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    The Remedy: A Novel
    The Remedy: A Novel
    The Remedy: A Novel
    Ebook582 pages

    The Remedy: A Novel

    By Michelle Lovric

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    In this darkly beautiful and hauntingly vivid novel, Michelle Lovric, acclaimed author of The Floating Book, embarks on an unforgettable journey through the winding alleys and shadowy streets of eighteenth-century Venice and London. With vibrant prose, she weaves together the stories of three disparate yet intertwined characters who find themselves embroiled in a world of murder and secrets. There is Mimosina Dolcezza, the Venetian actress employed as an agente provocatrice by surreptitious European power brokers. By fortune and circumstance, she begins an affair with the elusive Valentine Greatrakes, a roguish fixture within London's medical underworld. Complicating matters for the pair is the presence of the eccentric and strange child-woman Pevenche, a figure whose fate and identity lie at the heart of the book's mystery.

    Following this shadowy group from the dark environs of London's Bankside to the lively streets of Venice, The Remedy guides us through playhouses, brothels, and convents with luscious details that breathe intoxicating life into the era. Long-listed for the prestigious Orange Prize for Fiction, The Remedy is a seductive and suspenseful tale that stays with you long after you've turned the final page.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateJun 8, 2010
    ISBN9780062013590
    The Remedy: A Novel
    Author

    Michelle Lovric

    Michelle Lovric is the author of five novels - Carnevale, The Floating Book (winner of a London Arts Award and chosen as a W H Smith Read of the Week) and The Remedy (longlisted for the 2005 Orange Prize for Fiction) - as well as four children's novels, The Undrowned Child and The Mourning Emporium. She combines her fiction work with editing, designing and producing literary anthologies including her own translations of Latin and Italian poetry. Her book Love Letters was a New York Times bestseller. Lovric divides her time between London and Venice, and holds workshops in both places with published writers of poetry and prose, fiction and memoir. www.michellelovric.com

