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The Quickening Maze

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Imprisoned poet loses grasp on reality.

This book is a great read for those interested in historical fiction and mental health. The novel provides a vivid description of the life of John Clare, a nature poet who ends up in an asylum, struggling to hold on to his identity. The conversations between young Alfred Tennyson and Dr. Matthew Allen add depth and character development to the plot while the description of the forest and its inhabitants provide a stunning contrast to the bleak, isolated world of the asylum.

  • Booker Prize Nominee (2009)
  • Walter Scott Prize Nominee (2010)
  • RSL Encore Award (2010)
  • Dublin Literary Award Nominee (2011)
Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.
Sale

The Quickening Maze

Regular price RM11.74 MYR Now RM7.38 MYR Save 37%
Unit price
per
Compare to estimated retail price: RM99.62 MYR  
ISBN: 9780224087469
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
Date of Publication: 2023-01-01
Format: Hardcover
Related Collections: Literary Fiction, Poetry, Historical Fiction
Related Topics: Literature, Literature
Goodreads rating: 3.13
(rated by 2531 readers)

Description

Based on real events in Epping Forest on the edge of London around 1840, The Quickening Maze centres on the first incarceration of the great nature poet John Clare. After years struggling with alcohol, critical neglect and depression, Clare finds himself in High Beach Private Asylum - an institution run on reformist principles which would later become known as occupational therapy. At the same time another poet, the young Alfred Tennyson, moves nearby and becomes entangled in the life and catastrophic schemes of the asylum's owner, the peculiar, charismatic Dr Matthew Allen.For John Clare, a man who had grown up steeped in the freedoms and exhilarations of nature, who thought 'the edge of the world was a day's walk away', a locked door is a kind of death. This intensely lyrical novel describes his vertiginous fall, through hallucinatory episodes of insanity and dissolving identity, towards his final madness.Historically accurate, but brilliantly imagined, the closed world of High Beach and its various inmates - the doctor, his lonely daughter in love with Tennyson, the brutish staff and John Clare himself - are brought vividly to life. Outside the walls is Nature, and Clare's paradise: the birds and animals, the gypsies living in the forest; his dream of home, of redemption, of escape. Rapturous yet precise, exquisitely written, rich in character and detail, this is a remarkable and deeply affecting book: a visionary novel which contains a world.
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Similar Reads

Imprisoned poet loses grasp on reality.

This book is a great read for those interested in historical fiction and mental health. The novel provides a vivid description of the life of John Clare, a nature poet who ends up in an asylum, struggling to hold on to his identity. The conversations between young Alfred Tennyson and Dr. Matthew Allen add depth and character development to the plot while the description of the forest and its inhabitants provide a stunning contrast to the bleak, isolated world of the asylum.

  • Booker Prize Nominee (2009)
  • Walter Scott Prize Nominee (2010)
  • RSL Encore Award (2010)
  • Dublin Literary Award Nominee (2011)
Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.