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Alasdair Gray
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Poor Things: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Alasdair Gray (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 1,691 ratings
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NOW THE OSCAR-WINNING MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING EMMA STONE, RAMY YOUSSEF, MARK RUFFALO, AND WILLEM DAFOE, DIRECTED BY YORGOS LANTHIMOS.

"Witty and delightfully written" (New York Times Book Review), Alasdair Gray’s Poor Things echoes Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in this novel of a young woman freeing herself from the confines of the suffocating Victorian society she was created to serve.

Winner of the Whitbread Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize

In the 1880s in Glasgow, Scotland, medical student Archibald McCandless finds himself enchanted with the intriguing creature known as Bella Baxter. Supposedly the product of the fiendish scientist Godwin Baxter, Bella was resurrected for the sole purpose of fulfilling the whims of her benefactor. As his desire turns to obsession, Archibald’s motives to free Bella are revealed to be as selfish as Godwin’s, who claims her body and soul.

But Bella has her own passions to pursue. Passions that take her to aristocratic casinos, low-life Alexandria, and a Parisian bordello, reaching an interrupted climax in a Scottish church. Exploring her station as a woman in the shadow of the patriarchy, Bella knows it is up to her to free herself—and to decide what meaning, if any, true love has in her life.

“Gray has the look of a latter-day William Blake, with his extravagant myth-making, his strong social conscience, his liberating vision of sexuality and his flashes of righteous indignation tempered with scathing wit and sly self-mockery.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

“This work of inspired lunacy effectively skewers class snobbery, British imperialism, prudishness and the tenets of received wisdom.”—Publishers Weekly

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  1. Print length
    337 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Mariner Books
  5. Publication date
    October 10, 2023
  6. File size
    47400 KB
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  1. You think you are about to possess what men have hopelessly yearned for throughout the ages: the soul of an innocent, trusting, dependent child inside the opulent body of a radiantly lovely woman.
    Highlighted by 327 Kindle readers
  2. “People who care nothing for their country’s stories and songs,” he said, “are like people without a past—without a memory—they are half people.”
    Highlighted by 261 Kindle readers
  3. The imagination is, like the appendix, inherited from a primitive epoch when it aided the survival of our species, but in modern scientific industrial nations it is mainly a source of disease.
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Winner of the 1992 Whitbread Prize, Scottish writer Gray's ( Something Leather ) black comedy uses a science-fiction-like premise to satirize Victorian morals. Ostensibly the memoirs of late-19th-century Glasgow physician Archibald McCandless, the narrative follows the bizarre life of oversexed, volatile Bella Baxter, an emancipated woman and a female Frankenstein. Bella is not her real name; as Victorian Blessington, she drowned herself to escape her abusive husband, but a surgeon removed the brain from the fetus she was carrying and placed it in her skull, resucitating her. The revived Bella has the mental age of a child. Engaged to marry McCandless, she chloroforms him and runs off with a shady lawyer who takes her on a whirlwind adventure, hopping from Alexandria to Odessa to a Parisian brothel. As her brain matures, Bella develops a social conscience, but her rescheduled nuptials to Archie are cut short when she is recognized as Victoria by her lawful husband, Gen. Sir Aubrey Blessington. In an epilogue dated 1914, cranky idealist Victoria McCandless, M.D., a suffragette, Fabian socialist, pacifist and advocate of birthing stools, pokes holes in her late husband Archie's narrative. Illustrated with Gray's suitably macabre drawings, this work of inspired lunacy effectively skewers class snobbery, British imperialism, prudishness and the tenets of received wisdom. Author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“Gray has the look of a latter-day William Blake, with his extravagant myth-making, his strong social conscience, his liberating vision of sexuality and his flashes of righteous indignation tempered with scathing wit and sly self-mockery.”  — Los Angeles Book Review

“This work of inspired lunacy effectively skewers class snobbery, British imperialism, prudishness and the tenets of received wisdom.”  — Publishers Weekly

“A riotously comic, up-to-date Victorian romance . . . deft and frolicsome.”  — Boston Globe

“Gray here retells a tale that amalgamates Frankenstein and Candide . . . Along the way Gray offers delightful conversation, a tricksy triple ending, and some very witty writing.” — Washington Post Book World

“Bella Baxter surely merits a place among the holy innocents of literature—Lemuel Gulliver, Don Quixote, Huck Finn, Prince Kropotkin and Holden Caulfield . . . Bound to call to mind other acidic commentaries on human folly—Rasselas, Tristram Shandy, Candide. But can it be that Gray, with his fierce Hibernian contempt for 20th Century solutions for age-old problems, is the most piercing thorn on the bush?”  — Chicago Tribune

“Witty and delightfully written.”  — New York Times

“Lewis Carroll and Conan Doyle are acknowledged, but the authors Gray really revises are Sterne and Diderot, both comically self-analytic, Defoe, the creator of strong women, and Samuel Johnson or Voltaire, profound allegorists of the search for a good society . . . Poor Things is amusing and admirably angry, compassionate, and ironic as it looks in 1992 at the early days—modern as well Victorian—of a better nation.”  — Times Literary Supplement (London)

'A magnificently brisk, funny, dirty, brainy book'  — London Review of Books

"Visionary, ornate and outrageous." — The Independent

"A brilliant marriage of technique, intelligence, and art." — Kirkus Reviews

“An unexpected final twist doesn't make the novel seem trivial but, on the contrary, gives the vivid melodrama a retrospective gravity. You become aware that this odd book has been a great deal more than entertaining only on finishing it. Then your strongest desire is to start reading it again.”  — The Spectator

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CJ9SBY4V
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mariner Books (October 10, 2023)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 10, 2023
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 47400 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 337 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 1,691 ratings

