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Description edit
Winner of the Booker Prize, a critically acclaimed, large-scale, brilliantly styled, continuously engrossing love story set in mid-19th-century England and Australia.
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
- - man and woman hide their feelings. Misery ensues!
- - A rebellious Anglican priest & a teenaged heiress who buys a glass factory in Australia pursue an unlikely romance.
Summary edit
A startling and unusual love story. Oscar is a young English clergyman who has broken with his past and developed a disturbing talent for gambling. A country girl of singular ambition, Lucinda moves to Sydney, driven by dreams of self-reliance and the building of an industrial Utopia. Together... read more
Characters/People edit
- Oscar Hopkins: The protagonist of the story who develops from a young man to an Anglican to a clergyman to a missionary
- Lucinda: An unusual female for this time period who is not concerned with women's roles according to society or damaging her reputation.
- Dennis Hasset: A clergyman who Lucinda befriends to aid her in purchasing a glass works.
- Hugh Stratton: The Anglican minister that takes Oscar in to help him learn the faith and be educated in it.
- Theophilus Hopkins: Oscar's father
- Mr Borrodaile: A shipmate of Oscar and Lucinda's aboard the Leviathan
- Percy Smith: A shipmate of Oscar and Lucinda's aboard the Leviathan
- Mr Jeffris: A former clerk who leads the expedition to deliver the glass church
- Chas Ahearn: Lucinda's lawyer who helps her attain her inheritance.
- Mr D'abbs: A friend of Lucinda who enjoys employing and surrounding himself with artists.
- Mrs Williams: Lucinda's housekeeper
- Mrs Burrows: A friend of Mr. D'abbs
- Mr Tomasetti: Add a description of this character.
- Miriam Chadwick
- Arthur Phelps
- Mrs Judd
- Prince Rupert
- Ward
- Miss Malcolm
- Mrs Millar
- Clarkson
- Elizabeth Leplastrier
- Mr Smudge
- Mitchell
- Mrs Trevis
- Mr Paxton
- Fanny Drabble
- Bellinger
- Montaigne
- Maguire
- St John
- Simmons
- Whitfield
Quotes edit
-
“"Our whole life is a wager, Miss Leplastrier. We bet - it is all in Pascal and very wise it is too, although the Queen of England might find him not nearly Presbyterian enough - we bet that there is God. We bet our life on it. We calculate the odds, the return, that we shall sit with the saints in paradise. Our anxiety about our bet will wake us before dawn in cold sweat. We are out of bed and on our knees, even in the midst of winter. And God sees us, and sees us suffer. And how can this God, a God who sees us at prayer beside out bed... <..> that such a God can look unkindly on a chap wagering a few quid on the likelyhood of a dumb animal crossing a line first."”
First Sentence edit
If there was a bishop, my mother would have him to tea. She would sit him, not where you would imagine, not at the head of the big oval table, but in the middle of the long side, where, with his back to the view of the Bellinger River, he might gaze at the wall which held the sacred glass daguerreotype of my great-grandfather, the Reverend Oscar Hopkins (1841-1866).
Table of Contents edit
1. The Church
2. The Advent Wreath
3. Christmas Pudding
4. After Pudding
5. A Prayer
6. The Anglican Church
7. Stethoscope
8. Pagan Signs
9. Throwing Lots
10. False Instruction
11. Apostasy
12. To Serve and to Rule
13. Raisins
14. Trials
15. The Vicarage Kitchen
16. Job and Judas
17. Scuffed Boots
18. The Thirty-nine Articles
19. Christian Stories
20. Palm Sunday in New South Wales
21. Lucinda
22. Elizabeth
23. A Square Peg
24. Mr Ahearn's Letter to the Parramatta Argus
25. Mrs Cousins
26. Bloomers
27. The Odd Bod
28. Store up Treasures for a Future Day
29. Epsom Downs
30. Covetousness
31. Ascension Day
32. Prince Rupert's Drops
33. Glassworks
34. After Whitsunday
35. A Betting Ticket
36. Une Petit Amie
37. A Game of Cards
38. A Duck to Water
39. Personal Effects
40. Not in Love
41. If He Ask a Fish, Will He Give Him a Serpent?
42. Called
43. Leviathan
44. A Bishop's Son-in-Law
45. Hymns
46. In a Trice
47. Babylon
48. Who can open the Doors of his Face?
49. The System
50. Pachinko
51. Mr Borrodaile and Mr Smith
52. Montaigne
53. Phosphorescence (1)
54. Phosphorescence (2)
55. Jealousy
56. Lure
57. Confession
58. Reputation
59. Thou Rulest the Raging of the Sea
60. Cape Town to Pinchgut
61. A Business Principle
62. Home
63. Longnose Point
64. The Multitude of Thy Sorceries
65. Bishop Dancer's Ferret
66. St John's
67. The Messiah
68. Serious Damage
69. The Tablecloth
70. The Good Samaritan
71. The Strattons' Wager
72. Mrs Smith
73. Judge Not
74. A Degree from Oxford
75. Heads or Tails
76. Mr Smudge
77. Happiness
78. Ceremony
79. Pot and Kettle
80. The Private Softness of Her Skin
81. Promenade
82. Oscar in Love
83. Orphans
84. The Weeks Before Christmas
85. A Prayer
86. Christmas Day
87. Gratitude
88. A Lecture Based Upon a Parable
89. Of the Devil
90. A Reconciliation
91. A Man of Authority
92. The Lord is My Shepherd
93. Doggerel
94. Mr Smith
95. Arrival of Wardley-Fish (1)
96. Arrival of Wardley-Fish (2)
97. Laudanum
98. An Explorer
99. An Odd Blackfellow
100. Glass Cuts
101. Oscar at Bellingen Heads
102. A Christian Man
103. Did I Not Murder?
104. Mary Magdalene
105. Miriam
106. The Aisle of a Cathedral
107. Arrival of Anglican Church at Boat Harbour
108. Oscar and Miriam
109. A Cheque Amidst Her Petticoats
110. Songs About Thistles
111. A Song for Oscar
Glossary
Series & Lists edit
This is book 1988 of 47 in Booker Prize Winners. (authoritative list)
This book is in Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read. (authoritative list)
This is book 282 of 1286 in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. (authoritative list)
Authors & Contributors edit
- Peter Carey (Author)
Other Contributors:
- Ralph Fiennes (Performer) - performs audio cassette edition
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: University of Queensland Press
Country: Australia
Publication Date: 1988
ISBN: 0-7022-2116-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: University of Queensland Press
Country: Australia
Publication Date: 1988
ISBN: 0-7022-2116-3
Page Count: 448
Awards edit
- Man Booker Prize (1988)
- Miles Franklin Literary Award (1989)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
- Dewey: 823
Subjects edit
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Movie Connections edit
- Oscar and Lucinda (IMDb): Starring Ralph Fiennes and Cate Blanchett
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