Bainbridge's brilliantly imagined, universally acclaimed, Booker Prize-longlisted novel portrays the inordinate appetites and unrequited love touched off when the most celebrated man of 18th century English letters, Samuel Johnson, enters the domain of a wealthy Southwark brewer and his wife, Hester Thrale.

"Merle Rubin, Los Angeles Times "[Bainbridge's] most accomplished novel so far. "Washington Post Book World "Majestically deft...Absolutely wonderful. "Kirkus Reviews (starred)