House of cards

by Stanley Ellin

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• ISBN: B004E2TRAY
• Release Date: January 1967
• Publisher: a dell book
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Compelling and Imaginative

The Tarot, the Algerian war of independence and the Parisianvie boheme of the 1960s come together in a riveting tale ofintrigue. Stanley Ellin is known for his masterful ability to capture the tensions that exist between the members of a large extended family (see Very Old Money). But in House of Cards, he goes further, meshing the story of the aristocratic de Villemont family with a portrait of the upheavals in French society as the country's overseas empire in Africa and Asia crumble. The tale is told through the eyes of Reno Davis, a longtime Paris resident, former prizefighter and sometime nightclub bouncer who becomes a tutor to young Paul de Villemont. The boy's widowed mother clings to her son. Is she neurotic? Lethal? Certainly, the previous tutor died violently and suddenly. Suddenly, Davis is plunged into a world where reality is a nebulous concept. Who is Dr. Hubert Morillon and what is his hold on Anne de Villemont? Why is she so intent on escaping her Parisian existence? And why is Anne's brother-in-law so keen to introduce Reno to a publisher? Is it simply an effort to encourage his writing -- or a way to keep Reno's growing suspicions of the household in check? In contrast to some of Mr. Ellin's other writings, which rely principally on their characters for drama, House of Cards concludes with a compelling race across France and into Italy as Reno finally begins assembling pieces of the puzzle in order to regain control of his own destiny. As ever, Mr. Ellin emerges as a gifted raconteur. A vivid portrait of his characters emerges gradually, until the reader is unable to put down the book without knowing their real identies and motivations -- and their fates. A tour de force.