Peter carey ebook oscar and lucinda

Oscar realizes that he has to leave -- and the signs point to the Anglican Church. We next find him at Oxford, at Oriel College, where he discovers gambling. One thing leads to another and Oscar sets out to become a missionary in New South Wales but he has to go by ship She is also the owner of a glassworks in Australia.

The lives of these two people come together on the ship, then meet again after Oscar discovers that there is no Missionary Work to be done in New South Wales, and that he is to be assigned to a posh vicarage instead.

He meets Lucinda in a Chinese gambling house I won't say another word The writing is excellent; the story is excellent and there are so many themes that are explored without the author ever losing track. My only complaint: the end came so fast it was a great ending but rushed that after having savored the story for so long I felt cheated. However, the rest of the book was absolutely stunning and so rich so I can overlook this. Please try this book I can totally see how it won a Booker.

Jul 18, K. Absolutely rated it really liked it Recommended to K. Shelves: core , How many ways you can tell a love story? How many types of lovers are there in the world? It tells about the two odd gamblers, Oscar Hopskins, a preacher's son and Lucinda, a heiress who buys a glass factory.

The first one is obsessive and the other one is a compulsive gambler. They fell in love on their way to the 19th century Australia. Lucinda challenges Oscar that he cannot move the glass factory to another town and Oscar accepts the challenge and the end is I don't know.

What I mean is if i How many ways you can tell a love story? What I mean is if it justifies the means or if the slow build up the book is pages and starts when Oscar was a little boy punished by eating Christmas pudding but earlier fantastic reviews here on Goodreads say that this reflect the way Australia was built as a nation and that the characters juxtaposes Australia and its people and who am I to argue with as the reviewers probably know this better than I do.

There are many other memorable scenes. Reading is a bit dragging. Especially when I was done reading the book, I thought that this could be cut in a half and the story would still be the same if not more enjoyable. I have not seen the movie but I thought that given a choice I would like to see how they look like and all the fantastic images in my mind like the inverted cathedral.

This is my first time to read a Peter Carey novel but I thought that with those images making prints in my mind, I have no doubt of his skillful artistry in telling stories. I should read more Peter Carey. Thanks to Must Read Books for making me buy this book! View 1 comment. When I started this book I knew I was in for something different. Two gamblers fall in love and conspire to transport a glass church across the outback in colonial times?

And it's good? Yes, it is good. Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda was a great trip for me. I loved being immersed in the details of the s and s. I especially loved being immersed in the details of the mind from this period. This is not a simple love story. The characters feel deeply about many things, and have many differ When I started this book I knew I was in for something different. The characters feel deeply about many things, and have many different feelings: guilt, pleasure, holiness, despair, longing, loneliness.

The list could go on. It's a rich rich book. While the basic story is what's written above, it is more honest to say that the transporting a glass church thing is just something that happens in the book.

It was a way for Carey to really dig into deep questions of the soul--faith, doubt, righteousness, hypocrisy, wickedness, the fragility of relationships.

While I read this book I really cared for the characters as they struggled to find their identity amidst so much external and internal conflict. The book is also pretty funny. There are several great parts that made me laugh out loud. It's the way Carey describes things and his sense of timing. But that same talent helps him also achieve a devestating effect in the reader. The comical story is real, but so is the tragedy and the despair.

The relationships are so important to the characters, who have struggled so hard to connect with anyone, yet the relationships, while honest, are also desperate. It's hard to read at times for fear of what discoveries will be made.

The books started slowly, though not unpleasantly. We see Oscar and Lucinda growing up, experiencing their rather harsh childhoods. Oscar is a bit strange to others. Lucinda too, only its because she's a rather strong willed woman. Both recognize their situation, and even though they recognize that they should not worry because they feel they are being exactly who they should be, it still hurts.

On a side note, almost, they each become addicted to gambling. Ultimately they gamble everything they care for on each other. This all somehow leads to a very insightful look at faith, colonialism, love, death. Somehow in this book Carey has taken a million minute, seemingly unimportant details, and compiled them into something touching and important. I like the way one of the Best of the Booker judges described it as building the Taj Mahal out of matchsticks or something along those lines.

Feb 11, Manny rated it liked it. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. There must be something wrong with me. I know most people can't get enough of the sunken cathedral symbol, but it leaves me unmoved. Well, I could possibly make an exception for the diving bell sequence in Waterworld , but that was mainly because of the contrast with the rest of the movie.

