Corduroy Mansions (2009) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Characters/People edit see section history

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• William: A wine merchant. Lives at the top of Corduroy Mansions. A widower. He is the father of a son who refuses to fly the nest.
• Eddie: William's son. Lives with him and shows no sign of ever being ready to leave.
• Marcia: William's friend. A caterer with a company called Marcia's Table.
• Manfred James: Add a description of this character.
• Dee: 'vitamin addict and avid subscriber to Anti-Oxidant News'; works in a health food shop; William's neighbour - one of the girls sharing the first-floor flat.
• Caroline: 'twinset-and-pearls'; studying art; William's neighbour - one of the girls sharing the first-floor flat.
• Jenny: works for Oedipus Snark MP; she is William's neighbour - one of the girls sharing the first-floor flat.
• Freddie De La Hay: a dog on loan.
• Berthea
• Oedipus Snark: An MP. 'possibly the world's only loathsome Lib Dem'
• Rupert
• Lennie
• Berthea Snark: Oedipus Snark's mother. A psychiatrist.
• Barbara Ragg: Oedipus Snark's girlfriend. A literary agent.
• Terence Moongrove: Berthea's Snark's brother. Very sweet, though not quite in touch with reality :)
• Rupert Porter: Barbara's partner in the Ragg Porter Literary Agency.
• Lennie Marchbanks: Terrence Moongrove's mechanic
• Paul: William's assistant
• Stevie: A friend of Eddie
• Proust
• Berthy
• Martin: Works with Dee in the Pimlico Vitamin and Supplement Agency.
• Hugh: A man who Barbara gives a lift to.
• Tim Something: A photographer who once took Caroline's photo for a magazine.
• Poussin
• Morris
• Peter Deunov
• Basil Wickramsinghe: William's neighbour who lives in the ground floor flat.
• Mr. Marchbanks: Terence Moongrove's car mechanic
• Isadora Duncan
• Caravaggio
• Nigella
• Tom: Caroline's boyfriend - or ex boyfriend?
• Mason
• Monty Bismarck: Lives near Terence Moongrove. Drives a Porsche.
• Minnie
• Jo: Fourth of the girls living in the flat share with Dee, Caroline & Jenny.
• Errol Greatorex: An author whom Barbara Ragg is representing.
• Gregory
• James: Is studying with Caroline
• Rufus Jarvis: Carolines's father

Quotes edit see section history

• “'It was a fifty-one-year-old face chronologically, but would it pass, he wondered, for a forty-something-year-old face?'”

  William

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• “Art comes from a desire to make sense of the world and one’s experience in it,” he intoned. “It’s intended to make up for the separation that we feel between us as humans and beauty. The artist tries to re-create beauty—to make it whole again.”

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• “The contemplation of the toothache of another in no way relieves one’s own toothache.”

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• You should talk about the thing that frightens you and in that way you deprive it of its power.”

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• Proustian synchronicity, where the stream of consciousness of one person matches another’s and where, for a few moments, both flow in the same direction and at the same pace, like waters conjoined.

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• Who among us wants anything more than to be appreciated by some and loved, we hope, by a few? Why is the world so constructed that some find this modest goal easy to achieve and others find that it for ever eludes them? The essential unfairness of the world? Yes. Its heartlessness? Yes. Its unkindness to a certain sort of brisk and competent woman? Yes again.

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• Why should everybody embrace the herd instinct, which required one to regard one set of politicians as being always in the right while demonising another set?

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• Nothing really remarkable happened to most of us, she thought; we grew up, we got a job, we fell in love—if we were lucky—and then we went into decline and eventually disappeared. And at the end of the day, what did we achieve? Well, perhaps it was an achievement just to get through life without any conspicuous disasters. If we did that, then we were pulling off at least something.

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• The word “enough” can be potent. It can begin as a statement of dissatisfaction and rapidly become a call to arms. In the minds, or the mouths, of the oppressed it becomes the trigger of resistance, the rallying cry which signals the turning of the worm. Henry VI, Part 3, Barbara Ragg’s thoughts now turned to: “The smallest worm will turn, being trodden on / And doves will peck in safeguard of their brood.” Well, she thought, I have had enough.

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• solipsistic. If he paid no attention to her feelings, it was because he did not see her. For one who was constantly adding “See?” to his observations, he saw remarkably little. That afternoon, as Caroline and James embarked on the baking of Nigella’s lemon gems, Jenny found herself just a

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• paneurhythmy. What if somebody inadvertently trod on his toes and he said some of the things that Terence Moongrove

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• London: This is the book's main setting
• Cheltenham
• Rye
• Paris
• Uppingham
• Colombia
• Barranquilla
• England
• Scotland
• South America
• Heathrow
• New Zealand
• France
• Pimlico: A part of London where Corduroy Mansions is situated.

First Sentence edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Followed by The Dog Who Came in from the Cold.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Alexander McCall Smith (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 823.914

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary