Ingenious Pain
Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize
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Ingenious Pain
Narrated by:
John Sackville
Buy Now for £12.99
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Narrated by:
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John Sackville
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By:
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Andrew Miller
About this listen
At the dawn of the Enlightenment, James Dyer is born unable to feel pain. A source of wonder and scientific curiosity as a child, he rises through the ranks of Georgian society to become a brilliant surgeon. Yet as a human being he fails, for he can no more feel love and compassion than pain. Until, en route to St Petersburg to inoculate the Empress Catherine against smallpox, he meets his nemesis and saviour.
(P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Limited©1997 Andrew Miller
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Critic reviews
A wild adventure through 18th-century England and Russia, medicine, madness, landscape and weather, rendered in prose of consummate beauty
A really remarkable first novel, original, powerfully written . . . Miller's narrative is gripping and his imagination extraordinary
Astoundingly good . . . it shines like a beacon
Timeless and thought-provoking . . . it is something very rare in modern fiction, a true work of art
Gripping . . . a dazzling debut
Dazzling . . . Miller tackles notions of mortality and humanity to brilliant effect . . . truly wonderful
An extraordinary first novel . . . one is constantly delighted with strange and vivid imagery, fresh and startling metaphors, flashes of insight, deft twists of plot and resonant variations on dominant themes . . . a mature novel of ideas soaked in the sensory detail of its turbulent times
Exceptionally intelligent and elegant . . . remarkable for its feeling and its humane sensibility
A true rarity: a debut novel which is original, memorable, engrossing and subtle
Strange, unsettling, sad, beautiful and profound . . . the sense of period is brilliantly handled
More than merits comparison with the likes of Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus and Patrick Süskind's Perfume . . . a blistering debut
The novel's evocation of the period, down to the finest detail, is thoroughly confident . . . a startling novel
A finely wrought and provocative novel
Impressive
An amazing, unexpected story
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This is classic English literature revitalised by a contemporary writer and its gorgeous.
As an historical fiction it also unique in his refusal to allow anachronistic tones or limitations to creep in.
Sackville's sublime, crisp, English accent is the perfect match for the prose. Arguably one of the best voices on Audible. Oh to eventually achieve the technology where we can personally choose one narrator to read all of our Audible library.
The story has great potential and in parts is wholly engrossing, thrilling, full of expectations and mystery.
Sadly this falls apart from the point of the arrival at the Russian court. From thence it is difficult to separate fact from dreams from fantasy and as the protagonist decends into madness little makes sense if how he git there and what triggered the shift.
The plot is also weakened from uneven pacing. The beginning is unnecessarily slow and laborious, eventually progressing at some speed, where interesting characters are not justifiably explored only to be discarded by the wayside.
Ultimately meaning can only be reinforced by personal philosophical interpretation, which i strongly sense was not Miller's original intention.
Nevertheless recommended for its sumptuous literary delight and a good appetizer for more of his work.
Beautifully written, exceptional narration, ultimately unfulfilling, chaotic story.
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