The Intoxicating Mr Lavelle
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The Intoxicating Mr Lavelle
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Narrated by:
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Ben Aldridge
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By:
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Neil Blackmore
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
Brothers Benjamin and Edgar have so far led a quiet life, but change is afoot as they enter a world of glorious sights and People of Quality on their Grand Tour of Europe. But a trunk full of powdered silver wigs and matching suits isn't enough to embed them into high society.
As Edgar clings on to conventions, Benjamin pushes against them. And when the charming, seductive Horace Lavelle promises Benjamin a real adventure, it's only a matter of time before chaos and love ensue.
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Critic reviews
'Most so-called comic novels these days barely raise a smirk. Enter Neil Blackmore to show us all how it's done with his hugely entertaining romp through 18th-century Europe. The Intoxicating Mr Lavelle is a novel for which the word "rollicking" might have been invented ... From the start, Benjamin's voice is a delight ... Blackmore draws clear parallels between the social and financial disparities of the 18th century and today ... The Intoxicating Mr Lavelle is the kind of novel that a reader can sink into, delighting in the merriment of the prose and the eccentricity of the protagonists. But it's not just played for laughs: it's also an insightful study into a period of history often overlooked in fiction.' John Boyne
'Seductive, decadent, cruel and utterly thrilling - just like Horace Lavelle himself. This is The Talented Mr Ripley for the twenty-first century.' Emma Flint, author of Little Deaths
'An enjoyable dip into decadence.' Observer
Recommend
Very descriptive!
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Beautifully crafted, not to be missed
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I really enjoyed the first half of this book when Benjamin (the narrator) meets Lavelle and shows him all the horrid bits of real life his parents have sheltered him from. Seeing him through Benjamin's eyes, he was an exciting breath of fresh air. Until he wasn't, in the second half of the book when the tone completely changed. The author tried so hard to make the parents the bad guys in all this, but it didn't quite work for me. What were their crimes really? Wanting a better life for their children, even if that plan was too optimistic to work out, and concealing their past to avoid prejudice against their sons. That is all. For me, personally, the "bad guy" was Horace Lavelle. I know we're supposed to feel sympathy for him because of his past and the persecution for being gay, but any sympathy evoked quickly evaporated in the second half of the book. He is a horrid, manipulative person. He may be broken because of the abuse he suffered, but it absolutely does not give him the authority to abuse others. He meets Benjamin, learns about his life, and then utterly destroys his reality in every sense. It may not have been physical abuse, but it was certainly emotional abuse. There's a line at the end of the book that goes something like <i>Lavelle wasn't here to forgive, he was here to crush</i> which sums his role up quite aptly in this story.
Overall, I thought the story was quite well written and the characters were great. The plot and some of the key events let it down a bit though as they were a tad dramatic.
If you don't like crude books, this is not for you
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A terrific story.
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