Kept

by D.J. Taylor

Madness, greed, love, obsession, Machiavellian plotting, and a great train robbery, in a captivating Victorian mystery about the extreme and curious things men do to get—and keep—what they want August 1863. Henry Ireland, a failed landowner, dies unexpectedly in a riding accident, leaving a highly strung young widow. Not far away lives Ireland's friend James Dixey, a celebrated naturalist who collects strange trophies—a stuffed bear, a pet mouse, and a wolf that he keeps caged in the grounds of his decaying house, lost in the fog on the edge of the fens. The poachers, Dewar and Dunbar, with their cargo of pilfered eggs; Esther the observant kitchen maid, pining to be reunited with her vanished admirer; the ancient lawyer Mr. Crabbe, made careless by snobbery; John Carstairs, in search of his cousin, the elusive widow; an enigmatic debt-collector, busily plotting an audacious robbery; various lowlife henchmen; a beady-eyed country curate who sees more than he should; and Captain McTurk of Scotland Yard, patiently investigating the circumstances of Mr. Ireland's death and many other things besides—all are drawn into a net of intrigue with wide and sinister implications. Ranging from the loch-sides of Scotland to the slums of Clerkenwell, from the gentlemen's clubs of St. James's to the Yukon wilds, Kept is a gorgeously intricate novel about the urge to possess, at once a gripping investigation of some of the secret chambers of the human heart and a dazzling reinvention of Victorian life and passions.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Fiction, Historical, Victorian, Historical Mystery, 19th Century

454 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

David John Taylor (born 1960) is a critic, novelist and biographer. After attending school in Norwich, he read Modern History at St John's College, Oxford, and has received the 2003 Whitbread Biography Award for his life of George Orwell.

He lives in Norwich and contributes to The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, New Statesman and The Spectator among other publications.

He is married to the novelist Rachel Hore, and together they have three sons.

Reviews

[Sarah Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was better than I was expecting, but I wouldn't recommend it to general audiences. The style is hardcore pastiche -- not just a literary novel set in the Victorian period (e.g., something by Sarah Waters), but a deliberate & very thorough mock-up of the Dickens, Gaskell, & Thackery schools of fiction. (The author makes no attempt to hide his influences; indeed, he lists them by name in the afterward.) Accordingly, Kept moves at a slow pace & takes its own sweet time with each character. The plot is a complicated web of seemingly unrelated events (which are, of course, loosely connected by the end), but I'll break it down to the essential elements:

-the disappearance of a widow (who may or may not be insane)
-an eccentric naturalist recluse keeping said widow locked in an upstairs room for (likely) nefarious reasons
-a Masterful Crime/Get Rich Quick scheme by one SMRT criminal & several lesser henchmen
-a goodhearted young maid's interpretation of events she's not completely understanding

Weaving in & out of these major points are several smaller stories, including (but not limited to) aging lawyers & aspiring politicians & a young curate in love & another maid who can't stop the downward spiral of her life. Some scenes are criminal plotting, others are diary format, others are semi-gothic, & still others are countryside social drama. So, yes -- very Dickensian, right down to the omnicient narrator who's compiling these various threads. Like all good storytellers, this narrator has a keen sense of dark humor; his asides & dry editorial comments are some of the best quips of the book.

...But it's most definitely not for everyone. (Quite honestly, I'm not shocked that the Goodreads rating is low.)

This is a dense novel that demands your full attention, but the writing is very readable if you don't mind Victorian-style wordiness. It's a good example of what happens when literary fiction doesn't take itself too seriously -- that is, an erudite novel that doesn't wrap itself in its own inaccessiblity. (Also, the author included endnotes on some of the more obscure political references.) Stuff does happen, & it keeps the plot moving forward -- I promise. :P But I think the publishers made a mistake by printing "mystery" on the dustjacket. Devious plans & questionable sanity don't make a mystery -- at least not in the modern sense of Agatha Christie or Patricia Cornwell.

I'm sure most people will be scared off by this review, but that's okay. As I said, it's not a novel for everyone...unless you're one of those quirky folks who enjoy Victorian pastiche fiction.

[Caitlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

look, being 'literary' doesn't excuse poor plotting or not having a goddamn ending.

Utterly unsatisfying and confusing.