In Peter Carey's novel, there's all this elaborate build-up, and what do we get at the end? A sunken cathedral. Okay, it's made of glass and it's been transported to the outback and But I'm just, ho-hum, another bloody sunken cathedral. Raise your eyebrows if you like. Shake your head. I don't care. View all 6 comments. I can understand why Peter Carey is not for everyone. His novels tend to move slowly with a focus on subtlety. I find his work to be, much like the sentences he composes, charming.

In "Oscar and Lucinda" we find subdued humor and understated actions that possess significant implications. Some might find this quiet approach boring, but I have a soft spot for novels that don't like to reveal too much at a time.

In this particular novel, Carey does a masterful job of portraying the awkwardness of c I can understand why Peter Carey is not for everyone. In this particular novel, Carey does a masterful job of portraying the awkwardness of courtship.

Oscar and Lucinda are constantly misreading each other and it makes for a realistic account of the early stages of relationships. Carey is clearly having a lot of fun with this aspect of the story. But this is not just a love story. This is a novel about the role of chance in our lives and how accidents can play a significant role in the formation of our perceptions. The ending, which did not unfold how I expected it to in any way, hammers that point home.

There's a lot to love about this one, but I can understand those who find it a little too tedious. As the title states, this is the story of two people — Oscar Hopkins and Lucinda Leplastrier, originally from England. Oscar, son of a clergyman, breaks from the strict religion of his father and becomes an Anglican preacher.

Lucinda is a wealthy heiress who buys a glass factory, which will figure prominently in the outcome. They meet in on a ship bound for Australia.

They discover a mutual interest in gambling and band together when they are socially ostracized. The storyline flashes back As the title states, this is the story of two people — Oscar Hopkins and Lucinda Leplastrier, originally from England.

The storyline flashes back to cover the earlier lives of the two protagonists, so it can occasionally feel disjointed. The book is written in the style of a 19th century novel. It is densely written, containing lengthy descriptive sentences and ornate prose. I tend to enjoy the classics, so I was predisposed to enjoy it. The story unfolds gradually. It is written in short chapters, so it is easy to read it at a leisurely pace, taking advantage of many natural stopping points.

I particularly enjoyed the interactions of Oscar and Lucinda and their mutual, sometimes humorous, misunderstandings. I enjoyed seeing two social misfits casting their lot together. It takes darker tone as it progresses. It has an unusual and, for me, unexpected ending. Seuss What a pity. There hasn't been a book that has annoyed me as much as this one. I can't take this prose style anymore. It talks about 2 "outcasts", I couldn't find a plausible reason other than their own assumptions of them being outcast.

Lucinda keeps reminding that she is woman and is not accepted in business circle each time she surfaces in the novel.

Oscar, I don't know! After pages I still failed to like a single character, failed to understand what was so important in those pages, don't understand what could be so stunning about lovestory between 2 hyped up characters, don't know what historical or cultural significance the novel could present what it couldn't till now!

Whatever I read in pages could have very well written off in pages. I don't regret of stopping this despite of not getting a whiff of the love story between the main characters, which was supposed to be the idea behind this whole novel! A great novel. Two eccentric characters are thrown together with all the flaws multiples sevenfold. Oscar brought up by his father a Plymouth Brethren living in a remote village in Devon He develops odd habits and beliefs.

He then decides to become Anglican and later a clergyman Oxford who supports his studies by gambling. There is a transition via the Reverend Stratton who supports his change of belief. On the other side of the world Lucinda becomes an heiress after her father and later her mot A great novel. On the other side of the world Lucinda becomes an heiress after her father and later her mother dies. She also is a gambler. One compulsive the other obsessive.

Lucinda buys a glassworks and then travels to England. Returning to Australia on the Leviathan she meets Oscar. Later in Australia she allows Oscar to move in with her after Oscar is kicked out of his church due to his gambling. Then the two of them make a bet which changes their lives forever. The journey to fulfill the bet allows Oscar to see the reality of Australian landscape and the people.

Evil, debauchery, drunkenness and results in a murder and Oscar making some extremely bad decisions. I liked the ending and somehow it seemed apt. Well worth a read an entertaining and in places funny book. Jun 25, Lucy Banks rated it really liked it. Loved the characters and setting, a really intricate, fascinating book. I seem to be on a bit of a roll with my Australian authors at the moment - and I must confess, Peter Carey despite being mega famous was new to me.

I had zero concept of what the book would be about - perhaps I was expecting some sort of love story, set in the Australian outback? However, surprisingly I got a red-headed gambler, a wealthy Australian heiress, a glass factory, and lots more besides. Plot Oscar lives in Devon U Loved the characters and setting, a really intricate, fascinating book.

