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    Oscar and Lucinda
    Oscar and Lucinda
    Oscar and Lucinda
    Audiobook20 hours

    Oscar and Lucinda

    Written by Peter Carey

    Narrated by Steven Crossley

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Oscar Hopkins is a high-strung preacher's kid with hydrophobia and noisy knees. Lucinda Leplastrier is a frizzy-haired heiress who impulsively buys a glass factory with the inheritance forced on her by a well-intentioned adviser. In the early parts of this lushly written book, author Peter Carey renders the seminal turning points in his protagonists' childhoods as exquisite 19th-century set pieces. Young Oscar, denied the heavenly fruit of a Christmas pudding by his cruelly stern father, forever renounces his father's religion in favor of the Anglican Church. "Dear God," Oscar prays, "if it be Thy will that Thy people eat pudding, smite him!" Lucinda's childhood trauma involves a beautiful doll bought by her struggling mother with savings from the jam jar; in a misguided attempt to tame the doll's unruly curls, young Lucinda mutilates her treasure beyond repair. Neither of these coming-of-age stories quite explains how the grownup Oscar and Lucinda each develop a guilty passion for gambling. Oscar plays the horses while at school, and Lucinda, now an orphaned heiress, finds comfort in a game of cards with an odd collection of acquaintances. When the two finally meet, on board a ship bound for New South Wales, they are bound by their affinity for risk, their loneliness, and their awkwardly blossoming (but unexpressed) mutual affection. Their final high-stakes folly--transporting a crystal palace of a church across (literally) godforsaken terrain--strains plausibility, and events turn ghastly as Oscar plays out his bid for Lucinda's heart. Yet even the unconvincing plot turns are made up for by Carey's rich prose and the tale's unpredictable outcome. Although love proves to be the ultimate gamble for Oscar and Lucinda, the story never strays too far from the terrible possibility that even the most thunderstruck lovers can remain isolated in parallel lives.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMay 22, 2015
    ISBN9781490625485
    Oscar and Lucinda

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    Reviews for Oscar and Lucinda

    3.5/5

    22 ratings22 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I was assigned to read this for my Contemporary British Literature class, and admittedly, I *hated* it for the first three-quarters of the book or so; the prose was strange and hard to get into, the characters were mostly unsympathetic (Lucinda was the only one who seemed remotely human rather than just a character), and the plot was bizarre and not terribly absorbing. The professor kept telling us to treat it as a postmodern game rather than a story, but I didn't understand what she meant until the last dozen or so chapters, when everything suddenly fell into place and I got what Carey was trying to do; I enjoyed it much more once I understood how Carey was playing with his audience and their preconceived expectations. I don't think I'll read it again, but it's absolutely worth trying once if you feel like going a round with the author; just don't give up too quickly.
    • 2/5
      The greatest literary love story of the last half-century? I honestly didn't care what happened to either of the eponymous egotists. The odd flourish and funny background character couldn't compensate for the rest of this boring, baggy epic. 
    • 5/5
      That this book exists is a total miracle. I can’t imagine writing one paragraph of it, never mind the whole work. Extraordinary insight into the details of mid-19th century Australia and England, through the intricate thoughts and feelings of two (and many more) multi-layered characters. Savor each phrase, and be sad when it’s done.