Look, I read Victorian novels for fun. A book like this should have been my sort of thing. I just don't think Taylor did the Victoriana well. It was far too knowing at times, and far too earnest and others - and honestly, Taylor isn't good enough at writing characters that sound different to manage a book of this scope. It's too easy to get confused between the characters as they all seem so similar.

[Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

looking for something else a few days ago, found this book which i bought years ago and then completely forgot about and with an 'I spent money on, see if I get any value" more than anything else feeling, I took a look and just got hooked on it

not an easy read as it uses 19th century English (see contemporary novels, Dickens etc), moves between multiple pov's and locations, different social classes and occupations, uses various forms of narration, from journal entries to third person pov, so Kept is a book that keeps baffling and sometimes frustrating the reader as something starts happening and one wants to see where it goes, but next page action moves somewhere seemingly very different, so it takes patience and real interest to keep going, but I kept returning to it until I finished it reading the last 100+ pages (and the few appendices that serve as a sort of epilogue) in one sitting

no real "heroes" and a few villains, some really memorable like the fulcrum of the novel, one middle aged Mr. Pardew with an unsuspecting wife in the countryside and a young mistress in London, currently owning a debt collection business, but also, schemer, blackmailer, possibly killer, involved in a 19th century form of money laundering, a plot to kill a rich man and defraud his heiress wife as well as planning the greatest robbery of recent times, if only he will have the nerve to carry on; around him various no-good employees of his, lawyers and aristocrats who owe him, a sinister old man on an estate with a passion for collecting, his servants and the local young clergyman, the police officer who investigates, the heiress herself and a few others, with action jumping from one to another seemingly at random many times, though as the novel goes on a pattern is revealed

overall darkly funny and ironic, compelling despite its narrative difficulty and a book worth persevering till the end

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Setting: London (mainly) and East Anglia; 1860's (Victorian era).

For me, this one missed the mark as the 'Victorian mystery' it was dubbed. Rather, the author seemed to be attempting to write a Victorian novel in the guise of Thackeray (who he clearly likes) and Dickens (who he apparently doesn't). Thus, we have a third person narrator who 'observes' and 'reports on' the activities of the various, and multiple, characters in the book - with a few witty observations but certainly not as many as I have experienced in reading both Thackeray and Dickens.

There are several different storylines, with tentative threads linking them together, some of which eventually get pulled together at the end. It is hard really to make an effective summary of the storylines in a short review, not wishing to reveal too much to an intending reader. Briefly, there is a run-down estate in East Anglia where the owner is following the wishes of a friend of his (now deceased) in looking after said friend's wife, who has been deemed insane; there is a servant girl and a footman at said estate who are drawn to one another; there is a gang of criminals operating in London under the direction of a Mr Pardew, operating early versions of money-laundering and cheque fraud but who also have links to said estate; there is an early version of the great train robbery where gold bullion is stolen; and there is a conscientious and capable police officer by the name of Captain McTurk trying to get to the bottom of all this.
As other reviewers have said, it is not easy to keep track of all the characters and their tenuous links to each other and often it is not even clear who is being 'observed' when one chapter starts - and then it ends and the reader is left somewhat 'hanging', as in the case of Robert Farrier and his experiences in Canada. Overall, it was only an okay read for me and one which will not be 'kept'! - 6.5/10.

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I was reading through this, the thought struck me that I was really enjoying it because the author tried very hard to present his story in the manner of an actual novel written during the Victorian period. I love Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, etc and it occurred to me that the reason I love reading these guys is that the stories each writes is not just one single story, but a host of plots, subplots, character portraits and loose threads that come to be tied together at the end. I realized that Taylor was doing quite a fine job of setting forth Kept in such a manner, and it works, to a point. It is, of course, NOT a true novel written during that time, but more of a pastiche.

The story itself is quite good and held my interest throughout the entire book. It opens with the death of one Henry Ireland, dead from a fall from his horse. Or at least, that is what it looks like he died from. He leaves behind Isabel, his wife, who is somewhat mentally unbalanced. Isabel is taken in by Mr. Dixey, a naturalist living out in the country as society begins to wonder exactly what has happened to her. Enter also a group of plotters who want to rob a train of its gold bullion & coins and you have enough to keep you busy for a while.

