opinion, however, tittle-tattle sowed the seeds of malice among the fertile soil of jealousy, often watered by the tears of its victims. So it was that upon hearing from brother Hans of the whispers concerning a young woman, a married man and a thwarted lover, Gretel is compelled to rise from her beloved day bed to set things to rights.
-
-
Great! Looking forward to more
- De Monica P. en 12-07-20
De: P.J. Brackston
-
The Monstrumologist
- De: Rick Yancey
- Narrado por: Steven Boyer
- Duración: 11 h y 33 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
Dr. Warthrop is a scientist who tracks and studies real-life monsters. Assisted by his 12-year-old apprentice, Will Henry, Dr. Warthrop discovers a pod of Anthropophagi and launches a hunt to destroy the foul beasts.
-
-
Reader Be Warned
- De Eddie en 01-25-15
De: Rick Yancey
-
The Essex Serpent
- A Novel
- De: Sarah Perry
- Narrado por: Juanita McMahon
- Duración: 14 h y 44 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
When Cora Seaborne's brilliant, domineering husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness: her marriage was not a happy one. Wed at 19, this woman of exceptional intelligence and curiosity was ill-suited for the role of society wife. Seeking refuge in fresh air and open space in the wake of the funeral, Cora leaves London for a visit to coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive 11-year old son, Francis, and the boy's nanny, Martha.
-
-
Unbearable Narrator
- De ACB en 06-08-17
De: Sarah Perry
-
Glamorous Illusions
- Grand Tour Series, Book 1
- De: Lisa T. Bergren
- Narrado por: Jaime Draper
- Duración: 11 h y 30 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
Cora is about to discover who she truly is. It’s the summer of 1913, and Cora Kensington’s life on the family farm has taken a dark turn. Not only are the crops failing, but someone dear to Cora is failing as well. One fateful afternoon, a stranger comes to call, and Cora discovers a terrible secret about her past… a secret that will radically change her future. Cora is invited to take the “Grand Tour” of Europe, a trip intended to finish a person’s education and solidify an understanding of refinement and ancient culture.
-
-
One of my favorites!
- De Diane Ellingsen en 06-19-17
De: Lisa T. Bergren
-
Shaman's Crossing, Book One of the Soldier Son Trilogy
- De: Robin Hobb
- Narrado por: John Keating
- Duración: 24 h y 49 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
Hugo and Nebula Award finalist Robin Hobb crafts intricate fantasy tales featuring larger-than-life characters and exotic landscapes. Nevare Burvelle survives the King’s Cavalla Academy—where nepotism and corruption reign—to become a soldier in the Gernian king’s army. As he and his fellow soldiers are thrust onto the front lines of the king’s brutal territorial expansion campaign, they struggle against the Plainspeople—forest-dwellers who possess a powerful magic long dismissed by the Gernians.
-
-
Sometimes Magic Isn't A Good Thing
- De Therese M. Woolley en 10-18-13
De: Robin Hobb
-
Mortal Mischief
- De: Frank Tallis
- Narrado por: Richard Burnip
- Duración: 13 h y 12 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
Vienna, 1902: A beautiful medium has been found shot dead, and Dr Max Liebermann, a young disciple of Sigmund Freud, is called upon to help his friend Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt investigate her death. The room containing the body has been locked from the inside, and a cryptic note suggests a malevolent supernatural power is at work. Using the new science of psychoanalysis, Liebermann probes the minds of the suspects in an attempt to unravel this bewildering crime.
-
-
Ho-hum Victorian mystery
- De Nancy E Day en 09-17-12
De: Frank Tallis
-
Shades of Milk and Honey
- De: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Narrado por: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Duración: 7 h y 32 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
The fantasy novel you’ve always wished Jane Austen had written. When Jane realizes that one of Melody’s suitors is set on taking advantage of her sister for the sake of her dowry, she pushes her skills to the limit of what her body can withstand in order to set things right—and, in the process, accidentally wanders into a love story of her own.
-
-
Great if you love speculative fiction and Austen
- De Womble en 05-07-12
-
The Agency 1: A Spy in the House
- De: Y. S. Lee
- Narrado por: Justine Eyre
- Duración: 7 h y 29 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
In Victorian England, orphan Mary Quinn lives on the edge. Sentenced as a thief at the age of 12, she’s rescued from the gallows by a woman posing as a prison warden. In her new home, Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls, Mary acquires a singular education, fine manners, and a surprising opportunity. The school is a cover for the Agency — an elite, top secret corps of female investigators with a reputation for results — and at 17, Mary’s about to join their ranks.
