|
THE PALACE OF TEARS This isn’t so much a book as a jewel of some kind, the sort to keep in a carved sandalwood box. Illustrated throughout in black and red with 19th century engravings, arabesques and Islamic curlicues it recalls antiquarian novels – the sort you have to wash your hands to read. Set during the opening of the Suez Canal it concerns the adventures of one Casimir de Chateauneuf, a wealthy vintner who throws it all up for love after finding a miniature of an exotic woman in a Paris shop, a woman with one blue eye and one yellow one. He dreams of her, sobbing along in an Arabian Nights city of mosques and minarets and knows he cannot rest until he finds her. So he abandons his wife, family and vineyards to chase his other half. One of those exquisite novellas that come along every so often that demand a slow reading yet are often devoured at a sitting, leaving the reader wanting more. If you thrill to the adventures in the Arabian Nights then you will love this gem. |