A very delightful novel; the characterizations are, for the most part, done very well and the writing is quite good. I would recommend this book to others who like modern novels set in the Victorian period; this one is not a cozy by any stretch. I really appreciated the author's efforts to try to make it sound somewhat authentic.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't believe so many reviewers couldn't give this novel more than 1 or 2 stars. For me, it's an absolutely perfect book and one of my all time favourites. I've read probably 80 plus novels per year for 5 decades and I found this was something really special. Interesting characters, good period setting, wicked humour and irresistable story lines.

I also liked the fact that it didn't seem to need any of the essential ingredients of so much modern literature; great beauties, strong grey-eyed men, love affairs, ridiculous sex scenes, bad parents etc etc. The characters were enormously interesting without needing any of these embellishments. Proper people; struggling with life, ugly and mad.

[Stacy Maxwell · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book took me about a month to read, it was absolutely tortureous for me to read. I am not sure why i didn't quit half way through. I found it to really not get to the point of the story until nearly the end and when it finally came down to tying all the characters together, it came across to me as a complete after thought.

[Chana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very, very, very, very, very wordy. Too many words. The author, well I am guessing that he loves words, and I understand that love of words, but the author's overuse of words in this novel made it difficult to read, I was getting lost in the all the words, couldn't keep the thread of the story.
But the wordiness wasn't the only problem. He was using a blind stitch for his thread. It was story after story seemingly unconnected, new characters often introduced in whole subplots, the whole mass of the previous subplots needing to be held in the mind while plodding through new subplots, trying to remember character's names, events and how everything might relate. I didn't think the story had an ebb and flow; it was just a steady river of words with never one thing standing out. Eventually I grabbed hold of the character Dixey, and then Mrs. Ireland and Esther, less so all the criminal characters, and society characters, and lawyer characters, and servant characters, and religious characters and filler characters. It took me a long time to read and it was an effort, this was not a page turner, at least not for me. I was caught by surprise when it ended. I turned the page and it was notes. I turned back and saw I had read the last page. The story just ends, no difference to anything else written. That is what I mean by no ebb and flow. I walked through the book and right out without realizing it.

[Laura Morrigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Readers used to a more modern style of writing may find this book a little challenging, but it is well worth persevering!

Kept has a wide range of characters, the connections between which will not be immediately seen, and often uses different forms of writing, such as the epistolatory form of letters which was highly popular during the Victorian Era. It also uses a lot of Victorian turn of phrase, and the style of the omniscient narrator, but sometimes addressing the author personally, breaking the fourth wall, we would say in film. There is also the style common with some older novels, of occasionally lapsing into present tense.

For me, as someone who loves literature and the Victorian era, I found that all these things added to the charm! I really felt like I was reading a novel from the era, and the well-written descriptions and wry humour really helped me become a part of the world. I also liked the mix of events, from crime, to even some rather gothic scenes in the old house. The mysteries of what is going on unravel slowly in a wonderful way.

The author has a great knowledge of all the facts of the era, the artists, authors, newspapers, every detail feels spot on, and I find the references to writers and artists fascinating! He perfectly captures the minutiae of Victorian life in London and Scotland. The book has a very real feeling with palpable descriptions, creating a very real world within its pages.

It was fascinating to watch the stories intertwine as the story reached its conclusion. I must admit, I hoped for a happier ending for some of the characters, even though I knew it was unlikely. The story felt very real, and the endings kept with that. I need to find out which others of the main characters might have been real people, and the author cleverly interwove many real aspects of the time into his work.

The story also deals sensitively with mental illness and its treatment at the time, although, I think, had the character not been of the upper classes, her treatment would have been far worse.

There are so many things I want to talk about in regards to the book, but I don't want to spoil the story, because its unravelling is one of its pleasures. Just take it from me, this book is a must read!

