Books › Oscar and Lucinda
Oscar and Lucinda
First published 1999 · 936 pages
A sprawling, tragicomic fever dream of a romance built on fragile glass, obsessive wagers, and the beautiful madness of faith.
What it feels like
Reading this novel feels like watching a magnificent, impossibly fragile glass structure being carried across a rugged landscape—you are constantly marveling at its beauty while dreading its inevitable shatter. It is a sprawling, meandering Victorian-style epic that takes its time wrapping you in the eccentricities of its deeply flawed, deeply lovable protagonists. The prose is exuberant and richly textured, bursting with wry humor, sensory details, and a profound empathy for human folly. As the story progresses, the initial whimsical charm gives way to a feverish, melancholic intensity. It is a perfect match for readers who love thick, immersive historical fiction where tragicomedy, obsessive compulsions, and the sheer madness of love and faith collide in spectacular, heartbreaking fashion.
- Mood
- feverish
- luminous
- melancholic
- sweeping
- Tone
- wry
- eccentric
- tragicomic
- affectionate
- Pace
- meandering
- Themes
- the madness of faith · compulsive gambling · fragility of love · colonial hubris · chance and destiny
- The writing
- Exuberant and Dickensian, packed with lush, sensory details and sprawling, eccentric observations.
- The arc
- Starts as a quirky, affectionate portrait of two misfits and slowly builds into a feverish, devastating tragedy of obsession.
- Who it's for
- Lovers of thick, immersive historical novels who delight in oddball characters, beautiful sentences, and stories that break your heart.
Content notes
- gambling addiction
- colonial violence
- animal death
- drowning
About the book
A rebellious Anglican priest and a teenaged heiress who buys a glass factory in Australia pursue an unlikely romance.
Description from Open Library.
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