The Infamous Gilberts by Angela Tomaski review – a delicious comfort read
#The Infamous Gilberts #Angela Tomaski #book review #comfort read #novel #fiction #literature #reading
📌 Key Takeaways
- The Infamous Gilberts is a novel by Angela Tomaski that offers a comforting reading experience.
- The review describes the book as 'delicious,' highlighting its enjoyable and satisfying nature.
- It is positioned as a light, engaging read suitable for relaxation and escapism.
- The book likely features compelling characters or a charming narrative style that contributes to its appeal.
📖 Full Retelling
<p>A decaying gothic mansion tells the story of the family who once lived there, in this pitch-perfect debut of disappearances, betrayal and despair</p><p>Angela Tomaski’s debut novel is a delicious comfort read about loyalty and despair, and a gentle questioning of the nature of progress. Crumbling stately home Thornwalk is on the verge of becoming a luxury hotel. The ancestral owners are all dead – with the exception of a pair of rapacious cousins, naturally
🏷️ Themes
Book Review, Comfort Reading
Entity Intersection Graph
No entity connections available yet for this article.
Original Source
Review The Infamous Gilberts by Angela Tomaski review – a delicious comfort read A decaying gothic mansion tells the story of the family who once lived there, in this pitch-perfect debut of disappearances, betrayal and despair A ngela Tomaski’s debut novel is a delicious comfort read about loyalty and despair, and a gentle questioning of the nature of progress. Crumbling stately home Thornwalk is on the verge of becoming a luxury hotel. The ancestral owners are all dead – with the exception of a pair of rapacious cousins, naturally – and the only person left to mourn is the loyal valet (and maybe more?) of the old master. Maximus, last guardian of the house, guides the reader on a final tour through Thornwalk, and the lost lives, loves and brass buttons of the titular Gilberts: Lydia, the eldest girl, desperate to fall in love; Hugo, the stubborn eldest son; “poor little Annabel”, dreaming of writing; quiet runaway Jeremy; and unstable actor Rosalind. He takes us, room by room, trinket by trinket, stain by stain (blackcurrant to blood) through 100 years of family life before it is all lost for ever. Inspired by the National Trust’s 2002 purchase of Tyntesfield, a sprawling gothic mansion outside Bristol acquired just weeks after the death of the reclusive resident baron, Tomaski’s debut is a quarter-century in the making. Tyntesfield contains at least 47,154 catalogued items. The same might well be true of The Infamous Gilberts, a novel full of things, and structured around things. The 70 chapters each correspond to an item or absence of an item. They are a veritable feast of small things: Monopoly pieces, ammonites, baby clothes (never worn). Everything, no matter how broken or aged, is precious because of the people who touched it, used it, abandoned it. When the new owners plan to replace the carpet with “an exact replica”, Maximus laughs: the original, he tells us, “is fifty per cent Gilbert DNA … and the scurf of fifteen beloved Labradors and one Miniature Schn...
Read full article at source