Synopses & Reviews
"Bryher is known as the author of distinguished, poetically evocative historical novels. Their melancholy magic, their ability to recapture the mood of a historical crisis and their haunting symbolism introduced a fresh and original approach to historical fiction. [This is] a striking and beautifully written narrative... Bryher is extraordinarily skillful in her magical ability to capture the essence of an individual emotion and the quality of a national mood."-
The New York TimesJames Sandstrains with the great actors of the Elizabethan stage-until his master dies unexpectedly, and he is cast into the brutality of Jacobean London.
Review
The novel echoes in a variety of compelling ways the life of the author, which on its own clearly deserves scripting.”
YALE REVIEWThe Players Boy has all the possessive, invading qualities of a dream. The book has great beauty. But the book has not only beauty; it has a strange and moving wisdom. The end is a masterpiece of writing and of terror. The whole story is so told that we feel someone had returned from beyond the grave to tell it.” EDITH SITWELL
"A striking and beautifully written narrative
. Bryher is a fine artist with words, extraordinarily skillful in her magical ability to capture the essence of an individual emotion and the quality of a national mood." THE NEW YORK TIMES
Synopsis
Shakespeare in Love meets Oliver Twist in this Elizabethan story of adventure, loyalty, and the stage The orphaned James Sands anticipated a magnificent career as apprentice in an Elizabethan theater troupe. But when his masters dies unexpectedly, Sands must fight for his art, his home, and ultimately his life as the violent reign of King James I overshadows the glory and creative life of the Elizabethan era. An historical novel with profound reverberations today in the U.S., the UK, and Europe.
Synopsis
"Shakespeare in Love" meets "Oliver Twist" in this Elizabethan story of adventure, loyalty, and the stage.
Synopsis
The orphaned James Sands anticipated a magnificent career as apprentice to an Elizabethan theater troupe. But when his masters die unexpectedly, Sands must fight for his art, his home, and ultimately his life as the violent reign of James I overshadows the glory of the Elizabethan era. An historical novel with profound contemporary reverberations.
About the Author
Bryher (1894-1983) wrote many critically acclaimed novels and memoirs during her lifetime. She was deeply involved in film, politics, and psychology. She funded Contact Editions, and edited
Life and Letters To-day and the first English film journal,
Close Up. She was the longtime companion of H.D., and a generous supporter of numerous writers, artists, psychoanalysts, and culture icons, including Marianne Moore, Sigmund Freud, Walter Benjamin, and Sylvia Beach of Shakespeare and Company.
Patrick Gregory is an editor, translator, and the author of the novel The Dagguereotype. He is the son of poet, translator, and critic Horace Gregory and poet Marya Zaturenska, who were intimate friends with Bryher. He now lives in Northampton, MA and South Halifax, VT.