-
-
yes, it's YA-but credible for genre for any age
- De connie en 02-25-11
De: Y. S. Lee
Lo que los oyentes dicen sobre Undermajordomo Minor
Calificaciones medias de los clientesReseñas - Selecciona las pestañas a continuación para cambiar el origen de las reseñas.
-
Total
-
Ejecución
-
Historia
- Amazon Customer
- 08-12-16
meh
I wasn't a fan of any of the characters. The storyline was weak BUT it wasn't long.
Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.
Has calificado esta reseña.
Reportaste esta reseña
esto le resultó útil a 2 personas
-
Total
-
Ejecución
-
Historia
- Joe Kraus
- 06-25-18
A Fun Fairy Tale that Loses its Focus
I feel as if I might be missing the skeleton key to this one.
On the one hand, I really enjoyed its neo-fairy-tale atmosphere. In that light, it reminded me of The Hike and Sendlin Ascending, other books (more successful, I think) that evoke a sense of wonder from almost their opening sentences. Each, this included, captures a tone that makes you want to sit up and listen, a goodnight-story tone for adults.
On the other, I don’t quite see the big picture for this. I’ll do it badly if I try to paraphrase the Russian formalists on fairy tales, but they’re collective point (as I understand it) is that fairy talks function by giving us certain sets of narrative features and then varying them within an implicit larger pattern. That is, there are almost always similar pieces – a mostly innocent boy or girl on a quest, a mentor figure, an adversary, a forbidden place – and they get moved around in different ways to make a different point.
I’m not looking for Aesop-level morals, but I am hoping for a sense of why I was asked to listen to this particular story. Entertaining as this is at every turn, I found myself confused over how its different elements connected.
Early on, there’s a kind of religious sensibility. Lucy, for instance, entertains the possibility of a religious faith that his father rejects and that may or may not be what causes him to live while his father dies. (SPOILER: At the very end of this, we re-encounter the figure Lucy took to be Death and discover it’s merely a brain-damaged beggar…or is it? That point is unresolved in a way that calls us back to the neglected theme without letting us know whether to take that theme too seriously.)
There’s also a classic fairy tale trope around the young protagonist as liar, and Lucy tells a couple potentially incriminating lies along the way. In the end, though, he never seems to suffer for any of them. It may be that the novel is violating the expectation that liars will pay for their untruths, but even that possibility gets more or less washed away in the larger narrative. It’s something that happens but that never gets enough attention for us to come to any conclusion.
While this feels inventive throughout, it doesn’t feel structured in either the way I hope or the ways the Russian formalists describe. As one example, it takes until fairly late in the book for us to be introduced to “the very large hole” which comes to play a central role in the story. It isn’t hard to imagine that deWitt might have had Lucy stumble upon it as soon as he arrived in the area around the castle. For that matter, he might have had Lucy hear about the possibility of suicide in the hole when he was still on the train and denied that story for no apparent reason.
In a potential SPOILER, the entire novel ends as if it’s trailing off more than culminating in something. First, Lucy escapes from the hole, but to what? There’s an emptiness when he returns with almost everyone dead or gone. It isn’t clear to me why that matters; it feels more incidental than cumulative, almost like an excuse for him to leave rather than the real end of the story.
And then the final scene of him composing his own epitaph, while boasting beautiful prose, doesn’t quite seem to tie all the pieces together. There’s a dash of the religious quality, there’s something of the broken-heartedness we’re told to expect, and there’s a promise of more to come. Within those different pieces, though, it’s hard to tell what we’re supposed to privilege as readers.
I hear deWitt’s earlier one is better than this, and I’ll be open to it. After this, which certainly has its merits, my expectations are only middling.
Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.
Has calificado esta reseña.
Reportaste esta reseña
-
Total
-
Ejecución
-
Historia
- Dinorah Spalding
- 09-24-23
Disappointing
Loved Sisters Brothers. Wanted to love this. I was mildly enjoying this then it abruptly ended.
Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.
Has calificado esta reseña.