    • 3/5
      Oscar is the son of Evangelical naturalist Theophilus. Lucinda is the daughter of Elizabeth, a women's rights activist. An unlikely couple, Oscar and Lucinda fall in love but never marry. Instead they build a church of glass and move it into the wilds of New South Wales. They do so as a tribute to each other, but this tribute only takes the place of a love that could have been. Carey is without doubt a Dickensian author. His novel is a long and complicated genealogy of character studies. Not only are the main protagonists lavishly detailed but also their progenitors, friends, and servants, and in some cases their friends' and servants' ancestors. Carey obviously thinks important the effects of one's social context on desires and decisions. These long stories within stories function to explain Oscar and Lucinda's actions, which are complicated and fraught with conflicting personal values and beliefs. His characters are not quite Dickensian caricatures. They are more real and complicated, like, I would venture, Theophilus' loving and respectful studies of sea creatures (his specialty). One of the most touching passages in the book occurs when Wardley-Fish, a young friend of Oscar's, stumbles upon Theophilus Hopkins' writings in a book shop, reads his words and appreciates all their tenderness, all the love and emotion the writer felt for God's creation and through these writings he begins to understand his own friend, Oscar, so much better. Wardley-Fish "...claimed to have no ear for poetry or music and yet he was moved - it nearly winded him - by the elder Hopkins' prose. Where he had expected hellfire and mustard poultice, he found maidenhair and a ribbon of spawn.... To be able to feel these things, to celebrate God's work in such a lovely hymn, Wardley-Fish would have given everything and anything...." When Wardley-Fish tries to convey his feelings about the writing to his superficial fiancé, the words read aloud to her do not convey their meaning on their own. The listener does not have the sensitivity needed to appreciate such sensitivity. Theophilus' portrait is one of the most insightful and touching portraits of fatherhood I have ever encountered. It is one (of the many) tragedies told in this story that his son Oscar leaves him over a disagreement about theology. Theophilus loves his son deeply but does not express it as he should. He thinks it is too prideful to feel he loves his own son more than God does. Here in this passage we see the cruel and twisted religious heart decide not to hold his son, making one of a number of bad decisions that prevent full and happy human relationships. "Sometimes he wished only to lie on the bed and embrace his son, to put his nose into his clean, washed hair, to make a human cage around him, to protect his bird-frail body from harm; and what pride, he thought, what arrogance that would be." Social propriety and religious superstitions cause all the characters in this novel to stumble and to miss happiness. It dictates actions and cripples good will, reason, and common moral sense. The large metaphor ruling the narrative is Pascal's wager. To believe in God is to gamble. And, unlike Pascal, Carey says to gamble this way with one's life is obscene and stupid. A sad, well written book.
    • 5/5
      I hadn't got round to reading this when it came out, so it was a loan from a dear friend that at last set me to reading it, and I'm very glad. The two main protagonists are like cats, and Lucinda is likened to a cat a couple of times explicitly in the book; so the drawing of them is from quite an oblique angle. Their communication with each other and with the people who touch their lives mis-aims constantly, and in that sense they are very easy for anyone to relate to! Lucinda is difficult and Oscar is truly an Odd Bod, as his Oxford friend Wardley-Fish dubs him, but Carey takes you by the hand and helps you love them both and wish them some kind of appropriate off-kilter future together defyng the world. The ending is extraordinary - I shan't spoil.
    • 5/5
      Oscar Hopkins is a high-strung preacher's kid with hydrophobia and noisy knees. Lucinda Leplastrier is a frizzy-haired heiress who impulsively buys a glass factory with the inheritance forced on her by a well-intentioned adviser. In the early parts of this lushly written book, author Peter Carey renders the seminal turning points in his protagonists' childhoods as exquisite 19th-century set pieces. Young Oscar, denied the heavenly fruit of a Christmas pudding by his cruelly stern father, forever renounces his father's religion in favor of the Anglican Church. "Dear God," Oscar prays, "if it be Thy will that Thy people eat pudding, smite him!" Lucinda's childhood trauma involves a beautiful doll bought by her struggling mother with savings from the jam jar; in a misguided attempt to tame the doll's unruly curls, young Lucinda mutilates her treasure beyond repair. Neither of these coming-of-age stories quite explains how the grownup Oscar and Lucinda each develop a guilty passion for gambling. Oscar plays the horses while at school, and Lucinda, now an orphaned heiress, finds comfort in a game of cards with an odd collection of acquaintances. When the two finally meet, on board a ship bound for New South Wales, they are bound by their affinity for risk, their loneliness, and their awkwardly blossoming (but unexpressed) mutual affection. Their final high-stakes folly--transporting a crystal palace of a church across (literally) godforsaken terrain--strains plausibility, and events turn ghastly as Oscar plays out his bid for Lucinda's heart. Yet even the unconvincing plot turns are made up for by Carey's rich prose and the tale's unpredictable outcome. Although love proves to be the ultimate gamble for Oscar and Lucinda, the story never strays too far from the terrible possibility that even the most thunderstruck lovers can remain isolated in parallel lives.