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

The mystery in this novel remained obscure - at least to me - until perhaps three-quarters of the way through. Taylor's method of narration, which I found fascinating and well-executed, means that the reader is left unraveling even the parts of the story that aren't mysterious per se. For me, this was most of the fun of the story. Also, Taylor pulls off the style of the Victorian novel extremely well - the tone is right, the subplots are right, the huge cast of characters is right, and the way everything is wrapped up in the end is right as well (though not quite as satisfying as, say, Dickens). Recommended for those who like a puzzle, and especially for those who enjoy multiple threads of narration.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

had me gripped throughout - would have given it five stars but the ending disappointed me - more of a whimper than a bang. Excellent writing, you are really drawn into this murky Victorian world and the characters in it. If you enjoy Victorian style Gothic tales this one will satisfy and I think it's a read for male and female alike.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back in high school creative writing class, I had an assignment to write a soap opera script, which would then be read in front of the class. It’s not often that you get assigned to write something so ridiculous, so I went all out. In the span of 10 pages, there was amnesia caused by a tragic ladder accident, rival doctors, scheming exes, secret twins, buried treasure, familial revelations, covert relationships, and dramatic comas. It was a masterpiece. Of course, soap opera conventions are in and of themselves simple; it’s how the writers combine them that makes the whole thing complex. When you take something with already complex conventions and try to shove them into one document, things get a little hairy.

D.J. Taylor’s Kept is a web of Victorian literature tropes that can be mind-boggling to decipher. Here’s a short list of the conventions I was able to identify: deranged woman in the attic, heiress kept against her will, gothic setting, people reaching too far about their station and failing miserably, paid-by-the-letter subscription wordiness and servant/master relations. I am not faulting Taylor for these conventions; indeed, he does well by them. There were some points that I thought I was reading Dickens. However, the combination of all of the little details, instead of creating a Victorian supernovel, just becomes confusing. The connections between a murder in the beginning of the novel, a naturalist, a daring train robber, and the woman in the attic are all drawn by the end, but tenuously. I’ve had a night to marinate the story in my mind and I’m still not entirely sure what happened.

Though the plot is convoluted and the novel itself suffered from Too Many Characters Syndrome (if I’m bored someday, I’m going to count them all), it is in no way a bad book. I think that we have Kept credit for striving for authenticity. I honestly believe that if you had plopped this book in front of me after finished my college Victorian Literature course, I might have mistaken it for some Dickens protégé. If you read this book, you’ll appreciate the level of detail, but, for your own sake, take notes. Then share them with me.

[Karyl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I knew going into this book that it would be very Dickensian, with many characters and sub-plots and intertwining stories. I loved the idea, but I don't feel that Taylor executed it well. I found myself confused by all of the characters, since they blended together so well, without much in the way of individual differentiation, and I wasn't fond of the differing methods of story-telling Taylor employed. Sometimes the novel was in the first person, sometimes in the third person. Sometimes letters would take over the telling of the story. Sometimes there were newspaper articles or journal entries. It was all so very confusing. The novel felt bloated by all of its characters; did the reader really need an account of Farrier's near-disaster in Canada when he was such a tiny part of the story? I believe this novel would have benefited incredibly from some harsh editing and tightening up of the plot.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was very disappointed in this book. Yes, it was Victorian times, but it was NOT a mystery. Far from it. We had almost all the facts before we started. The only real "mysteries" were who killed Henry Ireland and James Dixey. And who murdered them wasn't really essential to the book. The FACT that Henry Ireland died was, but not who killed him.

After her husband's death, Mrs. Ireland, who has suffered a mental breakdown, disappears. Where she is is quickly revealed to the reader. Why she is there is also. What happens to her there is readily available, if you can get through the rest.

There IS a quantity of smaller characters and a robbery based on the Great Train Robbery, but the book does not have enough focus on one idea to make it a mystery.

What IS a mystery is why the critics have been so excited about this book.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boy, did it take me a while to get through this one! I think that's what the author was going for. He clearly wanted this to be a Dickensian novel, complete with the cast of thousands, flowery language, and intertwining plots. The only problem is that he isn't Dickens and we're not living in the 19th century reading this serially. The story is interesting enough to make you want to keep reading, and his command of the Victorian language and landscape is masterful. But the characters aren't as engaging as they could be, and throughout the language and setting almost get in the way of telling the story.

[Jenni · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book is, principally, well-written and the author has put lots of effort into creating a "real" Victorian atmosphere. However, there were too many uninteresting characters and the story sort of went nowhere, and the various plot-lines were connected only vaguely. I'm quite sure that was the author's intention, but while I appreciated the excellent writing, the book didn't live up to my expectations. And though it is not the author's fault, it irritated me to notice that it somehow seems the person who wrote the text on the book cover hadn't even read it, as the text gives a totally wrong impression of the story.

