Instead, in the breathless thrill of the King’s return, all that matters is to be witty, to dress well, to make displays of conspicuous consumption and to reflect Charles’s glory. Captivated by the glitter of the Court, Merivel gladly plays the fool. It is no longer fashionable to be grave and sober, to fear God or to live a simple life. In this world, the values of the Puritan age have been pushed to one side: the King, not God, is the fount of all grace and favour. Plucked from his studies at Caius, the young physician Robert Merivel is swallowed up by the colour and gaiety of King Charles II’s Restoration court.
For all his faults it’s impossible not to feel some affection for poor Merivel, as he tumbles through the vicissitudes of life and the result is a brilliant novel not only about the restoration of a monarchy, but also about the restoration of one man’s soul and sense of purpose. Tremain’s antihero in this book, Robert Merivel, is a splendid creation: a blend of absurdity, ambition and hidden pain, whose braying bluster completely dominates the narrative. Tremain has just published a sequel to Restoration, titled Merivel: A Man of His Time, so I thought I’d better catch up before everyone starts telling me how wonderful it is. I don’t know her work that well – Music and Silence and Restoration are her only novels that I’ve read to date – but in both cases I’ve been struck by her shrewdness, her poise and her sheer skill as a writer. I’ve wanted to get my hands on this ever since reading Music and Silence several years ago and it has definitely been worth the wait.
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