The Vast Memory of Love

by Malcolm Bosse

Offering the literary delight of the season, Bosse has captured the pulse and character of London in the 1770s in an exuberant tale that intertwines the lives of Henry Fielding, the Earl of Sandwich, and John Wilkes, among others, with the fate of a livery boy who has come to the city to make his fortune. Adventure, misadventure, and the affair of the boy and a kept woman combine to endlessly surpise and entertain. Illustrated.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction

482 pages, Hardcover

First published September 14, 1992

About the author

Malcolm Joseph Bosse (May 6, 1926 – May 3, 2002) was an American author of both young adult and adult novels. His novels are often set in Asia, and have been praised for their cultural and historical information relating to the character's adventures. Bosse mostly wrote historical fiction novels after the publication of The Warlord, a historical fiction work set in 1920's China, which became a best-seller.
He also won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1983.

Bosse was born in Detroit, Michigan and died in New York City. He was a graduate of Yale University and served in the U.S. Navy. Bosse was also an English teacher in City College of New York in Manhattan.

Reviews

[Kelley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quit around p100.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book fascinating--set in the underworld of London in the mid 1700s, it traces the path of a large cast of characters, each persuasively drawn and hugely empathetic. The scenes drawn are great, the plot is well paced and thought out, and it has some interesting thoughts as well.

[Elizabeth Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-researched and authentic novel of 18th London written extremely well in the style of Fielding's Tom Jones.