What do you think?
Rate this book
Сто девяносто девять ступеней
Интеллектуальные триллеры? Готические - точнее, готские - романы? Злая контркультурная пародия на "массовую" литературу? Критики попросту сходят с ума, пытаясь подобрать определение для работ "enfant terrible" современной англоязычной прозы...
140 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
29 people are currently reading
1030 people want to read
About the author
Michel Faber
75 books2,107 followersMichel Faber (born 13 April 1960) is a Dutch writer of English-language fiction.
Faber was born in The Hague, The Netherlands. He and his parents emigrated to Australia in 1967. He attended primary and secondary school in the Melbourne suburbs of Boronia and Bayswater, then attended the University of Melbourne, studying Dutch, philosophy, rhetoric, English language (a course involving translation and criticism of Anglo-Saxon and Middle English texts) and English literature. He graduated in 1980. He worked as a cleaner and at various other casual jobs, before training as a nurse at Marrickville and Western Suburbs hospitals in Sydney. He nursed until the mid-1990s. In 1993 he, his second wife and family emigrated to Scotland, where they still reside.
Faber was born in The Hague, The Netherlands. He and his parents emigrated to Australia in 1967. He attended primary and secondary school in the Melbourne suburbs of Boronia and Bayswater, then attended the University of Melbourne, studying Dutch, philosophy, rhetoric, English language (a course involving translation and criticism of Anglo-Saxon and Middle English texts) and English literature. He graduated in 1980. He worked as a cleaner and at various other casual jobs, before training as a nurse at Marrickville and Western Suburbs hospitals in Sydney. He nursed until the mid-1990s. In 1993 he, his second wife and family emigrated to Scotland, where they still reside.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 157 reviews
October 2, 2022
Whitby is a north Yorkshire fishing town of steep, winding, cobbled streets, with a ruined clifftop abbey 199 steps above the harbour. The coast is full of fossils, it’s where Captain Cook learned his craft, Victorians fell in love with jet jewellery, and goths gather for the Whitby Goth Weekend.
Image: Looking up from the bottom of Whitby’s 199 steps (Source)
Elizabeth Gaskell, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, Wilkie Collins, Bram Stoker, and AS Byatt all visited. Some set novels there, including Byatt (Possession) and Stoker (Dracula). The vampire, in the form of a black dog, ran up the 199 steps towards the abbey after being shipwrecked.
These days, despite a surfeit of second homes and tourists (see here), it’s still imbued with a literary, mystic, and ancient atmosphere.
Image: Whitby Abbey ruins overlaid with Dracula imagery (Source)
Expectations
I was excited to read this short novel set in Whitby, by an author I’ve greatly enjoyed in the past (see my reviews HERE). “Fiction as poetry for the soul” says the Birmingham Post on the back cover. A contemporary/2001 story with aspects of mystery, history, and thriller. It sounded good.
Reality
It was dreadful. The mysterious five-page confession, tightly rolled and stuffed in a bottle in 1788, is a clever story that could be the basis of an excellent and unexpected novel.
Unfortunately, it’s suffocated by a hundred-page framing story that reads like a rejected Mills & Boon or Harlequin Romance: a 34-year old archaeology student with mysterious personal problems, meets a dishy young doctor from out of town and his adorable dog.
Perhaps a male author writing of a woman letching after a man is intended to be edgy. I alternated between “yuk” and “LOL”. For example:
• “With his every breath his pectorals swelled into his shirt in two faint haloes of sweat.”
• “A man jogging… At his side, a dog - a gorgeous animal, the size of a spaniel perhaps, but with a lovely thick coat, like a wolf’s. The man wasn’t bad-looking himself.”
• “Two muscular males nestled side by side, different species but both devilishly handsome.”
• “His bare legs glistening in the sun, his T-shirt stained with a long spearhead of sweat pointing downwards.”
Overall, it’s crass, sometimes grisly, and has an awkward mix of romantic, religious, PTSD, and supernatural elements. There are also a couple of pages presumably written by the Whitby Tourist Information Office and some slightly odd descriptions:
• “A bright feather on the breath of God.”
• “The rising sun glowed yellow and orange… the river Esk twinkled indigo.”
Something nicer
I can’t be bothered to write a proper review, so here are some more pictures of Whitby, all from thewhitbyguide on Instagram (you don't need an account to view the many more photos there).
Image: Looking up from the bottom of Whitby’s 199 steps (Source)
Elizabeth Gaskell, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, Wilkie Collins, Bram Stoker, and AS Byatt all visited. Some set novels there, including Byatt (Possession) and Stoker (Dracula). The vampire, in the form of a black dog, ran up the 199 steps towards the abbey after being shipwrecked.
These days, despite a surfeit of second homes and tourists (see here), it’s still imbued with a literary, mystic, and ancient atmosphere.
