The Crimson Petal and the White - Michael Faber

I had been saving this for a rainy day, so I took the book with me on a trip to France. I always take too many books with me when I go away - paranoid that I will run out of reading material when stuck in a tiny airport with no bookshop - so I'm not very good at travelling light. This monster weighed in at over 800 pages so it counted for two or three normal length books.

It was a very good read. Good story, intriguing characters, and a totally new perspective on Victorian London Society. It was one of those books that it's easy to lose yourself in - perfect for a travelling companion.

Beyond that, I'm not sure what to say. The book isn't particularly inventive in construction or content - it's a fairly straightforward start-to-finish story of a prostitute with heart and brains who makes good. The only feature - 'though not exactly original - is the overpresent narrator. The reader is introduced to the main characters, entreated to stay with them even when they are dull or self-pitying, and generally guided through the novel in a very self-conscious fashion. Very Jane Austen. But not very consistent - the narrator fades around the middle of the novel, only to return on the last page as an apology for the inconclusive ending. But even this feature doesn't add anything profound - it's just a bit annoying.

I would recommend this as a good holiday read.