His unmistakable, self-mocking voice speaks directly to us down the centuries. Methinks the movie, adapted from Rose Tremain's novel of the same name, gets a trifle I have the same problem and pleasures with this historical novel set during the reign of Charles II as I do with the author's. The letter writers had even created their own fad, addressing envelopes simply to Rip, while others wrote backwards, upside down, in Braille, Hebrew, shorthand, semaphore, or Morse code (.-. And in reply to the sober charge of falsehood, against a narrative announced positively to be fictitious, one can only answer by Priors exclamation, Odzooks, must one swear to the truth of a song!.(8). Hed spend his day sifting through card catalogues and flipping through books in the ornate third-floor reading room, skipping lunch. Or maybe not. But when he's Robert Merivel is a man whose life and choices are not . Enlightenment. Explore this book Preview Ripley celebrated and defended the achievements of the masses. In the middle of the program he slumped onto his desk, unconscious. But I'd passed the point of no return, it's a slim book, and I retained enough faith in Rose Tremain's tremendous abilities to carry on. As America grew more urban and urbane, newspaper readers had developed Jazz Age tastes for new kinds of journalism, and publishers were tripping over themselves to accommodate those tastes. The novel is set in the reign of Charles II of England (reigned 16601685), and depicts a medical student who gains the king's favour by apparently curing a pet dog owned by the king. until a passionate affair leads to scandal, suddenly leaving him heartbroken and penniless. He decided to rejuvenate Believe It or Not. I got . Thousands of irate readers sent incredulous letters and telegrams, berating Ripley for insulting an American icon, and calling him all sorts of names, primarily a liar. The Question and Answer section for Restoration is a great Merivel and Katherine become lovers. fidelity. This painfully honest & humorous characters often cringeworthy behavior made for a diverting (at times hilariously funny) journey. By the time dinner arrived, Ripley had figured there were enough steaks in Texas to feed the entire population of Canadas Gasp Peninsula three times a day for 18 and a half years. This is done purely to fool the king's other mistress Barbara Castlemaine. Is he a fair master? The principal character is Robert Merivel, who tells in the first person his coming of age story from age nine. He eventually quit his bank job to work full time for Ripley, a job he would hold for half a century (until long after Ripley died), happily contributing to what he called fairy tales for grown ups. With Pearlroths input, Ripley created more cartoons that seemed intentionally designed to earn stacks of skeptical if not outright angry letters. efforts are frustrated by ignorance and he loses two He was also a supporter of the theatre and it might be said that in Restoration comedy is to be found a form of drama which the Kings personal life sometimes resembled. Yet will that future ever be his? In search of answers, Merivel sets off for the French court. But his efforts to secretly woo her are By the mid-1930s, Ross, whom hed nicknamed Oakie, had become Ripleys traveling secretary and his lover. But royal life at the Palace of Versailles - all glitter in front and squalor behind - leaves him in despair, until a chance encounter with the seductive Madame de Flamanville . He met holy men in India, bedouins in Persia and Iraq, topless villagers in Africa and New Guinea. [7], Rose Tremain, author of the novel on which the film was based, said of the film that it had a beautiful texture to it. Entirely self-taught, he became a talented artist and in high school joined the staff of the newspaper and the yearbook. Elias Finn, a painter commissioned by the King to paint a portrait of Celia, tricks Merivel into revealing his romantic feelings for Celia, who does not return Merivel's affections. I have seen white negroes, purple white men, and I know a man who was hanged but still lives . Ripley introduced readers to a widening cast of unbelievable characters: sword swallowers, people who ate glass, a man who nailed his tongue to a piece of wood, another who lifted weights with a hook sunk through his tongue, a woman missing the lower half of her body. except his wife. Rated R by M.P.A.A. In addition, John Pearce demonstrates an illness which Merivel is unable to treat, despite his best efforts, and slowly sickens and dies. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this story!!! In 1927, Charles Lindbergh made his treacherous solo voyage across the Atlantic, flying his single-engine Spirit of St. Louis nonstop from New York to Paris and becoming an instant hero for accomplishing a feat long thought to be impossiblecrossing an ocean in a day and a half; traveling 60 miles an hour for more than 3,000 miles; flying alone through the night, through storms, without sleep. The flawed narrator, Merivel, was so very human, fallible and engaging. The invented characters, interesting though they are, move around a King whose own restoration is the political act in the title. He had collected many girlfriends, sometimes living with three or four at once, but they all seemed to disappear after his death, some back to the countries from which theyd come. One day the King tells Robert that he would like him to wed one of his mistresses, Celia Clemens. With a cascade of lace at his neck and a laugh that can burst out of him in the midst of torment, Merivel is a uniquely brilliant creationsoulful, funny, outrageous, and achingly sad. It was made into a film in 1995. The founder of the historical novel, Sir Walter Scott, actually set the ball rolling on the Restoration novel by setting one of his more unreadable than usual books in the period. You are thoroughly won over by his antics and you take his side even when he's wrong. Some is a little disturbing and some is very funny. Everything changes, however, when the king orders Merivel to marry his mistress. Sign up for our essential daily brief and never miss a story. He was too much of a caricature to be sympathetic or even amusing. Merivel finds by the end of the book that the court was not worth that much anyway and fortunately for him he is eventually given his own space to inhabit, but few of those who aspired to the court at the time would have thought like this and they were eager to be there whatever the consequences for themselves. Ripley began stocking the rooms with the artwork, furniture, rugs, and curios hed been accumulating for years. He's attending medical school, and he has a gift for healing; he's not in the least bit squeamish. Merivel gets an attractive young wife, albeit just for show, and the freedom to take as many other mistresses that may please him to his bed. But Robert LeRoy Ripleys empire has survived, impressively. This is done purely to fool the king's other mistress Barbara Castlemaine. Instead it is really a novel about ideas, which happens to be set in the past, and it can lead us to ponder and then go on to explore many of these ideas in a genuine historical context, which is perhaps what the really good historical novel should do. If such literary works tend to be treated at all by historians, then it is often as a somewhat smaller, less worthy, over-rowdy, and much more emotional younger brother, over-concerned with mere story and (taken as given by many historians) often containing many an ill-conceived, ahistorical, character creation. LeRoy Robert Ripley was born in Santa Rosa, California, in 1890 (though hed later fudge the date to make himself three or four years younger). Ivana Marie Zelnkov escaped from behind the Iron Curtain to storm New York City and help create the twisted miracle of Donald Trump. Also featuring Sam Neill, Ian McKellen and Hugh Grant in this critically acclaimed story you won't want to miss! e Navy. He loves people he shouldnt, and doesnt love those he should a problem that faces many people I think! Merivel is asked by his father to visit the King with the aim of continuing their family's connection with the royal family, but Merivel embarrasses both of them with his nervousness. The King, by his indulgence of both himself and his courtiers, was in the end exactly what was not what was needed, for his reported actions only emphasised the fears of disorder in the realm; the same fears, of course, that are primary to understanding the early modern psyche. I was disappointed by the superciliousness of Tremain's portrait of her protagonist, Merivel. (7) In popular culture Charles II remains a hale fellow well met sort of man, one of us really, sometimes a sort of early Blairite pretty straight sort of guy, with, for a king, the common touch. and luxury. wants and spiritual needs. The King then arranges a marriage of convenience between Merivel and one of his mistresses, Celia Clemence. awareness, unshared by his peers, of how little is known During this time, Merivel regains some of his fortune by selling John Pearce's recipe for a plague restorative, and reunites with Elias Finn, who has fallen out of favor with the King. wearisome, particularly when Merivel's spiritual redemption leads him into the arms of, uh, Truly delightful. Although he and his cartoon werent yet household names, for a decade Ripley had entertained and taunted readers with hundreds of illustrated bits of arcanathe armless man who played the piano, the chicken that lived 17 days with its head cut offand the public had responded with increasing loyalty and, at times, anger and frustration. Tremain did a brilliant job. Journal DOI: 10.14296/RiH/issn.1749.8155 | Cookies | Privacy | Contact Us. Two unexpected visitors arrive at a shabby warehouse on the south side of the River Thames. In just two years at the Post, Ripley was becoming a celebrity. In this engaging historical saga, he's a randy physician named Robert Merivel, an endearing scoundrel who undergoes a moral journey from the opulent court of Charles II to the plague-infested . He sketched men with horns on their heads, a child cyclops, an armless golfer, a fork-tongued woman. So, if Charles II has been frequently depicted in the modern era as a generally all-round good fellow, as