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Alias Grace

by Margaret Atwood

Summary

Margaret Atwood writes about a notorious Canadian murder case of the 1840s in this historical novel. She takes the facts of the Grace Marks case and uses them to delve into the psyche of the convicted murderer and the social milieu that she lived in. The stations of women, immigrants, and the poor are examined in detail through the psychological investigations of a physician trying to get at the truth in Grace's mind. A nominee for the 1996 Booker Prize, and listed as one of Salon's Best Books of 1997.

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Media Reviews

"A proto-psychologist seeks out the imprisoned Grace hoping to excavate her secrets and establish, once and for all, her guilt or innocence, but Atwood herself is just as interested in the texture of daily life in the 19th century; this is a book about blood and laundry. Her tremendous intelligence-never contaminated by an iota of sentimentality or cant-and poet's eye...make ALIAS GRACE an acerbic delight..."

   -- Salon

"ALIAS GRACE has the physical heft and weighty authority of a 19th-century novel. In its scope, its moral seriousness, its paradoxically ponderous and engrossing narrative, the book evokes the high Victorian mode, spiced with the spooky plot twists and playfully devious teases of the equally high Gothic....Some readers may feel that the novel only intermittently succeeds in transcending the burden of history, research and abstraction....Others will admire the liveliness with which Ms. Atwood toys with both our expectations and the conventions of the Victorian thriller. Such fans will be delighted by the plot's many riddles, its edifying Victoriana, the enigmas that continue to perplex us even after we've finished this latest installment in the mystery of a pretty young woman who was either the loathsome perpetrator or another innocent victim of an infamous crime."    -- Francine Prose

   -- New York Times Book Review

"It is a most realistic book, and a savagely anti-realistic one at the same time, therefore-since it implies that while we savor the textures and smells and colours of the age of realism we're behaving rather like those ladies and gentlemen (especially gentlemen) who were so fascinated with the servant classes. Falling for history, in other words, has its perverse aspect...."    -- Lorna Sage

   -- Times Literary Supplement

"The book's strengths lie in its minutely observed portrayal of the particulars of 19th-century daily life, from Grace's work as a domestic to Dr. Jordan's problems with his landlady. Whether or not this novel is a convincing account of the 'real' Grace Marks, it is a convincing piece of fiction, nicely structured and well-written."    -- Merle Rubin

   -- Wall Street Journal

"This brilliant fiction rests on ascertainable fact....[Atwood] recreates, to stunning effect, the story of Grace Marks's life without in any way prejudicing opinion in one direction or another....In quiet, undemanding, but horrifyingly evenhanded prose Margaret Atwood allows the reader every possible nuance of conviction and doubt....[She] is to be congratulated not only for painting on so broad a canvas, but for the cunning of her intentions and the unadorned manner in which she both conceals and reveals them....Not only a riveting story: a genuine accomplishment."    -- Anita Brookner

   -- Spectator

"This is a story of murder and memory, a chilling horror story, almost a story of possession; it is also a novel of ideas, where intellect and passion are finely hand-stitched, revealing their ultimate effect only when some 500 pages are shaken out and the dazzling design shows, in all the glory of its pattern, texture, and color."    -- Hilary Mantel

   -- New York Review of Books

Bibliographic Details

Publisher: Bantam Dell Pub Group
Published date: 1996
Size: 7 x 10 inches
Weight: 1.8 pounds
Pages: 468

Publisher's Notes

In the astonishing new novel by the author of the bestsellers The Robber Bride, Cats Eye, and The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood takes us back in time and into the life and mind of one of the most enigmatic and notorious women of the nineteenth century. Grace Marks has been convicted for her involvement in the vicious murders of her employer, the wealthy Thomas Kinnear, and of Nancy Montgomery, his housekeeper and mistress. Some believe Grace is innocent; others think her evil or insane. Now serving a life sentence after a stint in Torontos lunatic asylum, Grace herself claims to have no memory of the murders.Dr. Simon Jordan, an up-and-coming expert in the burgeoning field of mental illness, is engaged by a group of reformers and spiritualists who seek a pardon for Grace. He listens to her story, from her familys difficult passage out of Ireland into Canada, to her time as a maid in Thomas Kinnears household. As he brings Grace closer and closer to the day she cannot remember, he hears of the turbulent relationship between Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery, and of the alarming behavior of Graces fellow servant, James McDermott. Jordan is drawn to Grace, but he is also baffled by her. What will he find in attempting to unlock her memories? Is Grace a female fiend, a bloodthirsty femme fatale? Or is she a victim of circumstances?Alias Grace is a beautifully crafted work of the imagination that reclaims a profoundly mysterious and disturbing story from the past century. With compassion, an unsentimental lyricism, and her customary narrative virtuosity, Margaret Atwood mines the often convoluted relationships between men and women, and between the affluent and those without position. The result is her most captivating, disturbing, and ultimately satisfying work since The Handmaid's Tale--in short, vintage Atwood.

Other Editions

• Hardcover - Bantam Dell Pub Group (1996) - from $1.00
• Paperback Reprint - Random House Inc (1997) - from $1.00

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