The Ingenious Edgar Jones
A Novel
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
The skies of Oxford are aflame with meteors the night Edgar Jones comes into the world–clearly this porter’s son, born in a small cottage in 1847, is no ordinary boy. While his mother is apprehensive about her restless, inquisitive child, Edgar’s father believes without a doubt that his son is destined for greatness. As the years pass, it becomes apparent that Edgar has a unique talent: He is a born inventor, and his gift for making is matched by a fierce will.
Edgar turns his back on the scholarly life his father had intended for him and apprentices himself to a blacksmith. It is not long before his ingenuity and metalworking skills bring him to the attention of a maverick professor at Oxford University, a bone collector with plans for a museum of natural history. Finally, Edgar has the opportunity to showcase the singular gifts he’s learned in the hazardous soot and heat of the forge. But his great ability also becomes a curse, and his prominence is fraught with danger–both for him and for his family.
Set at the dramatic midpoint of the nineteenth century, in a world on the cusp of change, The Ingenious Edgar Jones is an unforgettable coming-of-age story about the complexities of family life and the journey of one young man as he finds his place in a rapidly shifting world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in Oxford in the 1850s, this coming-of-age story looks at the son of an Oxford University night porter with academic ambitions for his heir. Instead, "oddness" and possible dyslexia steer young Edgar Jones to apprentice with a domineering blacksmith. Plucked from the forge by a rebellious Oxford anatomy professor, Edgar soon finds himself torn between his benefactor's progressive ideas about natural history and the traditional beliefs of his father. The succinct plot doesn't help rein in character development and tone, which are all over the map: instead of bright and unconventional, Edgar frequently comes across as antisocial, and his initially doting father turns tyrannical as soon as he finds Edgar struggling to copy out his assigned Bible verses. The middle third is richly drawn almost Dickensian but a late lunge into magical realism makes for an unsatisfactory ending. Though enlivened by obvious love for Oxford, memorable villains and a well-captured sense of science's ability to awe and baffle, inconsistencies will frustrate adult readers; historically curious young adults may be more forgiving.