Image: Whitby Abbey ruins overlaid with Dracula imagery (Source)
Expectations
I was excited to read this short novel set in Whitby, by an author I’ve greatly enjoyed in the past (see my reviews HERE). “Fiction as poetry for the soul” says the Birmingham Post on the back cover. A contemporary/2001 story with aspects of mystery, history, and thriller. It sounded good.
Reality
It was dreadful. The mysterious five-page confession, tightly rolled and stuffed in a bottle in 1788, is a clever story that could be the basis of an excellent and unexpected novel.
Unfortunately, it’s suffocated by a hundred-page framing story that reads like a rejected Mills & Boon or Harlequin Romance: a 34-year old archaeology student with mysterious personal problems, meets a dishy young doctor from out of town and his adorable dog.
Perhaps a male author writing of a woman letching after a man is intended to be edgy. I alternated between “yuk” and “LOL”. For example:
• “With his every breath his pectorals swelled into his shirt in two faint haloes of sweat.”
• “A man jogging… At his side, a dog - a gorgeous animal, the size of a spaniel perhaps, but with a lovely thick coat, like a wolf’s. The man wasn’t bad-looking himself.”
• “Two muscular males nestled side by side, different species but both devilishly handsome.”
• “His bare legs glistening in the sun, his T-shirt stained with a long spearhead of sweat pointing downwards.”
Overall, it’s crass, sometimes grisly, and has an awkward mix of romantic, religious, PTSD, and supernatural elements. There are also a couple of pages presumably written by the Whitby Tourist Information Office and some slightly odd descriptions:
• “A bright feather on the breath of God.”
• “The rising sun glowed yellow and orange… the river Esk twinkled indigo.”
Something nicer
I can’t be bothered to write a proper review, so here are some more pictures of Whitby, all from thewhitbyguide on Instagram (you don't need an account to view the many more photos there).
October 24, 2022
Siân is working on an archeological dig at Whitby abbey when she meets Mack and his dog on the steps leading up to the abbey. With the start of a relationship comes the mystery of a centuries old manuscript in a bottle that needs to be unfolded. Of course, the story is written by Michel Faber and so the actual mystery or the relationship are less important that what it all means for Sian in her quest to find herself.
‘The job is trickier than I thought. You’re going to have to decide what’s more important to you, Mack: knowing what that document says, or keeping it the way you like’.
A short but totally engaging novella that I really enjoyed will reread somewhen in the future.
‘The job is trickier than I thought. You’re going to have to decide what’s more important to you, Mack: knowing what that document says, or keeping it the way you like’.
A short but totally engaging novella that I really enjoyed will reread somewhen in the future.
November 24, 2020
Michel Faber is brilliant. I was drawn into this short book from the arresting opening paragraph, the location, and the interesting storyline.
The main character Sian, is an archaeologist working on a dig at Whitby Abbey in Yorkshire. She has a tragic complicated backstory and when she meets Magnus and his dog Hadrian their relationship isn’t going to be straight forward. Magnus has an old document in a bottle which Sian agrees to open and find out what it says. The book is a slow reveal, both Sian herself and the story from the document.
I think I have to add Faber to my favourite authors, Ive enjoyed everything I’ve read by him!
The main character Sian, is an archaeologist working on a dig at Whitby Abbey in Yorkshire. She has a tragic complicated backstory and when she meets Magnus and his dog Hadrian their relationship isn’t going to be straight forward. Magnus has an old document in a bottle which Sian agrees to open and find out what it says. The book is a slow reveal, both Sian herself and the story from the document.
I think I have to add Faber to my favourite authors, Ive enjoyed everything I’ve read by him!
August 26, 2014
Sometimes I write reviews and have nightmares about how appalling and misinformed and rubbish these reviews must look on the ALMIGHTY WALL OF REVIEWS, and I must step back into the reviewing box and tackle books with a heroic second heave, like a bleeding Ali lunging for the last time at Trevor Berbick.
So: this novella is an endearing mixture of modern horror and romance. It falls into the camp of modern “character piece,” focusing on Siân, a Welsh-born student architect digging up remains at Whitby Abbey who unravels a family scroll given to her by cringey student doctor Mack. The novella unearths revelations about Siân’s accident in Bosnia while relating an 18thC murder intrigue and does so with wit and natural charm.
In the original review I posted a picture of Roy from The IT Crowd, but the shame has haunted me ever since, so from now on it is text text text all the way, baby.
So: this novella is an endearing mixture of modern horror and romance. It falls into the camp of modern “character piece,” focusing on Siân, a Welsh-born student architect digging up remains at Whitby Abbey who unravels a family scroll given to her by cringey student doctor Mack. The novella unearths revelations about Siân’s accident in Bosnia while relating an 18thC murder intrigue and does so with wit and natural charm.
In the original review I posted a picture of Roy from The IT Crowd, but the shame has haunted me ever since, so from now on it is text text text all the way, baby.
September 19, 2023
A crescendo that gets nowhere and quickly vanishes into nothingness.