well as occasionally a shrewd reader of men, as in Restoration, we feel we ought to like him and, we are perhaps meant to feel he would probably like us. The idea that this story is based on is an allegory for Thatcher's Britain; the greed, self serving ambition and vanity are brilliantly displayed in this novel and Merival serves as a wonderful, flawed character within which to explore these ideas. Also featuring Sam Neill, Ian McKellen and . Questions crowd his mind: has he been a good father? course, is smitten and falls from the king's favor. More books than SparkNotes. The idea of the Restoration period has been present in the historical novel genre for some time. Robert Merivel, who has a special talent for healing To reach the island, Ripley had to cross a tight stone causeway leading out to three acres of lawns, gardens, tall pine trees, rocky outcroppings, and swampy marshes. whose misfortune leads him back to his true calling. Norfolk is distant from the kings residence in London. the Restoration, when science, the arts and almost every diversion were accorded the King's million (which is low these days), that's quite an achievement. February 02, 1996. When he died, in 1949, he left behind no children. The nightmarish, otherworldly entity known as It stands as one of Stephen King's most timeless . For it might be said that that one of the main characteristics of most Restoration-period novels is that they always tend to be dominated by Charles II whatever their plot, just as the Tudor historical novel is dominated by Henry VIII or Elizabeth I. His goal was to turn BION Island into a showcase for his booty from foreign lands. Vista Home Video Months later, Robert Ripleya connoisseur of mosts and bests, of fastest and furthestfeatured Lindy in his popular syndicated New York Evening Post cartoon, Believe It or Not. For the King moves like God in our world, like Faith itself. friend Pearce works. Robert Merivel is one of the great imaginative creations in English literature of the past 50 years. This was my first experience of the work of Ros Tremain, which means that, though this book revisits characters first introduced in1989 in Restoration, it is the first time I have become acquainted Sequels after a long gap of time are often a very bad idea, but in this case Merivel's voice rings out clearly as a bell. to sink under its own excesses. The book is located around a Restoration court that was politicized in its many forms including its artefacts. But show more. One night Merivel drunkenly makes advances towards her and is promptly reported to the King by Elias Finn. As Merivel recovers from his fall, he cannot recover from his failure to protect his young daughter from harm, when suddenly the King arrives at the house with his entourage. It He lived a life worthy of one of the characters in his own cartoon, and his defense of the man who carved all those tiny letters on a grain of rice performs double duty as a defense of his own achievement: Could Lindbergh do that? Jenkinson then examines the role of churchmen at court and the role of the author John Crowne; he discusses the court wits in chapter five and John Dryden in chapter six as a court poet (though not in the sense that Rochester had been), alongside sections on Tory discontent at court, printed propaganda and the empty atmosphere of the last days of the court of Charles II after the second Restoration of the 1680s. Celia is then sent to Bidnold by the King after displeasing him. . Merivel (Robert Downey, Jr.) leaves Will Gates (Ian McKellen) at his country estate Invited to the Court of the charismatic King Charles II (Sam Neill), the high-spirited young Robert Merivel (Robert Downey, Jr.) cheerfully abandons his medical studies to accept the post of Royal Physician. Yelp is a fun and easy way to find, recommend and talk about what's great and not so great in Lewisville and beyond. The Globe sent him to the Olympic Games in Antwerp in 1920, and two years later on an around-the-world trip depicted in a series of essays and sketches called Ripleys Ramble Round the World.. His mother did laundry and took in boarders. Last edited on 28 February 2023, at 21:15, Restoration (disambiguation) Literature, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Restoration_(Tremain_novel)&oldid=1142161118, This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 21:15. learning more and to doing what he can to help the sick. The physician is ordered to marry Celia (Polly Walker), the king's mistress, as a "paper In many senses therefore the historical work parallels that of the novel; it too is about ideas. Merivel is given a title and a country estate in return for a This was my first experience of the work of Ros Tremain, which means that, though this book revisits characters first introduced in1989 in Restoration, it is the first time I have become acquainted Read full review, Sequels after a long gap of time are often a very bad idea, but in this case Merivel's voice rings out clearly as a bell. By his own description, 'erratic, immoderate, greedy, boastful and sad', with feet of clay . people he loves to medical complications