Morality Play
Published on 18. August 2014
192 pages
978-1-4735-1842-1 (ISBN)
Description
It is the late fourteenth century, a dangerous time beset by war and plague. Nicholas Barber, a young and wayward cleric, stumbles across a group of travelling players and compounds his sins by joining them.
Yet the town where they perform reveals another drama: a young woman is to be hanged for the murder of a twelve-year-old boy. What better way to increase their takings than to make a new play, to enact the murder of Thomas Wells? But as the actors rehearse, they discover that the truth about the boy's death has yet to be revealed...
Yet the town where they perform reveals another drama: a young woman is to be hanged for the murder of a twelve-year-old boy. What better way to increase their takings than to make a new play, to enact the murder of Thomas Wells? But as the actors rehearse, they discover that the truth about the boy's death has yet to be revealed...
Reviews / Votes
Brilliant ... The ending is thrilling and unexpected, though nothing is beyond belief in this beautifully constructed, illuminating novel. * Observer * A brilliant book ... The sights and sounds, the physical impact of bedraggled play-acting, are unforgettable. And the strange birth of modern drama, on a cart carrying dirty costumes and a corpse, is memorably exciting. -- John Mortimer * Mail on Sunday * Wonderfully vivid ... this bleakly glittering novel ... adds to its already impressive array of attractions the pace, suspense and twisty unexpectedness of a gripping detective tale. -- Peter Kemp * Sunday Times * From the first, vital sentence, Unsworth's medieval drama grips the reader's attention ... exquisite. * Daily Telegraph *More details
Edition
Digital original
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Cornerstone
Edition type
Digital original
File size
0,45 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-4735-1842-1 (9781473518421)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Barry Unsworth was born in 1930 in Durham. He was the author of many novels, including Pascali's Island, which was shortlisted for the 1980 Booker Prize; Stone Virgin (1985); Sacred Hunger, which was joint winner of the 1992 Booker Prize; Morality Play, which was shortlisted for the 1995 Booker Prize; Losing Nelson (1999); The Songs of the King (2002); The Ruby in Her Navel (2006); Land of Marvels (2009); and The Quality of Mercy (2011), which was shortlisted for The Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction. Barry Unsworth died in 2012.