Plot Oscar lives in Devon UK with his father. He gets a good education, becomes a clergyman, then travels to Australia. On the boat, he meets Lucinda, a wealthy woman in possession of a glass factory. They share a mutual passion - for gambling. However, this is a society that doesn't permit women to gamble, and it's not fond of men of the cloth doing it either. Their gambling hides a far deeper connection, but one that is also marred by the expectations of society, and the people around them.

Oscar is ruined partly due to Lucinda's actions , and she hires him in her glass factory. Their shared love of glass, combined with their reckless need to gamble, means they both take a wild risk with their fortunes My review Peter Carey is another of those authors who perfectly captures the heat and hostility of the Australian landscape, combined with the personality of the place - the prosaic, sweeping elegance of it all, combined with the coarseness, and the struggle to survive.

Oscar and Lucinda are both unsuited to this challenging environment. I love how the author showed their vulnerability through their clandestine gambling sessions, Lucinda's crumbling factory, and Oscar's faltering career as a parson. They, like the Australian landscape, are being forced to comply with societal expectations, and both of them fail miserably.

However, I loved the idea of the cracking glass-church - what an image! I picked this book up at a charity book shop a few weeks ago. I found this a confusing book to read. It changed tone and became much darker, but it seemed to do it in the turn of a single page. And then it changed again toward the end and it goes to some very dark places in its final sections. This is all noti I picked this book up at a charity book shop a few weeks ago.

This is all noticeable because the book starts off very light-hearted. If the move to darkness had been more gradual, I would probably be praising it for the way it drew me in. But as it is, it felt like it completely changed at a couple of significant points and that felt quite jarring. Perhaps this was intentional by the author. The novel tells the unconventional love story of Oscar Hopkins and Lucinda Leplastrier.

This confused me for a while because I read a summary before I started that talked about them both being gambling addicts and making a wager.

This does happen, but not until a good three-quarters of the book is in your left hand. So, for a variety of reasons, some of my own making, I spent a lot of this book in a confused state. It is a historical novel set in Great Britain and Australia in the mid-late nineteenth century. But his commitment to chance also expresses itself in his obsessive gambling.

His path crosses with that of Lucinda Leplastrier. Lucinda is a feminist ahead of her time who spends a large proportion of her significant inheritance on a glassworks in Sydney where she encounters major resistance to the idea of a woman being in business.

It is also the wager between the two of them that leads the novel to the darkness with which it ends. The book is filled with arresting images.

Perhaps the most memorable is that of a glass church floating on a raft down a river through the Australian bush. Large parts of this section of the book brought back memories of the movie Fitcarraldo where a man transports a steamship over a steep hill in the Amazon.

For the most part, I enjoyed reading the book apart from my self-induced confusion about some bits of it. But I never felt all that excited about it.

Others have written about not being able to put it down even though it gives you chance to do that every 2 or 3 pages with the brief chapters. For me, I found that I was taking rather more of the opportunities it presented for a break than I would normally. Maybe I should watch the movie. Jul 09, Colleen Stone rated it it was amazing Shelves: historical-fiction , australian-fiction. It's such a while since I read this book but it's right up there among my all time favourites.

Oscar and Lucinda are such improbable characters Unfit for the world on so many levels but with robust conviction in their own world view.

While they should both be cowering forlornly in some remote and dimly lit place, they embark on a mad mission with the sort of passion we all hope to experience at least once in our lives but probably never will.

The Prince Rupert's Drop that so impresses the yo It's such a while since I read this book but it's right up there among my all time favourites. The Prince Rupert's Drop that so impresses the young Lucinda symbolically represents the incredible resilience and terrifying vulnerability that reside within us all and is so beautifully illustrated by the two misfit heroes of this book. I love and I hate that Carey lied to me or at the very least deliberately tricked me and I went scrambling back through the book to find the point of deception It's not the characters that make this book so thoroughly Australian, it's the way Carey tells the tale.

It's there in the trickery, the irreverence and the affectionate contempt the narrator tells the tale. You can almost smell the eucalyptus So many conflicting feelings. The book is so exquisitely written and worked, the characters quite believable and Carey has a rare talent for writing believable and deeply explored female characters although male himself.

The book is so tragic, unfolds into layers and layers of ever bleaker despair but with touches of humanity that make you long for joy. Is it a true story? It could be true. The thin blue line between greatness and madness is walked for the whole pages. The chapters are blesse So many conflicting feelings.

