Wisdom And Rubies – By J. F. Slattery

• Date: 19.08.2014
• Book: Wisdom and Rubies: A tale of crime and misadventure in nineteenth century London
• Author: ColdCofffee

Review

This review is for Wisdom and Rubies by J. F. Slattery.

Author J. F. Slattery was born in Essex, England in 1950 and is well educated in social history, German literature and philosophy. His research into nineteenth century London is impeccable.

He successfully draws his readers into the time period with tales of police/authority, accounts of murder (crime/punishment), religious differences, old customs like dueling and portrays the attitudes and experiences within the full spectrum of London society.

His cast of characters are large in number, are well defined and their conversations, letters, poems, songs and quotes are clear and concise. They draw you into their lives and story.

Great descriptive characters. I especially liked the description of Lord Horatio being excessively intelligent, profoundly sane, not a dreamer but “enthralled, not by imagination, but by reality”. Having said that I like this my mind went to whether this author is a dreamer or not.

I liked the character named Arthur (Lord Horatio’s companion) who “felt some momentary excitement, wondering what a thought–experiment could be”. When Professor Gottschlegel asked his class “think of a wall” and Arthur’s vision of the wall was …”about six feet high, quite new, the brick not yet to discoloured, and on the other side - out of view, but he knew it was there – was a summerhouse.”

The language and mind set of these London times represent a man’s world but not without a few colorful characters like Madame Anastasia “a shrewd, tough Russian who learned her trade among the aristocracy of St. Petersburg.”

Given the title of this book, I would have been disappointed if the author had not quoted through his character Horatio from Proverbs 8:11.

Although the genre is fiction the book is based on actual events so he instructs his readers to “consult ‘The Times’ of 1830” for the actual cases. It is the opinion of this reviewer that every reader will find their own way in this book and come away with something or many things that he or she can relate to.

Cold Coffee Press endorses Wisdom and Rubies by J. F. Slattery for the intellectual reader who enjoys reading historical events as they pertain to society, impact on individuals and perhaps a comparison to how far we have come or not come within some societies today. I found this book extremely interesting and thought provoking from the perspective of someone who is not familiar with nineteenth century London.

Cold Coffee Press (August 2014): http://www.coldcoffeepress.com

Amazon Kindle Purchase Link
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K2SIMLO/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00K2SIMLO&linkCode=as2&tag=colcofpre-20&linkId=EQGB7R3ZOPTBWA4F