Sebastian's Tangibles

by Anthea Ingham

Julian, professor in English Literature at Oxford University, is obsessed with the enigmatic life and death of Vic-torian poet Lord Melcourt and his unscrupulous lover Toto. When Julian falls for a beautiful, promiscuous student, Sebastian, a highly charged erotic relationship develops. Parallels between the four lives emerge until tragedy reveals the shocking truth. Anthea Ingham has a degree from Bristol University and has taught for a number of years. She is interested in the 1890s, art history, the music of Wagner, theatre, food and drink. She lives in Leamington Spa, England, with her five children.

Genres: Gay, Fiction

325 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2003

Reviews

[JOSEPH OLIVER · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book because I felt the idea was quite good. . It should have worked but personally I felt either the idea in reality wasn't as workable as it seemed or the writer wasn't up to it. Either way it really drags and half way through you really couldn't be bothered what happens to either character. The main character is a big, bumbling red-headed socially inept don who, we are lead to believe, is lusted after by the most beautiful looking young man at the college. Why? We are never told. The youth also eats an enormous amount and never puts on weight and can have sex all night on a full stomach so that part seems a bit strange. The two characters don't match and the tracing of Melcourt's past really does drag on a bit. It did nothing for me anyway and I abandoned it three quarters of the way through. I tried to give it the benefit of the doubt.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 1 out of 5]

I usually, if only for sentimental reasons, have something good to say about Gay Men's Press books but this must have been one of the last books published by them. This novel wouldn't lead anyone to mourn the loss of GMP, which I did and do mourn its loss, and honestly I find it embarrassing. It just drags so, it reads a lot longer then it is. Also it doesn't seem accurate or true - the details of the 19th century century are not wrong but just don't seem real. There were lots of other stuff - some of it just incredible stupid - like the young guy who manages to regularly eat huge meals and then have amazing athletic sex, come on be real, once maybe but not regularly, and not without indulging in nightly technicolour yawns.

Boring, silly, historically anachronistic, I can't think one reason to read this book.

[Eleanor Kos · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually could not finish this. It was well written, good characterization, but from the very first page all I could think was: this will end horribly. And while the characterization was good, the characters themselves were not people I wanted to spend time with.

[Manda · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing was perfectly well composed and the story was decent, but I couldn't help hating both the protagonists and wishing they would get theirs. Awful characters, which was disappointing because they could have been much more well-rounded.