Monday 2 February 2015

The History of a Pleasure Seeker - Richard Mason

I was given this as a gift, and it sat on the shelf, just waiting to be read. Again, a very nice cover, showing a row of Dutch superior houses, on the canalside in Amsterdam, reflected in the canal - in rather a cartoon like style.  Just to ensure that you know we are talking about Holland, a row of tulips bloom along the bottom edge of the cover.

One of the comments on the back cover is:  Readers of a sensitive disposition be warned - this comment offered by the rather ladylike magazine, The Lady.  So do be warned, because not one third into the book there is the first desciption of a sexual  happening and just once, a fruity Anglo Saxon word!  Actually, I sound as if I am writing to titilate my readers.  Not at all, but there are a few more very graphic descriptions of sex in various forms, although don't let that put you off.  This is the story of an adventurer - not the explorer or pirate kind, but Piet Barol, a very attractive young man who is desperate to escape from the small village life he has lived up until the day he secures a post as tutor to the young son of a wealthy family in Amsterdam; to a boy whose fears will not let him leave the house, and make him take several ice cold baths a day.  Here Piet will learn how to behave in exhalted company, how to refuse the flirtations of at least one member of the family, to keep friends with the rest of the staff;  as well as tutoring the son of the family and dispelling his fears, setting him on the road to a normal life.  But there are several inhabitants in that house who seek more than a flirt with Piet.  Is he going to get what he wants out of life?  Well maybe, but you'll need to read this to find out!

Set in the first years of the twentieth century, the writing style of Richard Mason is perfect, there are no mistakes here about the kind of grammar that a writer of that time would have used, no words used in the wrong way or with modern terminology.  Well done Mr Mason.  And 50 Shades of Grey it ain't!  There is no "oh my", and certainly no inner goddess and it's all the better for it.  A different kind of book for me, and a pleasure to read.

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