    • 4/5
      Quite simply the best thing that Peter carey has ever written.
    • 3/5
      This month's choice, Peter Carey's Oscar and Lucinda, was never going to be a popular one. Most of our group have either tried reading it in the past or have steered away from it all together. In my experience, that has been a common reaction to this book, but I decided our group was up to the challenge so included it in this year's line up.It tells the quirky tale of two very off-beat characters, namely Oacared and Lucinda, who meet by chance and are drawn to each other by an obsession with gambling. But there are other forces at work here and the story that builds around these two protagonists weaves into a complex set of life lessons that only Carey can pull off in a novel.Our opinions varied - which was completely expected. Nancy and Tera gave it a firm "no thank you". Their comments included; too wordy, terrible ending, jumps around too much and characters unbelievable. Lorna could find no empathy with the characters at all and Carol found it hard work. "I had to plough my way through", she commented.But on the other end of the scale Denise and Jeanette thought it a wonderful book. Full of beautiful words, great research with so much to say about Australia and its people. Viti loved the language, the short chapters and the symbolic nature of the story. We did agree that Peter Carey's writing does not make for an easy read and either you like him or you don't. But I believe Oscar and Lucinda to be a very unique story that caters to a vast number of readers. But you must open the book with an open mind, to both the story and the author's style, otherwise you won't get past the first chapter!I read this book about 10 years ago after being told "it was a load of rubbish!" by a library customer. Here we have the crux to finding good books. One man's rubbish becomes another's treasure. And I'll end with a quote from Denise who summed it up with "I'm so glad I read Oscar and Lucinda. It is a book I will never forget!"Tell Me This ... "Can someone describe the book's plot?"We all found the plot of Oscar and Lucinda to be rather elusive and shifting. There appears to be a few points during the story where everything is coming together and then it moves sideways once more and starts building again. There was a general consensus that Carey used organised religion and gambling as symbols for people's needs to believe and belong, and glass (or more precisely) Oscar's glass church, as a paradigm for life itself. If you are reading Peter Carey, things are never so simple as merely looking for a plot!
    • 4/5
      Hmmmm. What an intriguing read. Carey's prose kept me engaged, despite some slow portions of the book, and Oscar is a fascinating "Odd Bod." But the ending seemed rushed and unconvincing. If I gave half stars, this would probably be 3 1/2 stars.:::Spoiler alert::: I missed, or forgot, the glancing reference early on to the narrator's great grandmother taking all Lucinda's money, so I had naively expected Oscar and Lucinda, ultimately to end up together. But Carey was far too brave for such a trite "happily ever after" story.
    • 4/5
      Oscar Hopkins grew up in southern England in the mid-1800s, under his father’s iron rule. As a teenager he left his father’s house to become an Anglican minister. He was an introverted and backward young man, called “Odd Bod” by his seminary colleagues. Surprisingly, he befriended Ian Wardley-Fish, a bit of a rake who introduced Oscar to betting on horse races. At the same time, Lucinda Leplastrier grew up in Australia, and came into a sizeable inheritance as she approached adulthood. She bought a glass factory and made her way as an independent business woman. She also became involved with a social group that spent considerable time gambling on cards. Returning from a visit to England, Lucinda met Oscar, who was travelling on the same ship, having decided to take the gospel to New South Wales. Eventually these two empty, dysfunctional people discovered their shared addiction to gambling, and a relationship of sorts blossomed. Their addiction took a bizarre turn when Lucinda bet her fortune on Oscar’s ability to transport a church, made completely of glass, to a remote location in the colony. The novel concludes with this adventure and its consequences.Peter Carey’s Booker prize-winning novel works both as a love story and an adventure set in an untamed part of the world. The characters of Lucinda and Oscar are well-developed, and the “supporting cast” is equally colorful. The plot gets a bit fantastic at times, and I never quite understood the source of attraction between Oscar and Lucinda. Nevertheless, from the very beginning I was caught up in their lives, eager to learn when and how their paths crossed, and even more curious about the story’s conclusion. I found Carey’s other Booker winner, True History of the Kelly Gang, more enjoyable and better written, but would still recommend Oscar and Lucinda as a very worthwhile read.
