The first half of this book read like an MTV music video version of the 17th century: gaudy clothes, binge drinking, general debauchery. I was disappointed by the superciliousness of Tremain's portrait of her protagonist, Merivel. He was too much of a caricature to be sympathetic or even amusing. But I'd passed the point of no return, it's a slim book, and I retained enough faith in Rose Tremain's tremendous abilities to carry on. I'm so glad I stuck to the task, as Part 2 redeemed the book, parallel to the redemption of the facetious and sniveling Merivel (with the photo of Robert Downey, Jr. conveniently emblazoned on the book's cover, Merivel's voice ran through my head with RDJr's languidly arrogant tones- I'm sure he was perfectly cast).

To reveal more would reveal too much of the plot, which isn't all that deep, but it's worth uncovering on one's own. It won't be for me one of Tremain's more memorable novels, but the latter half restored it to satisfying historical fiction.