A late-20th-century version of one of those sprawling 19th-century novels. I think that Palliser took everything he ever learned about early-19th-century England into this book. Still, compelling. I read it in 1990, and I expect I'll read it again.

LotStreetWiz has said this is one of the best books he's ever read. It's described as, "Brilliant and entertaining," "A gigantic imitation of Dickens," "Compulsively absorbing," and "A brilliant and deeply eccentric attempt to reproduce one of those glorious, rambling epics from the Golden Age of English fiction." So I suppose this is a three-decker novel. I'll give it a try. It starts out with the traditional oppressed child.