Merivel: A Man of His Time

Rose Tremain has made fans of her 1989 book "Restoration" wait for a long time before picking up the story of Sir Robert Merivel. Almost as much time has passed in Merivel's world with the book opening in 1683. Leaving a follow up so long can be fraught with danger. For those, like me, who loved "Restoration" at the time, the memory of its central character has grown in fondness over time while some of the detail has been inevitably lost to memory. Thankfully, this is one of those rare things in literature; a very good follow up.

The ideal preparation for this book is probably that you have read "Restoration" but forgotten some of the detail, as Tremain recaps events and Merivel's narration refers to events of the past and to his writing of the first book. This means that you don't strictly have to have read "Restoration" first, and it reveals some light spoilers to the plot if you read them out of order. Although while plot development is part of the joy of the books, the main joy is the characterization of Merivel himself.

Merivel, to the uninitiated, is a physician and courtier to King Charles II. A Falstaff-type character, he is self-depreciating and has an uncanny ability to attract and usually overcome disaster. His behaviour is often selfish and disreputable, but he has a warm heart beneath his rolls of corpulence and he's hard not to love.

What "Merivel" lacks in comparison with "Restoration" is the mirroring of personal events with political times, when Merivel's fortunes and favour with Charles are restored in just the same way as the King is restored to the throne of England. Instead we get the end of the King's reign and Merivel at a loss to find his purpose in live. Also lacking is Merivel's moral sidekick from "Restoration", the Quaker Pearce, although his voice is still much in Merivel's mind.

There's a sadness to Merivel's life as he recalls his glory days. Setting off in search of adventure, he finds himself variously in the Versailles court of King Louis and even as far as Switzerland, inevitably for Merivel, in pursuit of romance. Along the way he acquires a bear and loses those close to him. Part of Merivel's charm has always been his balancing of hope and despair. He is constantly torn by his loves for animals, his daughter, his staff and his king and his love for selfish advancement. Sub-titled "A Man of His Time", Merivel is an everyman with very human qualities that the reader can associate with.

This is historic fiction at its most entertaining and a worthy successor to "Restoration". As even King Charles appreciates, time spent with Merivel is seldom time wasted. You may well need a handkerchief, ideally laundered by Merivel's frequent bedfellow and laundry woman, Rosie Pierpoint, towards the end of the book. Where Merivel goes, disaster is seldom far away so what more could you expect.

"Restoration" is one of my all time favourite novels. To even come close to this is no small achievement and "Merivel A Man of His Time" does not disappoint.

Merivel: A Man of His Time by Rose Tremain is an unexpectedly rich novel the follows Robert Merivel, a doctor living in England in the late 1600s. He has reached a point in his life when he has begun to examine his priorities and fears that he will grow obsolete in a world in which his only daughter is growing and he is growing old. Determined to find renewed purpose in his life, Merivel sets out to visit King Charles II with whom he has a comfortable relationship. The king agrees to write a letter regarding Merivel's character so that the doctor can find a position on the staff of the doctors of Versailles. Traveling to France, however, Merivel has no idea what to expect. He finds the French fashions to be puzzling and the customs to be excessive, yet persists in his efforts to find favor with the king. While walking around the palace, Merivel is surprised to be approached by a beautiful woman, Louise, who offers to help Merivel find a tailor. Little does Merivel suspect that this interaction will change his life. Quickly, however, Merivel is on his way back home and realizes that the adventures in France did little to prepare him for all that is to follow.
Although this book could easily have become dull and dry, Tremain gives Merivel wonderful voice that make him an engaging and relatable character. It is easy to see how much the fear of aging has impacted the doctor and his concerns are incredibly real and contemporary despite the centuries that have passed. Merivel is a man of our time because his nature and curiosity make him timeless and ageless - he deals with all of the concerns that we face at one time or another (plus some incredibly bizarre challenges).
I really liked this book overall, but the one thing that I struggled with was the suddenness of his relationship with Louise - that was the one element of the book that seemed unrealistic in an otherwise thoroughly detailed novel.

Rose Tremain is an author I've long admired. She knows how to craft a story, she creates extremely interesting, well rounded, individual and realistic characters, her use of language is wonderful, fitting, often very rich, but not self-indulgent. She has a great sense of time and place. And she seems to have things to say. And, almost more than this, she writes many different books - not the same one, in a formulaic fashion, over and over.