-------
Un crescendo che non porta da nessuna parte e svanisce rapidamente nel nulla.
-------
Un crescendo che non porta da nessuna parte e svanisce rapidamente nel nulla.
June 11, 2024
Didn't froth my beer.
The story contains romance that doesn't lead to anything, and a mystery that also doesn't really lead to anything. I only read to the end because it was set in Whitby, where Captain Cook did his training. I'm fascinated by that place. I don't think Mr Faber's writing is my thing.
The story contains romance that doesn't lead to anything, and a mystery that also doesn't really lead to anything. I only read to the end because it was set in Whitby, where Captain Cook did his training. I'm fascinated by that place. I don't think Mr Faber's writing is my thing.
January 19, 2019
A wonderful novella with an interesting main character at its heart, an unusual setting and compelling plot!
October 18, 2023
(3.5) A suspenseful novella set in Whitby. Faber was invited by the then artist in residence at Whitby Abbey to write a story inspired by the English Heritage archaeological excavation taking place there in the summer of 2000. His protagonist, Siân, is living in a hotel and working on the dig. She meets Magnus, a handsome doctor, when he comes to exercise the dog he inherited from his late father on the stone steps leading up to the abbey. Siân had been in an accident and is still dealing with the physical and mental after-effects. Each morning she wakes from a nightmare of a man with large hands slitting her throat. When Magnus brings her a centuries-old message in a bottle from his father’s house for her to open and decipher, another layer of intrigue enters: the crumbling document appears to be a murderer’s confession.
At first I worried Faber would turn this into a simple, predictable ghost story and milk expected sources of trauma. But the plot twists kept surprising me. The focus on women’s bodies and sexuality is appropriate for the town that gave us Dracula. This had hidden depths and at 116 pages could easily be a one-sitting read. Hadrian the dog is a great character, too, and this is even in my favourite font, Mrs Eaves, one that Canongate uses often.
[Unfortunate error: Faber twice refers to Whitby as being Northumbrian. Although it was in the historical kingdom of Northumbria, it is actually in North Yorkshire rather than Northumberland.]
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
At first I worried Faber would turn this into a simple, predictable ghost story and milk expected sources of trauma. But the plot twists kept surprising me. The focus on women’s bodies and sexuality is appropriate for the town that gave us Dracula. This had hidden depths and at 116 pages could easily be a one-sitting read. Hadrian the dog is a great character, too, and this is even in my favourite font, Mrs Eaves, one that Canongate uses often.
[Unfortunate error: Faber twice refers to Whitby as being Northumbrian. Although it was in the historical kingdom of Northumbria, it is actually in North Yorkshire rather than Northumberland.]
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
August 23, 2017
"I want, I want, I want" thought Sian, then turned away, blushing. Thirty-four years old, and still thinking like a child! Saint Hilda would have been ashamed of her. And what exactly was she hankering after, anyway: the man or the dog? She wasn't even sure.
Unfortunately, this one is more of a novella than a novel (68 pages on my Kobo). "Unfortunately" because I wish it were longer.
I was pretty certain I'd like this before I started it, since Michel Faber's "Under the Skin" is one of my favourite books of all time (check out my minimal review of it, I really, honestly don't know how to put my thoughts about that book in the proper order for a review, I love it too much to be comprehensible), so after reading it, I just proved myself right.
I officially adore Michel Faber's writing, and I'd like to meet him one day if possible. Some misogynistic as f*ck authors should also meet him too (I'm looking at you, Tom Robbins), because mr. Faber CAN write female characters, unlike them.
Unfortunately, this one is more of a novella than a novel (68 pages on my Kobo). "Unfortunately" because I wish it were longer.
I was pretty certain I'd like this before I started it, since Michel Faber's "Under the Skin" is one of my favourite books of all time (check out my minimal review of it, I really, honestly don't know how to put my thoughts about that book in the proper order for a review, I love it too much to be comprehensible), so after reading it, I just proved myself right.
I officially adore Michel Faber's writing, and I'd like to meet him one day if possible. Some misogynistic as f*ck authors should also meet him too (I'm looking at you, Tom Robbins), because mr. Faber CAN write female characters, unlike them.
September 20, 2022
Un romanzetto carino per iniziare bene il periodo autunnale.
Siân è un’archeologa di origine gallese, lavora agli scavi adiacenti l’abbazia di Santa Hilda a Whitby ed è tormentata da un incubo ricorrente. Quando incontra Magnus e il suo cane Hadrian, dal nome pretenzioso, la storia inizia a farsi interessante. Magnus o Mack è in possesso di un antico documento del XVIII e sarà proprio Siân che si occuperà del recupero della carta, ormai quasi usurata dal tempo e della trascrizione.