The chapters are blessedly short and the point of view shifts in a way that is completely fair on the reader. The worlds explored are so masculine, so harsh, so violent! Real love attempts to flower again and again and a thousand circumstances and the weakness of various characters stops it growing to fruition. I feel a bit depressed about the worldview in the book, I always feel that with Carey. How can he paint beauty into these grey, harsh landscapes of despair?

The crafting of it is masterful, the whole thing drips with human weakness that is convincing. But so bleak!!! That review made me want to read some Carey, but I wanted to start with his most popular work which, according to GR ratings, is Oscar and Lucinda. What a wonderful novel. I'd forgotten all the story's intricate plot and about how Carey creates an Australian universe of characters with secret agendas and shames.

It has gambling, religion, repression, and love. If you're looking for a good "book from every continent" book, this might be the one for you. I want to reread more books this year. Less chasing of new things while still remaining current, but slowing down and experiencing books I said I loved to see if I still do. I read thi 3. I read this around the time it came out. I found a family copy of the book to re-read, but the cheap paper makes my sinuses hurt too much, so I'm buying a U.

I remember loving it so much, so I want to experience the whole thing again. May 17, Margot rated it really liked it Shelves: booker-winner , aussie-lit. Carey's writes with such precision, with such narrative control. He seamlessly folds more and more people into the narrative, expanding the worlds in which O and L live. And Oscar and Lucinda, such beautifully rendered misfits. It wasn't easy to follow their lives, but it was riveting. View all 10 comments.

Just couldn't finish this. A most problematic narrative than Waterland , Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda invites a plethora of questions concerning false narrative. As Oscar and his father discuss the markings Oscar had actually been making, a prophetic voice writes "and they shall turn their ears from the truth and be turned into fables" However, the words seem more suitable to Waterland ; in Oscar and Lucinda , the narrator turns a fable into his truth.

In the opening chapters, the narrator prepares the reader for a story about his origins. The narration tricks the reader into believing that Oscar and Lucinda must come together by the end of the story because the storyteller's existence depends on their joining. The chapter titled "Oscar and Miriam" devastates the reader who realizes that Oscar and Lucinda's lives are only connected through a story.

Ending the story when Oscar encounters Miriam, the narration returns to the beginning, where the narrator's mother worships "the sacred glass daguerreotype of his great-grandfather" 1. Assumptions the reader made throughout the novel are shattered, leaving the reader to question the validity of the narrator; subsequently, problems with the narration arise that disrupt the meaning of the story itself.

The novel begins with the narrator describing his own life, but he disappears as the story unfolds. It is possible Carey became so involved with Oscar and Lucinda's lives that he forgot about his narrator. If that were the case, he could have erased the first two chapters and solved the problem by having no narrator at all. However, the narrator must exist to assure the reader that people depend on this story for meaning.

His mother lives for telling the story: "My mother told the story of the church in a way that embarrassed me. There was an excess of emotion in her style. There was something false. We must have all known it, but we never spoke about it" 2.

The narrator overlooks the story's artificial quality because he needs to believe in it just as his mother does, because there is nothing else to believe in. The mother's desire to make Lucinda part of her own history makes sense simply because Miriam's life does not offer a story the mother can be proud of.

The false narrative allows the family to believe in their history having significance. Between the beginning and the end, the narrator's voice returns to dominate the text once, in the chapter "Christian Stories" Just as his family made "a star of Bethlehem from cardboard and silver paper," they create order in their lives by believing in stories.

Depending on whether the author or narrator titled the chapter, the narrator may still believe in this list or he has lost his faith in miracles and stories.

However, the reader never solves this puzzle. Indeed, Carey quiets the narrator just before the story turns to Lucinda, the woman the reader falsifies as the narrator's great-grandmother. After this point, the narrator only intermittently talks about his mother or uses a possessive voice when telling the story. The narration overtakes the voice of the narrator so that he exists only in relation to the story itself. Ironically, the narrator's problematic disappearance illustrates the danger of stories shaping one's existence.

The story initially needs the narrator to claim it as meaningful; once the reader assumes the connection between the storyteller and story as valid the story the dependency rotates and the story creates the one who tells it. After Oscar signs the marriage document, he "disappeared forever from my great-grandmother's life" Miriam inherits the Lucinda's fortune, and receives a letter from Lucinda, who writes "I made a bet in order that I keep my beloved safe" Miriam meets Lucinda only once, "outside the court in Sydney" Finally, a letter is found in Miriam's petticoat from Lucinda returning the check for ten guineas