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    Reviews for The Remedy

    3.5/5

    48 ratings6 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I always like historical novels, and if they are set in Venice it's definitely a biggie. In this case though, I had trouble suspending disbelief. The hidden and darker parts of society in Venice and London are very well depicted, which gives a certain amount of freshness to the genre; but the twists and turns of the plot, which ended up being very predictable, had me raising an eyebrow more than once
    • 2/5
      It took me more than a month to read this novel, which is extremely long for me. Honestly I don't think the novel is all that bad, but it is certainly confusing and frustrating. Ironically the plot is clear and predictable after the first few pages of the second part, how it all plays out after that is a bit of a mess though.A rebellious Venetian girl is shipped off to a local convent where she at least can't make any more trouble for her noble family. Inside the convent things go from bad to worse and pretty soon the innocent girl is sleeping with invited male 'customers' of the nuns. Quite predictably she gets pregnant by her dashingly interesting stranger. After some final altercations she manages to escape the convent and ends up in London as an actress and spy for hire. We then switch to the perspective (although not in first person) of 18th century master of the London dispensaries by the name of Valentine Greatrakes. A more unbelievable and silly name if I've ever seen. Intrigue ensues. Valentine falls for the actress who turns out to be related to this and the other, they hate each other, miss each other, try to find each other again and again and so on. If you like coincidences then this is one you'll like.Characters are beyond flat and modeled after what the author thinks current gender stereotypes are, and then projected on 18th century templates. None of the characters are particularly likable, which is not a requirement for a good novel, but they should at least be interesting. Granted the period is rendered in vividly accurate detail, but then again that is what we expect these days from authors. Flat novels is unfortunately also something we've become to expect. The male characters are all single minded and only interested in carnal pleasures. Women are either stunningly graceful or beyond ugly and/or boring, all of them being eternal victims who might also be seen as strong if it weren't for the overwhelming victim mentality portrayed in this book by all female characters.So then why did I read it? I'm a bit of a sucker for immersive novels, especially those taking place in exotic locations from exciting periods of history. In this particular novel the opening recipes for quack medicines added an additional touch to the text although you quickly find out that the subject of the recipes doesn't have much to do with the contents of the chapter. You know the author got things right, you don't know why specifically but you know. Both London and Venice feel real and appear to be quite genuinely depicted in the appropriate period settings.All of the world descriptions and depictions work together well on the other hand many of infuriatingly little narrative details stand out and detract from the story. All the female character's chapters are in first person but not the male protagonist. One of the female characters, the daughter of Valentine's best friend Tom, is given a very small amount of chapters to add something useful to the narrative but those fragments make things more confusing than they already are. Supposedly this girl/woman/child is dense and quite selfish. Certainly the selfish part is consistent but if we have to believe the author she is far from stupid. If this is a deliberate touch then nowhere in the rest of the novel does it make sense or fit in.
    • 3/5
      The Remedy is a historical novel full of interesting details, rather than an interesting historical novel, I'm afraid. In the author's notes, Michelle Lovric claims, 'I have tried to paint the London and Venice of the eighteenth century, in all their flavours, but more importantly to bring to life two personalities with whom the modern reader can identify.' Where she succeeds in recreating not only the geographical markers of both cities, from the crumbling buildings and dank streets of eighteenth century London to the unique waterways and edifices of Venice, but also the rich atmosphere of both time and place, I was less than convinced by her main characters: larger than life Irish wideboy, Valentine Greatrakes (his name doesn't help, real or not), and the manipulative actress Mimosina Dolcezza, formerly a Venice blueblood and fugitive nun named Caterina Venier, alias Mistress Giallofiore, AKA Jaune-Fleur Kindness. Nor is the pacing of the story helped by delivering Mimosina's narrative in first person, when, for such an enigmatic and patently false character, an omniscient narrator would have served better. The characters merely struggle along between two cities searching for a plot. Valentine comes across as distant and dense, surrendering his powerful underworld reputation as a 'free trader' of quack remedies after a quick fling with an actress, and Mimosina is an unbelievable anti-heroine and unrealiable narrator. Her involvement in the death of Valentine's friend is foreshadowed from the beginning, but I was genuinely surprised by the second unlikely blast from the past. Perhaps that connection was also signposted, but the possibility was far too farfetched for me to predict. That Mimosina cannot be trusted is cleverly established, but my problem was more that she is wholly unsympathetic. Everything happens to her, and she is forced into her career of lies, yet we are supposed to believe that she really loves Valentine? Or that he is charismatic and unforgettable enough to inspire her sudden independence? And the whole theme of 'class' - 'Caterina has proved the ephemeral nature of class by floating downwards, he by rising upwards in his great material success', etc. or 'I had proved renegade to my class, after all, and turned actress. Could not a London criminal rise above his station and become in life and habit noble' - is very heavy-handed and anachronistic. That Mimosina couldn't tell a lord from a Irish charmer makes her dimwitted, not democratic.The plot hinges on coincidences and the even more incredible concept of true love. Valentine cannot forget his actress, Mimosina is hellbent on Valentine making an honest woman out of her. He chases her to Venice and discovers the dark secret of her true identity, she waits for him in London, biding her time as a quack's assistant. The twists and turns of the final chapters are convoluted, but the bulk of the story is dull. I found myself distracted by two other books - one a classic I have read before many times, and the other a terrible Regency romance - and had to force myself to return and finish The Remedy. Although well written and filled with wonderful language and archaic recipes for mixtures, powders, decoctions and juleps, Michelle Lovric's novel unfortunately goes down like a horse pill.
    • 4/5
      Not the quickest read. The language is rich and reads, to me, as a classic should. Well researched. Takes place in the high time of quack medicine and goes back and forth between Venice and London. Thought some of it was quite predictable (though no less enjoyable) and still held a few surprises at the very end. Enjoyed it.
    • 4/5
      There's a lot to love in this book.** the historical backdrop of London and Venice in the late 1700s = mystery = intrigue = dark opulence** the mutually duplicitous, mutually seductive nature of the characters' relationship = suspenseful = humorous** the monkeywrench of the story ... Valentine's ward, Pevenche = big smirkThe author managed to keep my interest all the way through with subtle suspense and a good dose of humor. I did not like the ending, though - however humorous, it left too many questions unanswered.
    • 4/5
      Set in the late 1700's, The Remedy follows the tale of an English man, Valentine Greatakes, who's work is illegal but brings in lots of money and A Venitian Golden Girl turned Actress, who fall in Love. The book goes all around London and Venice. And it is a very interesting Read. Lovric writes beautifully and I love the way that each chapter is headed with a Recipe. A Good book that i recommend!

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    The Remedy - Michelle Lovric

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