    • 4/5
      A wonderful piece of writing and an excellent example of utilizing the Victorian style structure and narrative in historical fiction. The story is intriguing and full of those minute details that I love in historical fiction (theological debates, comments on fashion at horse races, glass technology, methods in the natural sciences). Both characters, Oscar and Lucinda, are individually so well developed (and memorable)I was almost disappointed when they met and book moved to focus on their relationship. Highly enjoyable!
    • 3/5
      Oscar Hopkins is a high-strung preacher's kid with hydrophobia and noisy knees. Lucinda Leplastrier is an heiress who impulsively buys a glass factory with the inheritance forced on her by a well-intentioned adviser. When the two finally meet, on board a ship bound for New South Wales, they are bound by their affinity for risk, they both are addicted to gambling, their loneliness, and their awkwardly blossoming (but unexpressed) mutual affection. Their final high-stakes bet--whether a glass church can be transported and constructed "by Easter Sunday" for the benefit of an out-of-the-way congregation and its minister --strains plausibility, and events turn ghastly as Oscar plays out his bid for Lucinda's heart. But the object is not the final results, it is the journey. The stories of Oscar and Lucinda’s lives are filled with poignant detail. Each episode strikes a chord. Through their trials and small triumphs, Oscar and Lucinda come of age to plan their great achievement. Although love proves to be the ultimate gamble for Oscar and Lucinda, the story never strays too far from the terrible possibility that even the most thunderstruck lovers can remain isolated in parallel lives.
    • 3/5
      What an odd book. I don’t mean that the writing is odd - it’s actually very good. The characters are odd, but they are also unique. I don’t think I have encountered any like them before. The plot is also odd - very odd. I don’t want to give anything away, but things do not work out quite the way I expected. Which is probably a good thing.It’s a historical novel, set in Australia and England in the 1860s. There is a minimal framework where it seems that a modern great-grandchild is actually telling the story. The framework is really only needed for the final twist at the end - and no I won’t reveal what that odd plot twist is - you’ll have to read those 400+ pages to see what it is.
    • 3/5
      One of the reviews on the back of the book describes this as 'bizzare' and I can't think of a better description. It is also desperately sad as you yearn for an outcome for the main protagonists that just does not appear. I still cannot make up my mind whether this is a work of genius or not.
    • 1/5
       Write a review...Hmm. This was just very odd, really. It was a slow starter, taking some time before Oscar & Lucinda met, and there was a certain rhythm to the early section of the book, with intiially long passages being concentrated on Oscar, then on Lucinda. This pace increased until the point they actually met, but there after it just got very strange. I got to the stage where I simply stopped caring about either of them.

      it was our first reading group book and none of us liked it, so that was a very short discussion!
    • 4/5
      It is as if, in this novel, Peter Carey has set out to write a traditional, narrative lead novel with two main protagonists but has given himself this task of subverting the reader's expectations. The two don't meet until half-way through the book and then on a boat from the UK to Australia despite Lucinda being from Australia. They are linked by a common interest in gambling but that is not the main theme of the book, except symbollically. The climax of the book seems to me more typical of an Amazonian or Congo setting. I suspect the off-kilter, unsettling nature of the plotting and the characterisation is what makes this book such an enjoyable read. Carey is an excellent writer and is an author who never sells his reader's short. Oscar and Lucinda is a book that is worthy of its many plaudits and awards.
