Where to begin with my review of this book? It may end up being just as muddied as the plot line to 'The Remedy' if I'm not careful...What this is at its very core is a love story. A very predictable (I correctly guessed the plot twist within the first few chapters), well-researched love story set against an interesting historical backdrop. What drew me to this book initially was the fact that it was set in 18th century London and dealt with Quack doctors and other unsavory folk. It promised (and delivered!) unflinching portrayals of what city life during this time was like: gritty, sordid, painful, and full of misery, all while wearing a frock coat. Lovric has a decided flair for painting grotesque caricaturizations of people and their inner machinations, and her three main characters are no exception; each as ugly and twisted and broken as the next, despite the pleasing outward countenances of Mimosina Dolcezza and Valentine Greatrakes, the two great lovers of the book.The ghastly woman-child Pevenche was the brightest burning flame in my opinion, her lurid physical description following me around from page to page.The meat of the novel doesn't begin until about 200 pages within, when the plot line unravels and becomes tangled and messy. If you are like me, you already know how the book is going to end so just read the novel for the bizarre recipes for healing unguents and nostrums (from authentic and somehow still extant 18th century sources) which announce the beginning of each new chapter. All in all, despite its flaws 'The Remedy' it is an entertaining jaunt which sometimes smacks of Rikki Ducornet (probably because of the grotesque descriptions of people and ailments)and is recommended for those folks who have an interest in strange historical details and events.Read it for: historic details of 18th century Venice and London, unflinching descriptions of various priapic medical disorders (I counted the word 'effluvia' five times), sordid ale-house interiors, vengeful Italian nuns and strange, historical apocrypha.
Atenção: Poderá conter spoilers.Acabei de ler o livro hoje, por isso esta pequena crítica sai fresquinha!Como dá para perceber pelo resumo, é um drama de época com duas personagens principais: uma espia veneziana e um charlatão inglês.Não é uma leitura "pesada" ou que exiga um elevado nível de concentração para perceber a história, o que a torna perfeita para aquela leitura antes de dormir que muitos(as) gostam (eu incluída).Outros pontos a favor deste livro é que tem um certo humor, que eu achei agradável, e é sem dúvida uma história invulgar, não é o típico drama de época. Este tem muitas voltas, reviravoltas e momentos bizarros.Porém, houve certas coisas que não gostei muito neste livro. É díficil identificarmo-nos com as personagens, uma vez que são tão peculiares. Há certos pontos na história e nas personagens que se revelam um pouco macabros. Além disso, certas situações na história tornam-se confusas. Por exemplo, devido ao Epílogo, escrito sobre a perspectiva de Pevenche, não consegui bem perceber como e por quem Tom afinal foi morto e o que acontece a Mazziolini.De resto, não tenho nada mais a apontar, para além de que apreciei as notas históricas feitas pela autora que se encontram no final do livro.
Do You like book The Remedy (2005)?
c2005: FWFTB: 1785, actress, theatre, convent, London. This book started off really well and I had great hopes for an enjoyable read. The language used and the grammar was reminiscent of the era but as the pacing flagged so my irritation with this affectation increased. When I started to see how this whole story was going to work out, I started to get a tad impatient hence the 'meh' rating. I am not sure who in the normal crew would enjoy this so unfortunately unable to recommend. "Venice flutters in a light wind that pleats the water and tousles his hair in an insinuating manner as he passes under the bleached sternum of the Rialto bridge."
—Ruth
There must be a term for this sub-genre of historical fiction which focuses on extensive description of the sordidness and filth of the past: the stenches, the sores and sicknesses, the gutters clogged with feces, the pox-scarred prostitutes reeking of sweat, jism and tooth-decay, the scarred and deformed poor. Accompanying this physical description, as if the dirt of the past were a reflection of its moral caliber rather than its lack of sanitation, is what seems an obsession with the forementioned prostitution, with the perverted lustful thoughts of every male character, the mindless wantonness of the women (because apparently the people of past eras were too ignorant and irrational to concern themselves with pregnancy and disease), with the violent and criminal.I'm sure this approach is more realistic than that of, say, historical romance, where the past seems made up largely of balls and the preparations thereof, with faithful servants and the occasional highwayman thrown in for color, but it is still a cripplingly distorted view of societies which were real and complex and for which, in this case, there is plenty of alternative documentation. But in any case, my objection to this book is not its obsession with the sordid, which I find unoriginal and not to my taste but may be desired by other readers, but its attention to descriptions of the aforementioned over plot action. Dammit, I was promised espionage! It took the first hundred pages for any of the main characters to encounter one another, and just when I was raising my hopes that we were finally getting to the action -- they had sex. Without conversation, foreplay, or removal of clothing. Then the improbably-accented (seriously, this was jokingly called "Stage Paddy" even in the 19th century) Valentine goes home. This is not the sort of "action" I was waiting for, Ms. Lovric. And I'm not waiting any longer. I have other books to read. Books with characters who don't have oozing sores.
—Miriam
If you are a fan of historical fiction and haven't read any of Michelle Lovric's work yet, I totally recommend. The Remedy, set in the late 1700s, takes us back and forth between Venice and London and entwines the stories of Venetian actress Mimosina Dolcezza, rogue Valentine Greatrakes and woman-child Pevenche. Lovric paints a vivid picture of the urban world of the late 1700s, from the theatre to the work of the quacks who sell their remedies to the unsuspecting masses. This was a very enjoyable read.
—Jane
