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Derby Day (2011)

by D.J. Taylor(Favorite Author)

3.34 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0701183594 (ISBN13: 9780701183592)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Random House Export

review 1: Dickensian sort of story set in 1860s England that involves a large cast of assorted characters with many storylines that all center on a champion racehorse, Tiberius, and his chances to win at Epsom Down on Derby Day. Even with its colorful cast--including villainous opportunists, jewel thieves, devious housemaids, unhappy wives, bookmakers, and even a snooping governess--and good period details, the book was rather slow-paced and uninvolving. The climax at the race itself, as well as what happens to all the principal players was unsatisfying to me for all the effort it took to get there. It had all the elements for a real humdinger of an adventure story, I kept hoping it would get better. Disappointingly, it didn't.
review 2: This is a skilful and subtly iron... moreic re-working of a Victorian novel. The main difference is that the plot, centring round the betting and speculation on horses leading up to the Epsom Derby is tightly controlled with very few digressions, except where the author wants to set the scene - especially that of Derby Day itself, which uses the panoramic painting by Frith for inspiration. There are obvious and intentional echoes of Dickens and other Victorian novelists in the characters and descriptions. Two obvious examples are the debt owed to Chesney Wold and the Deadlocks for the description of Mr Davenant's family home in damp rural Lincolnshire with its ghostly and tragic atmosphere and another is the calculating sandy-haired and green-eyed Rebecca Gresham - who shares her name and character with Thackeray's anti-heroine. I liked the use of these borrowings as I felt it gave the book colour and substance. It was an absorbing read - definitely not a Dickens - but perhaps a minor Thackeray. less

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