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Gentlemen and Players

A Novel (P.S.)

By Joanne Harris

(26)

| Paperback | 9780060559151

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Book Description

For generations, privileged young men have attended St. Oswald's Grammar School for Boys, groomed for success by the likes of Roy Straitley, the eccentric Classics teacher who has been a fixture there for more than thirty years. This year, however, the wind of unwelcome change is blowing, and StContinue

Critics

Gentlemen and Players By Joanne Harris

The latest novel from the best-selling author of Chocolat is a cleverly plotted thriller set at an upper-class boarding school for boys in England. The school is called St. Oswald's, and its pupils are a typical lot aristocratic lads with a few oddba ... (read full critics)

bookpage published on Wed, 15 Sep 2010

Gentlemen and Players

Gentlemen and Players Joanne Harris HarperPerennial Paperback 448 pages December 2006 In Gentlemen and Players, chess has never been so fraught with deception, mayhem, and murder. It is a game of course, a battle of wills, and Roy Straitley, the pers ... (read full critics)

curledup published on Tue, 7 Sep 2010

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3 Reviews

The book was excellent! It kept me hooked throughout the entire novel. Surprises at every chapter.

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Ychika said on Aug 23, 2010 | Add your feedback

What a really good novel Joanne Harris has written with Gentleman and Players. It is an enthralling and haunting read and in a new direction for this author. It really held my attention from the beginning but the last hundred pages or so I just had to keep going. It deals with deception, betrayal, a ... (continue)

What a really good novel Joanne Harris has written with Gentleman and Players. It is an enthralling and haunting read and in a new direction for this author. It really held my attention from the beginning but the last hundred pages or so I just had to keep going. It deals with deception, betrayal, ambition and forbidden longings, at an exclusive boys' school in the English countryside. The two protagonists are worthy adversaries. One is a revered, slightly eccentric Classics teacher in danger of becoming an unwanted anachronism. The other is a youngster from a working-class background who yearns for the elitism the school represents. The story alternates between the two viewpoints. The child is now an adult, exacting revenge for a devastating childhood experience involving St.Oswald's School - an experience revealed to the reader slowly and tantalizingly as the story unfolds. There is a surprising twist toward the end of the novel which really caught me out as thought I had it all sussed! Well worth reading.

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Lindyloumac said on Sep 28, 2009 about the Mass Market Paperback edition | Add your feedback