[Professor Childermass · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh man, this book made me so mad! I hate to be so inarticulate in describing why I disliked it so much - I think I'm just angry that the back-cover description had little or nothing to do with the actual story. I was irritated that it dragged on at a snail's pace with no reward for the reader. I give two stars for the (for the most part) engaging discriptions of Victorian London. If you do decide to dive in and read it, keep on the look for heavy leanings on the works of Charles Dickens.

[Conor O'mahony · Rating 1 out of 5]

I once sat on a coach for 24 hours. I would compare that level of tedium to reading this book. The concept of the story was fine. The characters however never came to life, the flow of the story too fragmented to persevere with. I kept going thinking it may improve or tie in nicely at the end or even I may have a moment of getting 'it''. Like the coach ride I did get to the destination but would never recommend it to anyone.

[Rachel Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

very densely plotted - many characters and storylines to keep track of. unfortunately, i felt like my favorite storyline (about the 'kept' woman) was sort of dropped and left barely resolved.

[Zoella · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh, please, no, don't make me try to read this again...

[Kailey (Luminous Libro) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bored out of my skull. I couldn't finish it. Hated the writing style. Boring characters, and no plot to speak of b/c it was soooooo slow.

[Georgina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm. Being compared to Dickens, Eliot and Gaskell was never going to end well. Without such plaudits, we have a solid take on a 19th century mystery, with varying levels of success at pastiche. At times, the writing was tremendous. The narrative drive is similarly ‘curate’s egg’, sometimes intriguing, but too often taking diversions that were not in the least bit entertaining, or pertinent. Having the publisher’s hyperbole in mind, however, serves only to highlight this author’s lack of delight in their characters. Dickens, Eliot, and Gaskell exude a warmth for humanity and it’s vagaries and create characters to love in abundance. Their understanding of people who play major or minor roles in their texts are always fully understood by their creators and as such achieve a terrific level of ‘reality’ for readers. Their determination to examine the political experience of their times is also profound. I could not find anyone to love here - in fact I am not sure who this book was really about. I failed to understand the point if some characters and their side-road stories at all. The time and place is well researched, but, at times, this research is worn heavily. The potential for a classic ‘madwoman in the attic’ tale stumbled and fell. The legacy tale was pedestrian and the ‘baddie’ thinly drawn. I so wanted to be able to 5* this book, but I cannot.

[Bev]

This book did very little for me and (full confession) I did not read every word because there were SO many of them and none of the ones I did read were interesting to me at all. The characters did not draw me in. I didn't much care who killed Henry Ireland or what happened to his mad wife or Mr. Dixey. And there were too many other characters that kept popping in and out to keep track of. And SO many threads and secondary stories. And they were supposed to all come together--but they never seemed to. As someone else mentioned...if there is a real ending to this story it's very well hidden because I couldn't find it. But I did skim enough that I feel justified counting it for various challenges. Unrated because I did not read every single word and don't think I can fairly give a rating.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this Victorian pastiche imbued with the language, the mores, the sights and the sounds of 1863-66 England. It's ostensibly a mystery of two deaths mentioned at the start, but more a series of character studies centred on creepy old James Dixey and the mad young widowed relative he keeps in his decaying Norfolk mansion, as well as some of his servants and Mr. Pardew, the first Great Train Robber. There are various other individuals in interesting situations and locations (including a compelling chapter in a snow-bound Yukon) all described in the style of various authors. A great read!

[Marilyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I agree with many of the reviews: plodding language, taking forever to move the story along, myriads of characters! I usually love Victorian set novels. I really enjoyed Rebecca and The Woman In White which we’re nothing like this. I’m about half way through actually but will stick with it.

[Kat Walter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tedious. Good words...lots of good words...too many good words. This was not the page turner that was promised on the cover. I actually fell asleep trying to get through it...and I’m an insomniac. I love Dickens, Trollope and Wilkie Collins...this fell far short. I am disappointed.

[Heather Mccalman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Slow, tedious, definitely not a mystery. I kept reading hoping that something would happen....

[Joy Murphy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book never took hold and became painful to read, because it’s boring. Avoid.

[BookBec · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this was more work than pleasure for the first three parts, but I rather enjoyed Parts 4 & 5.

[David Hesson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent premise. Didn’t live up to it