that are beyond The so-called Merry Monarch will take his mistress's pleasure at any given Through tender care, rather than anything particularly medical, Merivel restores the dog to And in the end, the novel feels lovingly ironic because Merivel would certainly think he's unworthy of having a whole book written about him. I think mine is the only business in which the customer is never right, Ripley once said. Four years on from making this statement of course, society is no better off. GradeSaver is The first time I read this, I cried I was so moved by the way he transforms. In some ways he appears to be a shallow man but is actually consumed by self . . Ripley poses with his inaugural 1918 Believe it or Not cartoon (originally titled Champs and Chumps)., From A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert Believe It or Not! Ripley. Restoration - Official Trailer (HD) Starring: David Thewlis, Meg Ryan, Polly Walker (II), Robert Downey Jr., Sam Neill. Success bred more success. One night Merivel drunkenly makes advances towards her and is promptly reported to the King by Elias Finn. Ripley had a disfiguring set of buck teethnot fixed until much later in lifeand, though a fine athlete, was noticeably shy. Steeped in the voices and eccentricities of the age of Charles the second, Restoration: A Novel of Seventeenth-Century England is wonderful. After finding out about Merivel's romantic feelings toward Celia, the King banishes him from court back to his life as a physician. Some days hed visit the Post offices to sift through the mail, helping other staffers respond to people who had challenged a Ripley statement. King Charles said if he can cure his dog, Merivel can come to court and be his vet. He really has no ambition and has no aspiration but was studying to be a physician. For his courage and good work done in treating the victims of the plague, the King once again gives Bidnold to Merivel, stating that this time it will never be taken away. Intriguingly, though, in this novel, as in other Restoration novels, one of the real centres of gravity in the work lies in the character of a real person: Charles II. Robert Merivel, physician and courtier to Charles II, loved for his ability to turn sorrow into laughter, now faces the agitations and anxieties of middle age. While Ripley loved being called a liar, he hated to be wrong, knowing it would damage the cartoon if he earned a reputation for sloppy research. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. With his quick and silvery tongue and boyish charm, the staunch Hollywood Robert Downey Jr. made a career in film knowing what to say and when. The presence of any number of novelistic Turkish kiosks erected in full view of not a few historians own grounds and filled with frothy and superficial knowledge has been often criticised for at the least foolishly spoiling the historical view, and at worst for looking in completely the wrong historical direction; that is, of course, where they have not been ignored entirely. The book follows the misadventures of Robert Merivel, who is really immature and even a little thick at times, despite being a rather gifted physician. He was dead within days. Questions crowd his mind: has he been a good father? The site's critics consensus reads, "Restoration spins an engaging period yarn out of its bestselling source material, brought to life through the efforts of an eclectic ensemble cast led by Robert Downey Jr."[4] At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 66 out of 100 based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". With that, the King steps aside to reveal a nurse holding Margaret safely in her arms. His father, a carpenter, died when Ripley was 15, and a year later the 1906 earthquake flattened his hometown. (Ripley would create more Odditoriums, including a Times Square flagship, precursors to the scores of Believe It or Not museums now operating around the world.) Ripley never got the chance to work the irony into his cartoon. After saving the life of someone close to King Charles II, Robert Merivel, a young 17th-century physician, is invited to join King Charles's court. He lives for pleasure and is something of a rake and does not take his medical studies too seriously. in a wig and beauty spots). Merivel further captures the king's favour with his comical antics, and the king comes to affectionately call him his fool, which delights Merivel, as being in the king's favour and among his friends is a privilege he revels in. The customer is never right, Ripley was becoming a celebrity, society is no better.! Story from age nine the way he transforms characters, interesting though they are, move around King... Uh, Truly delightful politicized in its many forms including its artefacts two! From making this statement of course, is smitten and falls from the King by Elias Finn then sent Bidnold... Was 15, and a year later the 1906 earthquake flattened his hometown Answer section for is. Invented characters, interesting though they are, move around a King whose own Restoration is a man who hanged... 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