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Alasdair Gray

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
1,691 global ratings
Book is missing pages
1 Star
Book is missing pages
I was thoroughly invested in reading my copy of Poor Things. Enjoying every page of this fascinating novel. But there is a misprint. My copy jumps from page 238 to 255. Very disappointed. Is it possible to get a replacement copy? Or even a PDF of the missing 17 pages. I have to know what happens next in the story. Very disappointed that I was sent a copy with missing pages.
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Top reviews from the United States

Mike Warwick
5.0 out of 5 stars Wilder than the movie
Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2024
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This is a Rashomon-like series of related experiences from different POVs. The primary storyline was the basis for the movie: however, there is more to that story! the book does support the "feminist manifesto" claim, alongside critical social commentary and satire. A fun read with a nice twist in the final story.
6 people found this helpful
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Francis O Walker
4.0 out of 5 stars Jane Austen meets Dr. Ruth
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2024
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Poor Things is an inventive reconstruction of the Victorian novel. It modernizes it by discussing health matters and physicians, real and fictional, which captures the most advanced knowledge of the time; incorporating political and social issues without melodrama; and by discussing sexual relationships without being graphic or excessive. While it harbors elements of each of their styles, this book fills a void in the works of Trollope, Dickens, M. Shelley, Austen and Conan-Doyle. Another writer of the time, George Eliot wrote “Imagination is a licensed trespasser: it has no fear of dogs, but may climb over walls and peep in at windows with impunity.” The reader is swept up in just such a caper in this story which proves diverting and delivers an insightful yet comic glimpse of the past.
9 people found this helpful
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Steven Mason
3.0 out of 5 stars Meh
Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2024
I get that this novel satirizes Victorian morals, but no one did that better than Oscar Wilde with The Importance of Being Earnest. This version of satire uses black comedy and a certain amount of shock value, but I'm not easily shocked. Some say that this novel is "thought-provoking," but anyone who has given serious thought to women's equality might find it contrived and obvious. As for the heroine's sexual appetites and frankness, is the author suggesting that we'd all be better off that way?
22 people found this helpful
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Michael Carson
5.0 out of 5 stars peppered with illustrations, eccentric typography, and unusual page layouts
Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2024
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It’s rare that I recommend seeing a movie before reading the novel, but this is one of those times.

My girlfriend and I saw “Poor Things” the day the movie opened in Tucson. We both loved it and discussed it afterward. I ordered the book immediately after and finished it yesterday.

I could not put it down. The story of Bella Baxter (Victoria) was captivating and the book went into much more depth of not only her character, but also Godwin, McCandless, Wedderburn, Colonel Blessington, and, to a lesser extent, others. Having immensely enjoyed the movie, I could visualize the events in the story as they unfolded and was able to appreciate more of what didn’t make the film.

The author used his characters and situations to comment on a variety of ills in the world. Often, these observations were witty and sarcastic. The chapters covering Wedderburn’s and Belle’s letters, and Mr. Astley’s “bitter wisdom” were my favorites. Victoria’s “A Letter to Posterity,” which closes the novel, was unlike anything I’ve ever read. If you do read the book (assuming you regarded the movie as a minor masterpiece), you’ll find that the conclusions differ in each. I found both satisfying.

I did not know of Mr. Alasdair Gray prior and was saddened to learn he passed away in 2019. The website Literary Hub notes that “people who see and love the film this winter will discover that Gray’s book offers more rewards than the ones that are translatable to the screen.” I heartily agree.

To quote Ms. Emma Stone (who played Bella Baxter): “The shortform explanation of that story is pretty wackadoo.” Yes, I imagine it would be.
41 people found this helpful
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Cody Banning
4.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic work of historical fantasy
Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2024
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A beautiful historical fiction that tells perfectly of the duality of humanity, pains of being a woman and the sufferings of being part of the human race.
9 people found this helpful
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Diana Greenberg
5.0 out of 5 stars Well written
Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2024
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This was a very unusual book. Glad I read it since I hadn’t seen the movie
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JevBegen
5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful little fiction
Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2024
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As if somebody would make a book analogy of mocumentary of Frankenstein. Brilliant and addictive. I wish it had a bit more to say on the matters it pretends to care about. Alas it is not Dostoyevsky, but a much more stylish and beautiful little fiction.
4 people found this helpful
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what
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting
Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2024
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crazy experience
great artwork
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Top reviews from other countries

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Mau
4.0 out of 5 stars Libro arrugado
Reviewed in Mexico on April 19, 2024
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 Todo me gusto. Lo único que no fue de mi agrado es que el lado donde viene el nombre del libro está un poco arrugado. Sin embargo, no puedo esperar para otra copia
One person found this helpful
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Reylana
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, long review
Reviewed in Canada on March 24, 2024
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Bought the book for my friend after we sorta watched the movie. We were making fun of our other friend who went to see the movie in theaters when it's on Disney plus for free. Anyways we watched the movie and decided we wanted to read the book to compare to the movie. Long story not getting any shorter, I surprised her with the book and she was ecstatic. I'm reading it on my phone and it's epic. Buy the book if you're a fan of Frankenstein, you won't be disappointed. Very mad scientist vibes for sure
One person found this helpful
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Bárbara
5.0 out of 5 stars Surpreendente!
Reviewed in Brazil on February 4, 2024
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Recomendo muito lerem antes de ver o filme. Acredito que é um livro único, com uma história envolvente e uma das melhores protagonistas que já li!
12 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent compelling brilliant
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 3, 2024
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Truly brilliant even better than film which I loved.
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Christoph
5.0 out of 5 stars Better than the film
Reviewed in Germany on April 20, 2024
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I rarely read the book after I've seen the film. This time I did. Loved the film, Emma Stone is excellent in it. The book is better than the film, it offers so many different angles that didn't come out in the film.
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