HISTORY OF A PLEASURE SEEKER By Richard Mason

“Like Henry James on Viagra.” After reading that blurb on the back of the book jacket on History of a Pleasure Seeker I fell for the cunning marketing. It’s 1907 and Piet Barol, a talented but poor young man, is hired to be the tutor to a disturbed young son of a wealthy hotel tycoon in Amsterdam. The tycoon’s beautiful but neglected wife begins an affair with Piet. That, you would think, would be enough for the reader to concentrate on. But the author throws in the tycoon’s two flirtatious daughters, the mysterious mental problems of the son, the banking crisis that required J. P. Morgan to intervene, and flashbacks to Piet’s past. Piet isn’t so much a pleasure seeker as an ambitious young man on the make. History of a Pleasure Seeker is basically a Horatio Alger story with some sex thrown in. If you’re looking for pleasure, you’ll have to seek it elsewhere. GRADE: C

8 thoughts on “HISTORY OF A PLEASURE SEEKER By Richard Mason

  1. Deb

    On the other hand, the line “Like Henry James on Viagra” (the mind shies away from THAT image) opens up a whole new world of blurbing: Like Jane Austen on crack! Like Anthony Trollope on meth! Like Samuel Taylor Coleridge on opium–oh, wait….

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Brilliant, Deb! “Like Dickens on Ecstasy” has a certain ring to it. Or “Like Edith Wharton on heroin.” A blurbist could work their way through the whole catalog of drugs!

      Reply
    1. george Post author

      You might have to amend that to “George on pizza and chicken wings,” Rick. HISTORY OF A PLEASURE SEEKER is basically a “novel of manners” with some sex thrown in.

      Reply

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