I dettagli del passato burrascoso della donna e il mistero dell’antica pergamena, vengono svelati piano piano e Faber è stato bravo a collocarli nella giusta posizione della narrazione. Ma non ho provato la suspence che (forse) avrei dovuto provare, la mia lettura è stata, sì, vorace, ma solo perché si tratta di un romanzo breve di appena 107 pagine. Rimane comunque una storia carina e goticheggiante, che restituisce bene le malinconiche atmosfere anglosassoni.
Siân è un’archeologa di origine gallese, lavora agli scavi adiacenti l’abbazia di Santa Hilda a Whitby ed è tormentata da un incubo ricorrente. Quando incontra Magnus e il suo cane Hadrian, dal nome pretenzioso, la storia inizia a farsi interessante. Magnus o Mack è in possesso di un antico documento del XVIII e sarà proprio Siân che si occuperà del recupero della carta, ormai quasi usurata dal tempo e della trascrizione.
I dettagli del passato burrascoso della donna e il mistero dell’antica pergamena, vengono svelati piano piano e Faber è stato bravo a collocarli nella giusta posizione della narrazione. Ma non ho provato la suspence che (forse) avrei dovuto provare, la mia lettura è stata, sì, vorace, ma solo perché si tratta di un romanzo breve di appena 107 pagine. Rimane comunque una storia carina e goticheggiante, che restituisce bene le malinconiche atmosfere anglosassoni.
May 18, 2016
Boring day at work? Perfect opportunity to (not very subtly) read this instead! I didn't care who could see I was too engrossed in the story.
January 30, 2018
I problemi sono iniziati con le patate, al 27% dell’ebook. Colpa loro, mi hanno maldisposto.
Come ho scritto nello status di update lettura, Faber scrive
"Alle otto e dieci erano tutti presenti e all'opera, distribuiti come raccoglitori medievali di patate lungo i vari settori del terreno."
Dal pov di un’archeologa, fra l’altro.
Le famose patate medievali. Carlo Magno andava matto per il purè, non lo sapevate?
E possibile che lui l’abbia scritto, editor e correttori di bozze l’abbiano lasciato passare, e il traduttore non sia stato posseduto da un sacro fuoco, sostituendo il tubero con delle più storicamente concepibili rape?
A differenza di Holden Caulfield, ho sentito il bisogno di telefonare sì a Faber, ma solo per spiegargli qualcosa sulle patate, il loro arrivo in Europa e il momento in cui cominciarono a essere consumate dagli umani.
Ma comunque.
Forse il problema sono state le aspettative troppo alte: uno scrittore di cui avevo sentito parlare benissimo, un romanzo (più un racconto lungo) venduto come gotico, con un occhio al medioevo, forse alla reincarnazione e ai fantasmi… premesse a una lettura fantastica!
E invece no.
Non che sia un brutto libro, ma non l’ho trovato nemmeno bello, o appassionante.
Di spunti interessanti ce ne sono: sulla morte, la fede, il passato e il presente, il cinismo e l’amore, la malattia e la paura… però non vengono mai davvero approfonditi, come avrebbero meritato e come sarebbe stato in un romanzo di più ampio respiro. Talvolta sono usati più come innesco per un bisticcio fra i due irritanti protagonisti (lei insopportabile, lui piatto come pochi) che per una riflessione profonda.
Dopo tanta fatica, poi, per rendere leggibile la vecchia pergamena, mi lascia perplessa che
Non mi è chiaro se ho interpretato male io o se è stata Sian.
Di gotico non c’è un granché, perché non bastano un’abbazia diroccata e dei foschi incubi per appartenere al genere, se poi non si riesce a instillare un po’ d’inquietudine.
Rispetto alle premesse, tutto risulta un po’ inconcludente.
Insomma, un breve romanzo che mi è sembrato un’occasione persa, una storia che avrebbe meritato di essere sviluppata un po’ di più, e magari con personaggi meno fastidiosi. Che peccato!
Come ho scritto nello status di update lettura, Faber scrive
"Alle otto e dieci erano tutti presenti e all'opera, distribuiti come raccoglitori medievali di patate lungo i vari settori del terreno."
Dal pov di un’archeologa, fra l’altro.
Le famose patate medievali. Carlo Magno andava matto per il purè, non lo sapevate?
E possibile che lui l’abbia scritto, editor e correttori di bozze l’abbiano lasciato passare, e il traduttore non sia stato posseduto da un sacro fuoco, sostituendo il tubero con delle più storicamente concepibili rape?
A differenza di Holden Caulfield, ho sentito il bisogno di telefonare sì a Faber, ma solo per spiegargli qualcosa sulle patate, il loro arrivo in Europa e il momento in cui cominciarono a essere consumate dagli umani.
Ma comunque.
Forse il problema sono state le aspettative troppo alte: uno scrittore di cui avevo sentito parlare benissimo, un romanzo (più un racconto lungo) venduto come gotico, con un occhio al medioevo, forse alla reincarnazione e ai fantasmi… premesse a una lettura fantastica!
E invece no.
