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Anaxagoras, ancient Greek philosopher, differentiated mind and matter. Mind, unlike matter, "is mixed with nothing, but is alone, itself by itself"... matter is composite, mind is simple. Ah, the purity and independence of the lonely mind!
Poor Brat Farrar, a lonely soul, without affect, disconnected from the material world, disconnected from himself, a man and a mind alone. But at least he loved his horse! RIP, horse.
Ω
The Neoplatonic, medieval Christian theologian known as "Pseudo-Dionysus" pos ...more
Poor Brat Farrar, a lonely soul, without affect, disconnected from the material world, disconnected from himself, a man and a mind alone. But at least he loved his horse! RIP, horse.
Ω
The Neoplatonic, medieval Christian theologian known as "Pseudo-Dionysus" pos ...more
Oh, this book! I felt compelled to up my rating to 5 stars after this re-read.
The basic plot is one of my favorites--the return of the heir, long presumed dead. We the readers know fairly early on that Brat is not the missing Patrick. The tension is generated by the many hurdles Brat has to clear to maintain his impersonation of Patrick. At every point along the way there's the chance that the whole house of cards will come tumbling down.
Tey has such a smooth and warm style. All the characters ...more
The basic plot is one of my favorites--the return of the heir, long presumed dead. We the readers know fairly early on that Brat is not the missing Patrick. The tension is generated by the many hurdles Brat has to clear to maintain his impersonation of Patrick. At every point along the way there's the chance that the whole house of cards will come tumbling down.
Tey has such a smooth and warm style. All the characters ...more
Wonderful plot! Would make a great movie.
I really liked this book, but it might not be for everyone. The plot would make an excellent movie, but the book itself is written at a very, very slow pace. As intrigue at a British manor is exactly my cup of tea, I found it totally absorbing and so was three quarters of the way through the book before I knew it and realized that nothing much had really "happened" by that point. That's both a compliment and a criticism, I suppose.
The ending was a little pat and I wish it had been a little creep ...more
The ending was a little pat and I wish it had been a little creep ...more
I love impersonation stories, and this is one of my very favorites.
Good mystery set in English surroundings with likeable characters except for the villain who was unlikable from the start. As the story went along you generally knew how it would end, but the actual finish was a bit flat and predictable.
No real surprises in this mystery; the story is more about motivations and reactions than the whodunit. In fact, the entire plot seemed fairly obvious from the first chapters. Nevertheless, I liked the story. I enjoy Tey's characters and dialogues.
(view spoiler) ...more
(view spoiler) ...more
very smart mystery/family study of an english family and interloper who pretends to be a long-lost member for the inheritence. which is an incredibly reductive statement and the book is really so much more. the only trouble with reading classics like that is that a billion books/tv shows/etc. have ripped them off in the interim, so some of the suspense was killed. really admirable though, and makes me want to read more tey.
Jun 08, 2010
Rebecca
marked it as to-read
Sep 26, 2010
Linda
marked it as to-read
Dec 31, 2012
Cindy
marked it as to-read
Dec 27, 2022
Susie
rated it
really liked it
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review of another edition
Shelves:
mystery,
murder-byrds
4.5 stars
Feb 19, 2017
Susan in NC
marked it as to-read
Feb 05, 2019
Carrie
marked it as to-read
