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Published Apr 2014
320 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publication Information
The setting of Sedition by Katharine Grant: London, 1794.
The problem: Four nouveau rich fathers with five marriageable daughters.
The plan: The young women will learn to play the piano, give a concert for young Englishmen who have titles but no fortunes, and will marry very well indeed.
The complications: The lascivious (and French) piano teacher; the piano maker's jealous (and musically gifted) daughter; the one of these marriageable daughters with a mating plan of her own.
While it might be a truth universally acknowledged that a man in possession of a title and no money must be in want of a fortune, what does a sexually awakened young woman want? In her wickedly alluring romp through the late-Georgian London, Italian piano making, and tightly-fitted Polonaise gowns, Katharine Grant has written a startling and provocative debut.
"Starred Review. The novel's epigrammatic voice... is another of its delights, detached in tone but delivering what are often dark ironies with memorable brevity and cleverness." - Publishers Weekly
"Although the dark theme of incest winds through the story, overall the plot and characters are handled with grace and precision. Suggest to fans of Sarah Dunant and Sarah Waters." - Booklist
"Drawn in by the compellingly edgy language, the beautiful evocation of emotions through music, and the passionate relationship between Alathea and the piano maker's talented, harelipped daughter, the reader is ultimately frustrated by the brevity of the novel, this first adult work by the author of the award-winning De Granville Trilogy." - Library Journal
"Grant's tale, though fresh and spirited, sags in the middle before picking up some speed for the concluding concert, where the girls take matters into their own hands." - Kirkus
"A fast paced, sexy, historical read about the intriguing tutor/student relationship... Grant's girls are vividly described: funny, witty, melancholy, rowdy, elegant and kick-ass, each learning the skills to be the mistress of their own destiny." – Marie Claire (UK)
"This novel Sedition is a wicked, delicious romp through eighteenth century London, written with the telling wink of an author whose affection for Tom Jones and Tartuffe sparkles throughout." - Katherine Howe, New York Times Bestselling author of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane and The House of Velvet and Glass
"Katharine Grant has written a provocative story of seduction and romance, lust and violence." - Kate Manning, author of My Notorious Life
This information about Sedition was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Katharine Grant is (as K.M. Grant) a children's book author, best known in the UK for her prizewinning DeGranville Trilogy. Sedition is her debut novel for adults. She was brought up in Lancashire, England, amid the ghosts of her ancestors, one of whom was the last person in the UK to be hung, drawn, and quartered. She lives in Scotland with her husband and three children.
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