So it was a surprise, on one level, to find her revisiting the past, producing a sequel to the richly satisfying, hugely successful, Restoration, which was published more than 20 years ago. Her central character (fictitious) a larger than life physician, Robert Merival, later Sir Robert, and his relationship with Charles II (and some of the real cast of characters surrounding him) was a rich, inventive tragi-comic read.

Fast forward 17 years in the life of Merivel, and what we have is something slightly different. Age has intensified the nature of all the principal characters, both real and imagined. And Merivel has become Falstaffian in his ability to be deluded, often shallow, excessively driven by superficial desires, humorous, fun loving, clumsy, the butt of jokes - but loving, loyal, tender hearted. Like Falstaff, he is the jester who can break our hearts, and whose own heart is frequently broken, by his genuine love towards his king

This is a darker journey than Restoration. The subtext here is not the flowering and the crazy parties and the sweeping away of restriction of Restoration. Death is the constant character whose shadow grows larger. Merivel is now in his late 50s and we know this is set towards the end of Charles' reign. Remembered characters from Restoration are now either dead, or inching towards death. Often raging against the dying of the light

The reader does not need to have read Restoration to appreciate this stand-alone work. Tremain, her artistry sure, finds plausible and meaningful ways to tell the back-story. She shows her craft again here - it's a trap a lot of writers seem to stumble over - how do you give the reader information which THEY may need to know when the characters themselves will all already have that information, particularly if you are writing a first person narrative. All too often the lesser writer will have two luminaries in conversation with each other, and (for example) Albert Einstein turns to Neils Bohr and says `so let me remind you, Neils, of my Theory of Relativity' Tremain does nothing crass. What the new reader needs to know (and the old, forgetful reader to know again) is effortlessly fed in little sippets. It felt like having memory reawakened, but through the filter of an older, darkening Merivel

If this doesn't hit quite so many fizzy high spots as Restoration, and I had a few 'hmm, could it really have been like this' moments that is in keeping with a Merivel who is more conscious of where journeys must end.

One small niggle - I was slightly surprised, given the extraordinary level of widescale rumpy pumpy encounters within these pages, that in an era before prophylactics, the characters all remained pox and baby free!

Aaah, just like meeting an old friend! Sir Robert Merivel: the most human of human beings you are ever likely to meet. Flawed in many ways like all of us, at times unlikeable, but ever committed to trying to do his best in life, trying to improve himself both emotionally and materially, open to others and other ideas, he could be a man of any time including our time.

Robert Merivel was first introduced to us in the novel 'Restoration', which I reviewed in December. Some say you don't need to have read 'Restoration' to enjoy this novel; I disagree. Sir Robert is a very complex fellow, who has an extraordinary time during the early years of King Charles II reign. In a nutshell the book covers his rise to a position of prominence in the court, and then his fall from grace, and personal restoration. I would not have enjoyed 'Merivel' so much if I had not known the background to the type of man he is now, some 15 years after 'Restoration' ended.

Sir Robert Merivel is now 57, again at a crossroads, as he tries to decide what to do with the rest of his life. His beloved daughter Margaret, is now a young woman wanting to become more independent and spread her wings. So Sir Robert, back in King Charles' good books, obtains a letter of introduction to the French court and heads off to Versailles. He does not manage to meet the King, but along the way, in his rakish fashion, does develop a relationship with a particularly beautiful and well-connected married lady who falls madly in love with him, plus acquires a bear.

Things take a darker turn when he returns to England - his daughter is seriously ill with typhoid, his ex lover is dying of cancer, the local rural population is becoming restless and unhappy with the excesses of the royal court, the bear also does not last the distance. Melancholy sets in and poor old Sir Robert wonders what it is all for. After all late 50s would be considered old age in this period of history. The aging King takes a shine to the lovely Margaret and Robert frets and frets about her becoming yet another mistress to the King.

But never fear, love is still here. His old flame in France is committed to marrying him, which would solve many many problems, but, in true Robert fashion opens the door to other problems as he deals with a number of internal conflicts.

This novel does not have quite the same depth and scope as 'Restoration', but I enjoyed reading it so much more. As I said it was like meeting an old friend, and I felt genuine affection for this silly old fool. By the end everything is very neatly resolved with the reign of King Charles over and Sir Robert looking forward to a new life in Switzerland. Such a worth while sequel to 'Restoration'.