The Realms of Gold

by Margaret Drabble

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394498771
• ISBN13: 9780394498775
• Release Date: January 1975
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Length: 354 Pages
• Weight: 0.96 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Much better than expected

I was a bit hesitant to get into this novel -- must be my problem -- due to its being published in the late '70's, but a novel very much in the present. Sorry, but the '70's as "the present" didn't seem that charming. But I stuck with it. First of all, Margaret Drabble's command of the English language is quite impressive. Her passion for her characters is undeniable and their passions begin to rub off on you. I won't get into the plot -- I hate reading plots before I start a book, but I suggest you try this novel. It shows the mindset of the English as they entered the last quarter of the 20th century, and you see that the petty concerns and worries are not that much different from today. If there is a complaint, it would be that there lacks a certain immediacy in the writing; both writer and reader end up being quite a distance from the action, but the passion of the writer pulls you through in the end.

A novel of travels and returns rewards intellect, emotion.

This novel begins slowly, with a woman scholar in a foreign city, due to give a lecture, suffering a toothache. The pace accelerates as she returns to England, travels to a conference in Africa, then returns abruptly for a totally unpredictable family crisis. Competent, confident she settles all that can be settled, faces what cannot, and finds personal restoration in lasting love. A historian, an archeologist, and a geologist settle into their own visions of time, as the most suitable ending evolves itself. A stimulating reflection, a wonderful story, a great work of narrative control, by far my favorite Drabble of all.