Observatory Mansions: A Novel
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Edition: 1st can ed., 1st pr.,
Condition remarks:
Book: Very good
Jacket: Very good
Pages: Good
Markings: No markings
A darkly comic and deeply atmospheric work of literary fiction, Observatory Mansions chronicles the strange, insular world of Francis Orme, a pale, glove-wearing misanthrope who lives in a crumbling, once-grand apartment building converted from an old observatory. Carey constructs a cast of eccentric, emotionally stunted residents — each clinging to their peculiar obsessions and rituals — whose fragile routines are upended by the arrival of a vibrant new tenant named Anna Tap. With a tone that balances gothic unease and mordant wit, the novel uncovers the quiet desperation beneath each character's compulsions, particularly Francis's compulsive habit of stealing and hoarding small objects from those around him. Carey's prose is precise and unsettling, illustrating how people construct elaborate psychological fortresses to avoid confronting loss, loneliness, and the passage of time. Observatory Mansions is a singular debut — haunting, original, and quietly devastating in its portrait of lives lived in willful isolation.
Author: Edward Carey
Format: Hardback
Published: 2000, Random House Canada
Genre: Modern fiction
Edition: 1st can ed., 1st pr.,
Condition remarks:
Book: Very good
Jacket: Very good
Pages: Good
Markings: No markings
A darkly comic and deeply atmospheric work of literary fiction, Observatory Mansions chronicles the strange, insular world of Francis Orme, a pale, glove-wearing misanthrope who lives in a crumbling, once-grand apartment building converted from an old observatory. Carey constructs a cast of eccentric, emotionally stunted residents — each clinging to their peculiar obsessions and rituals — whose fragile routines are upended by the arrival of a vibrant new tenant named Anna Tap. With a tone that balances gothic unease and mordant wit, the novel uncovers the quiet desperation beneath each character's compulsions, particularly Francis's compulsive habit of stealing and hoarding small objects from those around him. Carey's prose is precise and unsettling, illustrating how people construct elaborate psychological fortresses to avoid confronting loss, loneliness, and the passage of time. Observatory Mansions is a singular debut — haunting, original, and quietly devastating in its portrait of lives lived in willful isolation.