Non che sia un brutto libro, ma non l’ho trovato nemmeno bello, o appassionante.
Di spunti interessanti ce ne sono: sulla morte, la fede, il passato e il presente, il cinismo e l’amore, la malattia e la paura… però non vengono mai davvero approfonditi, come avrebbero meritato e come sarebbe stato in un romanzo di più ampio respiro. Talvolta sono usati più come innesco per un bisticcio fra i due irritanti protagonisti (lei insopportabile, lui piatto come pochi) che per una riflessione profonda.
Dopo tanta fatica, poi, per rendere leggibile la vecchia pergamena, mi lascia perplessa che
Non mi è chiaro se ho interpretato male io o se è stata Sian.
Di gotico non c’è un granché, perché non bastano un’abbazia diroccata e dei foschi incubi per appartenere al genere, se poi non si riesce a instillare un po’ d’inquietudine.
Rispetto alle premesse, tutto risulta un po’ inconcludente.
Insomma, un breve romanzo che mi è sembrato un’occasione persa, una storia che avrebbe meritato di essere sviluppata un po’ di più, e magari con personaggi meno fastidiosi. Che peccato!
August 6, 2011
"The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps" follows an archaeologist at a dig in Whitby and her relationship with a well to do London doctor she meets one day climbing the steps who's visiting Whitby to clear up his dead father's affairs.
The book feels like Faber's filled out a short story and made it into a novella. The relationship between the female protagonist and the cliche good looking doctor (and thats all it is by the way, about as 2-dimensional as you can get) feels like it's come out of a bad daytime soap opera or one of those interminable Sunday night dramas "Midsomer Murders" or something equally dreary.
Despite the doctor and his dog (god his dog, it's like a character out of a Disney film! And Faber keeps describing it! After a few dozen pages you think "I get it! The woman and the dog get along! Move on!") both being cardboard cut outs like the Whitby setting, the woman is a well written character with a clever reveal by Faber halfway through and some background to her life which makes the novella that much more interesting to read.
The subplot (or main plot even, there really isn't much to this slight volume) is a message in a bottle from the 18th century. The reader thinks one thing and then is thinking something else somewhere down the line. It's not great though and certainly not enough to justify this book.
Faber's written much better novels and for new readers I'd suggest the original and brilliant "Under the Skin" to see why Faber gets published at all, this book is really for the fans.
The book feels like Faber's filled out a short story and made it into a novella. The relationship between the female protagonist and the cliche good looking doctor (and thats all it is by the way, about as 2-dimensional as you can get) feels like it's come out of a bad daytime soap opera or one of those interminable Sunday night dramas "Midsomer Murders" or something equally dreary.
Despite the doctor and his dog (god his dog, it's like a character out of a Disney film! And Faber keeps describing it! After a few dozen pages you think "I get it! The woman and the dog get along! Move on!") both being cardboard cut outs like the Whitby setting, the woman is a well written character with a clever reveal by Faber halfway through and some background to her life which makes the novella that much more interesting to read.
The subplot (or main plot even, there really isn't much to this slight volume) is a message in a bottle from the 18th century. The reader thinks one thing and then is thinking something else somewhere down the line. It's not great though and certainly not enough to justify this book.
Faber's written much better novels and for new readers I'd suggest the original and brilliant "Under the Skin" to see why Faber gets published at all, this book is really for the fans.
January 7, 2011
More of a novella than a novel, I think. I never really found myself engaging with it: most of it was just too perfunctory for me. The relationship between the main characters never really goes anywhere; the digging that is supposed to be absorbing her certainly doesn't absorb me; her emotions regarding her accident barely seem to manifest; the charged emotions between the main characters fail to move me; her obsession with the man's dog just seems a little odd...
There were two things I found well-described. One was her anxiety about her health, her determination through most of the book to stick it out without going to the hospital. I've felt that way, and Michel Faber made me feel it again. And the other -- and less so -- was the description of her painstaking efforts to separate the pages of the manuscript.
Ultimately, though, it took up an hour of my time and didn't give me much back beside an echo of my anxious stomach-aches! That's probably part of the reason I didn't engage with the story. For something I got for £1 in the sale on the Kindle store, I wouldn't say it was a waste, but it didn't exactly glitter for me.
There were two things I found well-described. One was her anxiety about her health, her determination through most of the book to stick it out without going to the hospital. I've felt that way, and Michel Faber made me feel it again. And the other -- and less so -- was the description of her painstaking efforts to separate the pages of the manuscript.
Ultimately, though, it took up an hour of my time and didn't give me much back beside an echo of my anxious stomach-aches! That's probably part of the reason I didn't engage with the story. For something I got for £1 in the sale on the Kindle store, I wouldn't say it was a waste, but it didn't exactly glitter for me.