Reportaste esta reseña
-
Total
-
Ejecución
-
Historia
- chetyarbrough.blog
- 02-09-16
LUST AND LOVE
Human lust and love simmer in “Undermajordomo Minor”. From a male’s point of view, Patrick deWitt has written a fantasy about an ancient time of castles, counts, and countesses reflecting on lust and love through the ages. The story suggests men are liars, and women are enablers; with the sexes meeting in lust and, at least in one case, growing into love.
The main character is a man named Lucy. Listeners meet Lucy as an unloved child nearing death. Lucy is visited on what appears to be his deathbed by a mysterious stranger that asks him what he wants out of life. Lucy says he wants something different. The stranger nods his head and leaves his bedside. The next day Lucy feels better but his father rapidly deteriorates and dies. His mother believes her husband’s death is related to Lucy’s recovery. Never having shown much love to Lucy, she treats Lucy as a tenant more than a son.
Patrick deWitt has written something different in "Undermajordomo Minor". He shows himself to be a skilled teller of tales; an artist suggesting there is more to a supernatural story than entertainment.
Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.
Has calificado esta reseña.
Reportaste esta reseña
esto le resultó útil a 4 personas
-
Total
-
Ejecución
-
Historia
- m. ziph
- 07-03-18
So Good
this is the first thoroughly unpredictable story I've encountered in a long time, and the narration is really to notch. 10/10.
Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.
Has calificado esta reseña.
Reportaste esta reseña
esto le resultó útil a 2 personas
-
Total
-
Ejecución
-
Historia
- Beth Anne
- 11-12-15
sub par
I am going to be honest, i had completely unreachable expectations on this novel due to the pure awesomeness of The Sisters Brothers. i'm not sure it lived up to what i was hoping for, but it was good enough to enjoy.
deWitt is an extremely gifted and clever writer. i find his writing style really easy to read and thoroughly enjoyable. this story, or fable, i should say, is quite a yarn. telling of Lucy's adventures as the "Undermajordomo" of Castle Von Aux. There are strange going ons in this novel...that get even stranger as the story progresses...and i'm not quite sure i jived with the absolute strangeness of it. i'm also not quite sure i understand how this novel ends. it's a little boring, a little underwhelming. i was surprised that i didn't love this book...but the words are so well written i can't give it a negative review.
it's cute and fairy tail-ish and just ok.
Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.
Has calificado esta reseña.
Reportaste esta reseña
esto le resultó útil a 1 persona
-
Total
-
Ejecución
-
Historia
- R. G. Shalhoub
- 10-14-15
Great yarn and very well read
Superior reading makes this funny bit of magical realism all the more enjoyable. Would make a good intro to the world of audible books
Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.
Has calificado esta reseña.
Reportaste esta reseña
esto le resultó útil a 4 personas
-
Total
-
Ejecución
-
Historia
- Eileen Connors
- 09-11-21
Brilliant characterization
Vivid writing but not long on story. Not much happens and you're left wondering if you missed the point somehow.
Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.
Has calificado esta reseña.
Reportaste esta reseña
esto le resultó útil a 1 persona
-
Total
-
Ejecución
-
Historia
- Darwin8u
- 09-21-15
Sometimes a train is just a train
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Sometimes a hole is just a hole. Sometimes a book is just meh.
If I were to choose one word for this novel it would be underwhelmed. If I were to choose two words for this novel the second would be cute. Cute works for puppies. It also works for babies. For me, however, cute doesn't work on its own for novels.
Look, I don't want to be too hard on Patrick deWitt. I really liked both 'Ablutions: Notes for a Novel' and 'The Sisters Brothers'. That is why I read the d@mn thing. And there were parts of it I liked. It just seemed a bit too trite, too uneven, boring, and again too cute. Even a candle in @ss (I won't delve deeper to ruin the surprise) in this book seems cute. The debauchery of castle elites just isn't what it used to be. The thrill is gone. The castles are closed. The holes hide no hermits.
So, if you've never read deWitt. Go read 'The Sister Brothers'. It is a better book and keeps the style, but drops the cute.
Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.
Has calificado esta reseña.
Reportaste esta reseña
esto le resultó útil a 18 personas
-
Total
-
Ejecución
-
Historia
- DMR
- 04-10-24
Great characters and dialogue
The narrator did an amazing job. The characters were interesting and the dialogue was fun but the story lost its appeal about 3/4 of the way through and never returned to its earlier excellence.
Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.
Has calificado esta reseña.
Reportaste esta reseña