This looks an interesting read, sort of along the lines of Orlando (maybe).

NB QPD paperback edition, but cover is the same as this hardback.

Very enjoyable tale of an 18th century con woman, with many twists and turns in the narrative.

Don't just take my word for it, here's a five star review from www.Amazon.co.uk which I've edited slightly to prevent the plot being spoiled:

"Mrs. Fox, playing with people for her own pleasure", 27 April 2005
Reviewer: M. J Leonard "MikeonAlpha" (Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA United States)
The epistolary novel is always a risky endeavor, the brisk pacing, the intimacy of character, and the complexity of plot must always be exactly right. In A Factory of Cunning, Philippa Stockley's, sensational new novel, she achieves all this and much, much more. This is a marvelously intriguing, deliciously wicked, and titillatingly voyeuristic outing that transports the reader to a vividly drawn London of 1784. It's a tumultuous time where the war of the sexes is in fall force, where mischievousness and deceit reign, and where houses of ill repute are springing up all over the City.
Mrs. Fox, who has just arrived in England after having fled France, is the chief protagonist in this bawdy and deceptive tale, for she has recently been forced into exile after notoriously becoming a fallen woman in her home country. Armed with her trusted servant Victoire, and a series of introductory letters from Dr. Hubert van Essel, physician benefactor in Holland, this enigmatic and crafty woman changes her identity and masterfully sets about establishing herself in London society. There are disastrous consequences for all as this machiavellian-like noblewoman, prostitute, and brothel keeper, sets up a business in London's bawdier section in order to steadfastly peruse her life of scandal and vice.

As the reader is gradually drawn into Mrs. Fox's journal, it soon becomes clear that she's willfully on the run from the dark secrets of her past. A lively correspondence also develops between her and van Essel, their relationship revealed to be far more intimate than at first thought. Exchanging witty banter and confiding their darkest secrets with each other, Fox and van Essel conspire to destroy the degenerate nobleman Urban Fine, who is responsible for the downfall of Essel's first true love. Urban Fine fears nothing; "he has given his life to taking men's souls - a libertine of the most dangerous sort."...

Along the way we meet a variety of characters who weave in and out of the story: There's the passionate American painter Nathan Black...There's also the dapper and wealthy Lord Danceacre, who takes Mrs. Fox under his wing, little knowing that she merely views him as a well-dressed half-wit, whose only use is his money and position in society.

Mrs. Fox is indeed a conniver and schemer; she influences all her correspondents in many different ways: she's a mistress to one, an innocent to another, and when forced to, she piles on the melodrama like her life depends on it. Yet her real motivations are always clear - "a life of immortality dedicated to financial gain, where we take things as they come." Eluding reprisal and preying on men are her way of life...For Mrs. Fox, women are mere "spray-legged little cons and strumpets" and men are just "fops and dandies" to be played with and manipulated for her own ends.

Stockley deliciously portrays a society roiling with pimps, tarts, and harlots, and where "young men find conduits to "the expression of their manhood that their mothers could not supply." There's evenings of flagrant debauch, where the primary protagonists are deceitful and amoral, taking pleasure at the prospect of parsons' daughters humiliated, or lovers' passions uncaringly thwarted. Other cast members prove surprisingly resourceful, although frequently compromised.

If you commanded and understood the power of the written word in London of the late 18th century you could have power over people's lives - disgrace could come immediately in the form of a salaciously worded letter. Stockley obviously understands this, which makes her decision to structure the novel with letters, forgeries, footnotes, and newspaper cuttings even more powerful. A Factory of Cunning is a work of stunning complexity; it's a gripping and intricate narrative, which accelerates towards a dramatic and horrific conclusion. The author effortlessly spins a heady romantic tale covering four countries, involving murder, intrigue, and depravity. Her rapacious and avaricious heroine, so ferociously dedicated to life and survival, is too awful to love, but also too fascinating to hate."

RELEASE NOTES:

Available to swap

RELEASE NOTES:

Either at the meeting or in the wilds of Manchester afterwards

As ever, I was too weak to leave this beautiful book alone - I had to give it a good home. (Although it is just another addition to what is slowly turning into Mount TBR, rather than just a 'pile') ;0)

An interesting read, and also one that challenges your preconceived ideas about the lead characters. At first glance Mrs Fox and Victoire appear as victims, but as you move through the story, you are constantly reassessing this view.

All in all I greatly enjoyed this book and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

Trade with another BC-er - just waiting for their address.

5/12/07 - posted this afternoon.

RELEASE NOTES:

Should arrive in the next couple of days. Happy Reading!

Many thanks to Emma for this trade, the John Irving is in the post as we speak.