August 7, 2014
Short but sweet. This is a very brief novel, more like a short story, but I still found myself getting very involved in the plot. It's a sign of how good the characterisation is that I started to feel attached to the protagonist, Siân, very quickly; in fact, Faber manages to evoke everything - characters, setting, relationships, elements of history - so well, so concisely. The story, set in a beautifully described Whitby, encompasses Siân's almost-romance with a stranger, Mack, who she finds both alluring and threatening, along with her attempts to unravel the secrets of a centuries-old scroll, her fears about her wellbeing and dread of a series of violent nightmares she's been having. This is a lot to pack into such a small book, but it works. There's a hint of intrigue as Siân slowly translates the contents of the scroll and finds what appears to be the confession of a murderer, and meanwhile struggles with the fact that she's attracted to Mack but is fearful of embarking on a relationship in case her health deteriorates. I was left wondering about the characters' futures after I'd finished the book, but at the same time felt that it worked perfectly as a self-contained story. Fantastic writing, well worth a read.
November 5, 2024
There are two novellas in this book but I have only read the first. It was very disappointing. The author seemed quite proud of it judging by the tone of his acknowledgements but I couldn't understand why.
The characters were unconvincing. The dialogue was trite and amateurish. The story had potential but was handled clumsily. The ending was smug and superficial. I suppose Siân made the right choice about the man and his dog but I wish she'd done it a hundred pages earlier. It left me with the feeling of having wasted my time, which I really don't like to do at my age.
This is the first book I've read by Michel Faber. I expect I will eventually read the other novella (The Courage Consort) and possibly a novel but this hasn't inspired me to do so any time soon.
The characters were unconvincing. The dialogue was trite and amateurish. The story had potential but was handled clumsily. The ending was smug and superficial. I suppose Siân made the right choice about the man and his dog but I wish she'd done it a hundred pages earlier. It left me with the feeling of having wasted my time, which I really don't like to do at my age.
This is the first book I've read by Michel Faber. I expect I will eventually read the other novella (The Courage Consort) and possibly a novel but this hasn't inspired me to do so any time soon.
July 23, 2012
This novella starts out very promisingly; an archaeologist with an unhappy background is beset by recurring nightmares of being throttled to death by a mystery man with a strong and massive grip. While climbing the hundred and ninety-nine steps to her dig at Whitby Abbey, she meets a handsome yet enigmatic stranger who incidentally is a tall man with muscular arms and large hands. Attracted to one another, they become involved in untangling a mystery contained within a centuries-old scroll, rolled up tightly within a glass bottle. What words they can decipher reveals a story bordering on the vampiric...
The first half of this book is great - very atmospheric, with evocative writing that draws you in subtly, enveloping you like sea-mist creeping over the cliff-tops. Lust, death and violence seem to permeate the very stones of Whitby, and the opening pages. Yet, when Sian succeeds in deciphering the story contained within the scroll, and the mysetery is revealed, the atmosphere changes very suddenly from enigmatic to humdrum. The burgeoning relationship between the two main characters dissolves, and likewise any subsequent interest in their future fades. I finished the book with the distinct sense of there being something missing. The opening had set up the beginnings of a dark and twisted tale full of subconscious desires; what we were left with was a woman who gets to inherit a dog.
The first half of this book is great - very atmospheric, with evocative writing that draws you in subtly, enveloping you like sea-mist creeping over the cliff-tops. Lust, death and violence seem to permeate the very stones of Whitby, and the opening pages. Yet, when Sian succeeds in deciphering the story contained within the scroll, and the mysetery is revealed, the atmosphere changes very suddenly from enigmatic to humdrum. The burgeoning relationship between the two main characters dissolves, and likewise any subsequent interest in their future fades. I finished the book with the distinct sense of there being something missing. The opening had set up the beginnings of a dark and twisted tale full of subconscious desires; what we were left with was a woman who gets to inherit a dog.
August 12, 2018
The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps
follows Sian, a young woman whose nightmares which involve her dying horrifically, have plagued her for sometime. After joining an archaeological dig, she meets a man, Mack, and his dog, Hadrian, and after bantering/flirting with each other, he tells her his deceased father left him a 18th Century scroll which contains the confession of Thos Peirson, and has never been read. This novella revolves around Sian and her concerns regarding her physical health, whilst also fighting her growing feelings for Mack, and her desire to read the confession inside the scroll.
So I did not like this. At all. I don't know what it was. Maybe it was too short for me, maybe it was the writing style. Just didn't work for me. The summary I read for this book stated that it would contain a murder mystery, and it just wasn't what I expected. The friendship between Sian and Mack also didn't go how I thought it would.
Overall, didn't work for me.
So I did not like this. At all. I don't know what it was. Maybe it was too short for me, maybe it was the writing style. Just didn't work for me. The summary I read for this book stated that it would contain a murder mystery, and it just wasn't what I expected. The friendship between Sian and Mack also didn't go how I thought it would.
Overall, didn't work for me.
September 6, 2017
The One Hundred and Ninety Nine Steps was OK, but read this in an edition also containing The Courage Consort which was ace. Both were enjoyable, quick reads.
