Ha! Me too. Although I liked the footnotes, I thought they were funny and pompous. You got farther than I did--I gave up at around page 275. As I mentioned elsewhere, if I want to read Victorian, give me Jane Austen any day. However, this book did inspire me to stock up on Jane Austen courtesy of those nice and inexpensive Barnes & Noble editions.

Well, since the character didn't have a name (and I actually thought that wasn't a bad thing), calling him "the gentleman with the thistle-down hair" (not thistle-hair, btw) was evocative and mysterious.

Deb, if you don't mind me asking, what fantasy books do you like? I like some kinds and can't abide others. We may just be on opposite ends of the spectrum here. Not a bad thing, just different.

And a question for you folks that didn't like the book: have you ever read any of the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin novels? If so, did you like them?

I'm just curious about this, because I liked the book so much.

I read all sorts of different kinds of books--About the only kind I won't read is Horror (and I'm not a huge fan of westerns or Harlequin-style romances), but I'll read just about anything if it's recommended highly enough. I so wanted to enjoy this book! It had all the right things going for it, too, but I just couldn't bear the writing style. The tone of voice was fine and Victorian-esque for a while, but it just never actually went anywhere. Like I said, I love fantasy books, and read all sorts of differently-styled ones all the time. I'm always looking for more authors to love, and with the speed at which I read, that's not an easy thing to keep up with! This book, though. . . . wanted to throw it across the room, I was so frustrated with it.

Yeah, I'd have to agree. It didn't actually *go* anywhere, and I ended up just stopping about 1/4 of the way in. Too much knitting and other things going on to really spend much time on an iffy book. I ended up starting on the Time Traveler's Wife instead.