The Skull and the Nightingale, Michael Irwin
The Skull and the Nightingale, Michael Irwin
List: $28.99 | Sale: $20.29
Club: $14.49

The Skull and the Nightingale

Author: Michael Irwin

Narrator: Steve West

Unabridged: 13 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download (DRM Protected)

Publisher: William Morrow

Published: 07/30/2013


Synopsis

Michael Irwin’s The Skull and the Nightingale is a chilling and deliciously dark, literary novel of manipulation and sex, intrigue and seduction, set in 18th-century England.
 
When Richard Fenwick returns to London, his wealthy godfather, James Gilbert, has an unexpected proposition. Gilbert has led a sedate life in Worcestershire, but feels the urge to experience, even vicariously, the extremes of human feeling: love, passion, and something much more sinister.
 
It becomes apparent that Gilbert desires news filled with tales of carousing, flirtation, excess, and London’s more salacious side. But Gilbert’s elaborate and manipulative “experiments” into the workings of human behavior soon drag Richard into a Faustian vortex of betrayal and danger where lives are ruined and tragedy is only a step away.
 
With echoes of Dangerous Liaisons, Michael Irwin’s The Skull and the Nightingale is an urgent period drama that seduces the senses.

About Michael Irwin

Michael Irwin is an emeritus professor of English at the University of Kent in Canterbury, where he specialized in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature. His published work includes a full-length study of Fielding and essays on Defoe, Richardson, Sterne, Smollett, Johnson, and Pope. He lives in Kent, England.


Reviews

Goodreads review by karen on November 06, 2019

this book is a little cyrano, a little frankenstein, and a little les liaisons dangereuses. it's a dirrrrty book about the seedy underbelly of 18th century england we all love so much, complete with costumed fumblings, indecorous passions, gentility masking bestial impulses, and letters. lots of lett......more

Goodreads review by Charlie on June 15, 2013

The Skull and the Nightingale captured my attention when it claimed that it fell in tradition with Liaisons Dangereuses and echoed The Crimson Petal and the White, which just happens to be one of my favorite novels of all time. I must say, with such grand references, I opened the book with high expe......more

Goodreads review by Amanda on August 25, 2013

While on the whole, this novel was provocative and enticing, I felt somewhat disappointed by the end result. I admired the level of writing and the depth of some characters, but it was altogether a slow read and I was not emotionally attached to anyone or anything contained therein. I felt no sympat......more

Goodreads review by Emily Kestrel on December 25, 2016

I just noticed that this book has an aggregate rating of less than three stars, and I can understand why some readers might not like it, the two biggest issues being that the plot feels terribly contrived and rather sordid (I'll be curious to read over some reviews and see if I guessed right). The s......more