    • 3/5
      The Booker prize judges love Peter Carey - he's won a couple of times, and I never have. I'm not sure if they picked quite the right book here, or for quite the right reasons, but without having read the shortlist let alone the longlist, I'm not in a reasonable position to pass judgement.Oscar is brought up by a very religious father, and then converts to the other side rather unexpectedly. He devises a system for gambling that makes him rather successful, and ends up going to Australia to found a new church. Lucinda is the girl he ends up falling in love with on the trip over; she too is a gambler, and something of a lost soul.My biggest problem with "Oscar and Lucinda?" That it is simply too much like reading Dickens, without the pay-off of having read Dickens. My other problems with the book are legion, but other than the Dickens aspect I'll let them lie. At least I've read here a book people will know about, and can boast of having read it.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book...I feel as if I've met two real people (Oscar and Lucinda) rather than two characters in a novel. Peter Carey weaves the tale of these two quirky people, both of whom lost their parents (in one way or anothr) and both of whom are gamblers. They decide to build a glass church and transport it through uncharted, god-less country in Australia as a gift for the local Anglican minister who Lucinda was once friends with.In spite of the strange people and fantastical nature of the glass church, this is fine writing and a story I became totally absorbed with.The ending was shocking, not so much because of what happens, but because of the way the writing changes. With the attention to detail and the early lives of the main characters througout the rest of the book, I was expecting a gradual winding up of the plot. But the ending was more like a door slamming shut. And, I was left wanting to know more about what happened to Lucinda.....
    • 5/5
      no spoilers; just synopsisa) don't see the movie unless you read the book...something gets really lost between the twob)Excellent, simply excellent!!! I would recommend this book to anyone who appreciates superlative writing and a quirky story. If every book were like this one, I would be in Heaven!!!! The prose is outstanding and these characters are simply so real I thought they'd float off the page. Oscar and Lucinda is set both in England and in Australia in the 19th century. In England, Oscar Hopkins is the son of a non-Anglican, religious fundamentalist who is also a naturalist, and up until he is about 15 Oscar grows up with the reassurance that he is among the saved. Oscar's mother died; he lives with his father in a little village called Hennacombe in Devon, in an austere house with no ornamentation; even the food is plain. One Christmas one of the cooks feels sorry for the boy and makes him a Christmas pudding, complete with raisins & a cherry; the ostentatiousness of the pudding leads Theophilus (Oscar's father) to lose it and he hits Oscar, who is then forced to cough up the pudding. Later, they are out wading in the ocean, and Oscar asks that God smite his father out of anger; just then, Theophilus has an accident that cuts him on the leg. Oscar realizes that he has to leave -- and the signs point to the Anglican Church. We next find him at Oxford, at Oriel College, where he discovers gambling. One thing leads to another and Oscar sets out to become a missionary in New South Wales but he has to go by ship...a problem since Oscar has this immense water phobia. It is on this voyage that Oscar meets Lucinda Leplastrier, returning to Australia, whose parents had died & whose mother, before dying, had their land subdivided and sold and Lucinda was now an heiress living off the profits. She is also the owner of a glassworks in Australia. Lucinda is obstinate, headstrong & like Oscar, she is a gambler. The lives of these two people come together on the ship, then meet again after Oscar discovers that there is no Missionary Work to be done in New South Wales, and that he is to be assigned to a posh vicarage instead. He meets Lucinda in a Chinese gambling house ... and things take off from there. I won't say another word... you really should read it for yourself.The writing is excellent; the story is excellent and there are so many themes that are explored without the author ever losing track. My only complaint: the end came so fast (it was a great ending but rushed) that after having savored the story for so long I felt cheated. However, the rest of the book was absolutely stunning and so rich so I can overlook this.Please try this book...I can totally see how it won a Booker.
    • 3/5
      I read Oscar and Lucinda years ago, but I don't remember much about it except for the characters' gambling addiction and the attempt to transport a glass church across Australia. I seem to recall that I found it interesting but quite hard-going.
    • 5/5
      One of my all time favourites.
    • 2/5
      The setting and writing in this book were intriquing, but .I just couldn't engage with the characters. That, combined with a very slow moving plot caused me to lose interest and abandon this one 1/3 of the way through. Perhaps I wasn't in the right mood.