July 11, 2020
Foremost I would describe this as an archaeological novella. That is to say the protagonist Sian is unearthing bones at Whitby Abbey when we first meet her. Soon enough she is unearthing a lot more than that.
At it's heart, The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps is a romance between two people who are ultimately at odds. They meet at the famed steps leading up to the Abbey, discovering common interests in a lively Finnish Lapphund named Hadrian and a curious message in a bottle. However what is holding Sian back is a traumatic history and a newfound pain that she believes she shares with St Hilda.
At times Sian is an abrasive character but always understandably so. At times it almost feels like her desire to unfurl history is the only thing that brings pure joy to her life, which I felt made her a rather tragic character.
Despite the descriptors often used for this book, The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps is not exactly a ghost story or historical fiction. Faber employs mysterious artefacts and the concept of 'past times' to help define the central relationship and resolve Sian's internal conflict. It is a novella that feels very contemporary in the way that it looks backward and learns.
I recommend The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps to fellow Faber fans and those who adore Whitby.
At it's heart, The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps is a romance between two people who are ultimately at odds. They meet at the famed steps leading up to the Abbey, discovering common interests in a lively Finnish Lapphund named Hadrian and a curious message in a bottle. However what is holding Sian back is a traumatic history and a newfound pain that she believes she shares with St Hilda.
At times Sian is an abrasive character but always understandably so. At times it almost feels like her desire to unfurl history is the only thing that brings pure joy to her life, which I felt made her a rather tragic character.
Despite the descriptors often used for this book, The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps is not exactly a ghost story or historical fiction. Faber employs mysterious artefacts and the concept of 'past times' to help define the central relationship and resolve Sian's internal conflict. It is a novella that feels very contemporary in the way that it looks backward and learns.
I recommend The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps to fellow Faber fans and those who adore Whitby.
February 16, 2023
In this novella, a depressed woman, suffering PTSD after losing a leg in Bosnia, meets a tantalising young doctor while excavating skeletons in gothic Whitby. They discover a confession hid in a bottle, in which a father maimed his dead daughter to cover up her suicide. Faber clearly intended to confront the moral framework of the 18thC with that of the 21st century, but the end result is too easy and stereotypical, the characters never fully rounded of developed. This story begs to be told in a novel rather than a novella.
April 28, 2022
I read Under The Skin by Faber years ago and really enjoyed it. This one is an odd little story with a gothic, creepy feeling to it, Sian is a complicated, troubled character and it's quite dark at times but Hadrian lifted it!! I enjoyed the historical storyline that was divulged piece by piece from a note in a bottle. There was a lot going on in this very short story.
June 18, 2022
Witty short story set in Whitby.
August 7, 2017
This is quite a short book, somewhere between a novella and a long short story. My library ebook edition turned out to have a preview of The Book of Strange New Things taking up the final third, so I was a bit surprised when The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps ended quite abruptly on page 66.
Under the Skin was a brilliant debut novel and a hard act to follow, and The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps does unfortunately have a touch of sophomore syndrome to it. Haunted by repetitive nightmares, archaeology student Sian joins a dig at the old abbey in Whitby, Yorkshire. Here she meets an arrogant medical student from London named Mack, who shares with her an old parchment in a bottle his late father found in the foundations of a local building. Their relationship grows as they try to safely extract and decipher the message within, which turns out to be a confession about a centuries-old murder. So The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps is part romance, part historical mystery. It reminded me, on reflection, of J.L. Carr’s A Month in the Country. (Which, funnily enough, I reviewed exactly a year ago to the day.) Both are short books are about a memorable time in a person’s life, in a place they don’t normally live, visiting for a very specific task; the time and place unusual only in that it’s unusual for them, breaking them out of their normal routines and leaving them aware even as they live that time that it’s quite ephemeral. That was long-winded; I’m sure the Germans have a word for it.
Anyway, I found The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps engaging enough while I was reading it but not particularly memorable. It felt very much to me like an uncertain second novel after the huge success of Faber’s debut.
Under the Skin was a brilliant debut novel and a hard act to follow, and The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps does unfortunately have a touch of sophomore syndrome to it. Haunted by repetitive nightmares, archaeology student Sian joins a dig at the old abbey in Whitby, Yorkshire. Here she meets an arrogant medical student from London named Mack, who shares with her an old parchment in a bottle his late father found in the foundations of a local building. Their relationship grows as they try to safely extract and decipher the message within, which turns out to be a confession about a centuries-old murder. So The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps is part romance, part historical mystery. It reminded me, on reflection, of J.L. Carr’s A Month in the Country. (Which, funnily enough, I reviewed exactly a year ago to the day.) Both are short books are about a memorable time in a person’s life, in a place they don’t normally live, visiting for a very specific task; the time and place unusual only in that it’s unusual for them, breaking them out of their normal routines and leaving them aware even as they live that time that it’s quite ephemeral. That was long-winded; I’m sure the Germans have a word for it.
