In time, and especially on the death of his father, Albion creates an entirely new fact for himself - which is, in fact, himself - a new Albion. His alphabetic recital of the world's rivers might not interest anyone, but at least they fill up the embarrassing silences. As a coping-mechanism, Albion arms himself with facts - a veritable disciple of Dickens' Gradgrind with whom Albion also bears useful comparison - which satisfy if they do not impress his father and armour-plate Albion in those awkward social encounters in which a young man is supposed to be able entertain the young ladies with appropriate small-talk. She over-feeds him and he sneers and derides him, and he is bullied at school. In both cases the reader is left feeling deeply conflicted.Īs a boy Albion is mollycoddled by his mother and intimidated by this father. His darkness and brutality, coupled with - indeed, caused by - his crippling sense of personal inadequacy, come something close to Emily Bronte's Heathcliff. I cannot think when I last read such a potent and vivid depiction of character as Kate Grenville's creation Albion Singer.
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