Product Description

The Colour is a gripping drama of sacrifice and greed set during the mid-nineteenth-century gold rush in New Zealand.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7224 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-03
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Rose Tremain has long been one of the most vigorous and imaginative of novelists; her sweeping narratives (set against the most vividly realised of canvases) have made her books as dramatic and assured as anything being written today. The Colour represents a further burnishing of her considerable talents; it is a powerful drama of greed and aspiration set in the New Zealand Gold Rush of the mid-19th Century.

Tremain's protagonists are Harriet and Joseph Baxter, who (along with Joseph's mother) leave England for the promise of the new world that New Zealand represents. Needless to say, their relocation comes with many attendant (and nigh-insoluble) problems. But their struggle against the land continues apace until Joseph discovers gold in a nearby creek and ill-advisedly conceals the find from his mother and his wife. Gold fever takes an all-consuming grip upon him, and he leaves the family-owned farm to traverse the gold fields of the Southern Alps. There he will find a strange fate: one that affects those he has left behind as well as him.

As a study of human nature in extremis, this could well be Tremain's most impressive book. Lacking the elegant stylishness of Restoration, The Colour grants us a fastidiously rendered picture of life lived at the sharp edge. And while her characters are confronted with terrifying decisions that few of us are ever likely to encounter, Tremain's narrative gifts make it easy to identify with the decisions (both wise and catastrophic) that her characters take. The sense of period is forcefully conveyed, and while this is not as ingratiating a read as such earlier Tremain books as The Swimming Pool Season, her new level of ambition makes it perhaps the author's most important book yet. --Barry Forshaw

The Gloss
'Tremain is the finest of historical fiction writers'

Synopsis
This is a writer whose breadth of imagination and supple prose transcend the genre: she is one of the finest writers in English' Daily Telegraph. Joseph and Harriet Blackstone emigrate from Norfolk to New Zealand in search of new beginnings and prosperity. But the harsh land near Christchurch where they settle threatens to destroy them almost before they begin. When Joseph finds gold in the creek he is seized by a rapturous obsession with the voluptuous riches awaiting him deep in the earth. Abandoning his farm and family, he sets off alone for the new gold-fields over the Southern Alps, a moral wilderness where many others, under the seductive dreams of 'the colour', are violently rushing to their destinies. By turns both moving and terrifying, it is a story of the quest for the impossible, an attempt to mine the complexities of love and in the process discover the sacrifices to be made in the pursuit of happiness.

Customer Reviews

excellent read
I loved this engrossing historical novel - highly reccomended. If you can do please read 'Music and Silence' by the same author - absolutely outstanding.

Panning for gold and being disappointed.
I have previously read and loved "Restoration" by Rose Tremain. The main character was incredible; flawed and yet I cared so much what happened in his life. This book was SO different. Like other reviewers, I did not know there had been a gold rush in New Zealand, so that part of the story was interesting, as was the insight into the world and imagination of the Maori nanny. However, I did not like any of the characters. There was nothing much to admire about them and their motives for reacting in certain ways were at times unconvincing. All in all I found this book cold and sadly lacking. At the book's most depressing moments, and there were quite a few of those, I found myself like the characters, cold and miserable, searching for a glimmer of gold which would make it all worthwhile. Sadly I found none. Maybe Rose should be given credit for her ability to make us feel as her characters feel, but I would rather be warmed and entertained by a book.

Descriptive writing
Set in the New Zealand Gold Rush of the mid-19th century Harriet and Joseph Baxter, along with Joseph's mother, leave England for the promise of the new world that New Zealand represents. Their new home comes with incredible problems and hardships. Their struggle against the land continues until one day Joseph discovers gold in their nearby creek and hides the find from his mother and his wife. Gold fever takes grip of him, and he leaves the family-owned farm and journeys to the gold fields of the Southern Alps. Left alone with his mother Harriet discovers that Joseph had found a little gold on their land. When Joseph's mother dies Harriet bravely decides to cross the mountains in an attempt to find her husband. But she isn't prepared for at the squalor and confusion at the gold-diggings.
Tremain has written a novel that is full of beautifully written prose and engaging characters. It's a tale of greed and hope amongst people who have everything to gain and nothing to lose.