Status
Available
Call number
Collections
Publication
Jonathan Cape Ltd (1974), Edition: First Edition, 304 pages
Description
Fourteen-year-old Lucas leads a lonely, monotonous life in the house of his unpleasant guardian until the unexpected arrival of an unusual little girl presages a series of events that completely change his life.
User reviews
LibraryThing member bookstamped
I am a big fan of Joan Aiken's books. I really like the Dickensian quality of some of her stories, and this one is no exception. A brooding Victorian mansion, a young heir, a distant Guardian, smoke belching factories, child labor, vermin ridden sewers-it's all here! Lots of suspense, lots of plot
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twists, lots of fun. Show Less
LibraryThing member jadebird
Dark, compelling story about two orphans forced to fend for themselves in a grim 1842 factory town. Joan Aiken writes with a rich, velvety style. It is only the brevity of the book that betrays its target (ya) audience.
LibraryThing member PitcherBooks
Aiken must be a fan of Charles Dickens as it seems she wrote this as a tribute to him but in a manner that children today would find reader-friendly.
LibraryThing member jayne_charles
A great read for older children; the harsh world inhabited by Lucas and Anna Marie is depicted well, and it works its way to a moment of high drama which was one heck of a shocker when I read it as a child. It's still on my bookshelf now. Not a fan of her other books, but this one was excellent.
LibraryThing member AbigailAdams26
Although this entertaining Victorian melodrama shares no characters with any of the books in Aiken's Wolves Choronicles, it is set in the same fictional Britain as the series. Opening in Blastburn, the dreary industrial city last seen in The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, the novel follows the
As Lucas and Anna-Marie struggle to survive in a cold and hostile world, they also find themselves involved in many of the convoluted plot-lines for which Aiken is well-known. This well-constructed novel has always been one of the author's best-known works, but I have never found it as satisfying a read as some of her others. The characters simply don't interest me enough to arouse a strong emotional reaction. Fair or not, Anna-Marie is no Dido Twite.
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adventures of Lucas and Anna-Marie, two well-to-do children who find themselves unexpectedly orphaned and penniless.As Lucas and Anna-Marie struggle to survive in a cold and hostile world, they also find themselves involved in many of the convoluted plot-lines for which Aiken is well-known. This well-constructed novel has always been one of the author's best-known works, but I have never found it as satisfying a read as some of her others. The characters simply don't interest me enough to arouse a strong emotional reaction. Fair or not, Anna-Marie is no Dido Twite.
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LibraryThing member jjmcgaffey
I was interested to read this view of Blastburn, as compared to the Blastburn/Holdernesse/Playland in Is Underground. This is a far more realistic story than Is's - no magical thought messages or anything like that, just fraud, extortion, vicious pranks and plots, and a grim, dark setting. Plus,
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well, a couple kids - upper-class kids, at that - managing for themselves after every adult responsible for them is either dead, injured, or deliberately rejecting them - not very realistic, but still well-presented. For all that, there's hope - there's people who love one another, people striving to achieve their dreams and to help others to the same achievement, and a hopeful - not happy, but hopeful - ending. I can't quite see this Blastbourne turning into Is's - at least, not once Holdernesse turns out to be nice guy - but give it a generation or two and just about anything could happen. But then I'd have expected to find some Bells or Murgatroyds around the old town. Good story, and probably more worth rereading than most of the Wolves series proper. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheoClarke
Dark melodrama set in the England of Willoughby Chase. The melodramatic premise of an orphaned boy and his uncongenial young companion forced to fend for themselves after fire destroys their home, kills their guardian and injures their tutor, was a bit too much for me but the characters are
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convincingly drawn. The near absence of adults in the main story is not credible in an industrial town. Show Less
LibraryThing member fuzzi
The author, Joan Aiken, has a writing style that appealed to me as a child, but as an adult it still has me turning the pages of her books with alacrity, wondering how each situation will be resolved. There is only a little foreshadowing, too, though the younger reader might miss subtle references
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altogether. Good characters, twisty plots, and enough descriptions to illustrate the tale without bogging it down. Show Less
LibraryThing member RobertaLea
I love these Dickens-like reads.
Subjects
Awards
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1974
Physical description
304 p.
ISBN
0224009680 / 9780224009683
Local notes
Lucas Bell is lonely and miserable at Midnight Court, a vast, brooding house owned by his intolerable guardian, Sir Randolph Grimsby. When a mysterious carriage brings a visitor to the house, Lucas hopes he’s found a friend at last. But the newcomer, Anna Marie, is unfriendly and spoiled—and French. Just when Lucas thinks things can’t get any worse, disastrous circumstances force him and Anna Marie, parentless and penniless, into the dark and unfriendly streets of Blastburn.
Ex-library.
Ex-library.