Anthony Adverse

By Hervey Allen

Book Overview

In a world where fate and destiny intertwine, the epic journey of a young man unfolds against the backdrop of the early 19th century, a time when the Napoleonic era shaped the course of history. This... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B000JGTBN2
• Release Date: January 1960
• Publisher: International Collectors Library
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Well-written, often deep, encyclopaedic adventure

I was surprised that I had never heard of Hervey Allen before. An historical novel based around 1800, the book starts off in an old-fashioned, almost clichetic episode of intrigue. It develops into a fascinating character-glass of Anthony and those he meets. The point-of-view on topics from slavery to colonialism, cronyism to Bonaparte, the meaning-of-life to our perception of the purer souls amongst us, are all eye-opening, believable and told with a truly refreshing candour. Some passages, indeed, must have been very controversial at its 1933 publication date, when, according to the fly-cover, it sold over 1m copies! It is a huge book, not just by its length, but by its surreptitious dipping into a marvelously connected string of souls, purposes, lives and interactions in such a readable, even gripping, story.