Anyway, I found The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps engaging enough while I was reading it but not particularly memorable. It felt very much to me like an uncertain second novel after the huge success of Faber’s debut.
March 5, 2021
...why did the process of retrieving anything from the distant past always have to be making the best of a bad job? Why couldn't anything spring from antiquity fresh and intact? Why must all documents be blemished and brittle, all vases broken, all skeletons incomplete, all bracelets rusted, all statues vandalised?This was perfect quarantine reading - a novella containing two compelling mysteries and a love story: a sort of literary espresso. I found a whole other level of meaning to Siân's struggles both with her handicap, the letter and life in general, much in the way I, in dreams, have torn off wallpaper and found a hidden door. Siân very literally has been dragging the past along with her, and the ending, which by the way is The Best of All Possible Endings, sees her liberated from the past in almost every way. I love that she keeps her secrets to herself and also gets to keep the one thing she now loves. I'm sorry the story ended where it did but then it's a complete and fulfilling resolution and I mustn't complain. (Although a sequel would be welcomed.)
April 11, 2015
I did enjoy this book. An archaeologist with her own problems and a fondness for medieval Christianity finds a mystery to unravel, and begins to understand herself as well. A short we'll written novella that is deeper than it looks.
I can see why a lot of people have said it seems divided into two, and the second is not as atmospheric as the first, but I think this shows a major change in the mind and feelings of the chief character. I love the references to religion both modern and medieval, and appreciate how the lead character thinks on this.
I was expecting a different ending after the melancholic start, but am pleased with what happened. It seems she discovered how to live again with courage, her own beliefs and a loving companion (the better choice). And I think that I will revisit this book maybe when I have grown enough to make this change.
I can see why a lot of people have said it seems divided into two, and the second is not as atmospheric as the first, but I think this shows a major change in the mind and feelings of the chief character. I love the references to religion both modern and medieval, and appreciate how the lead character thinks on this.
I was expecting a different ending after the melancholic start, but am pleased with what happened. It seems she discovered how to live again with courage, her own beliefs and a loving companion (the better choice). And I think that I will revisit this book maybe when I have grown enough to make this change.
December 31, 2019
Sto devětadevadesát schodů vedoucích ke starému opatství ve Whitby. Sto devětadevadesát schodů, které zdolává Sian téměř denně z pracovních důvodů, možná ale i z důvodů duševní očisty. Schody vedoucí mezi současností a minulostí. Schody spojující, ale možná i rozdělující. Novela přímo natlakovaná výbornou atmosférou, kterou v sobě nese přímořské anglické město. Faber nahodil udici do rybníčku plného ryb nesoucích různé literární žánry. Je už na čtenáři, kterou z nich si vyloví a určí ke konzumaci. Jestli tu, která je detektivkou, válečnou povídkou, thrillerem či povídkou milostnou. Nechala jsem se novelou zlehka nést až do konce, který byl trochu jiný, než jsem očekávala. Překvapení ale bylo příjemné.
January 30, 2014
I love Whitby and was intrigued by this novella that is set there. The 199 steps are the ones that lead up to Whitby Abbey. Michel Faber is well regarded, but I found the writing clunky and full of clichés. The characterisation was shallow. I was pulled along and wanted to know more about what happened however. The ending was poor.
This novella tells of a potential romance that does not happen, framed around a more interesting story of a confession found in an old parchment. I can''t help thinking that the novella should have really been about this old story, and would have been much richer for it.
This novella tells of a potential romance that does not happen, framed around a more interesting story of a confession found in an old parchment. I can''t help thinking that the novella should have really been about this old story, and would have been much richer for it.
July 27, 2015
Whitby Abbey and Michel Faber are an irresistible combination, but this reads a little like Faber is still on a learning curve. Some of the writing is clunky and it could have done with a little less of its mysterious archeological plot and more of its character. Her motivations, and the meet cute with the London doctor, seem a little forced, and we don't learn enough about what's driving her until later in the book. That out, I enjoyed it and I'm glad it was so hard tracking it down that I ended up with a nice little copy tossed out from a library in Sussex, complete with stamps and a card inside-- made the story feel closer.
February 1, 2011
This, unlike what the blur says isn't really a thriller, romance or ghost story. Its the story of a archeologist (no, not like Indiana Jones) who meets a guy who gives her a bottle with a letter in it. She unpeels the letter and worries about the pain in her leg while alternately lusting after the guy and being angry at him for not being a prude. The authors language can be over the top at times.
Which makes it sound awful, its not, its just not great. It does though feel very english (and not even set in London), which is nice after reading so many american authors recently
Which makes it sound awful, its not, its just not great. It does though feel very english (and not even set in London), which is nice after reading so many american authors recently
Displaying 1 - 30 of 157 reviews