Product Description

London in the summer of 1849. With a deadly cholera epidemic threatening, young engineer Joshua Jeavons is convinced it is his mission to save the capital and reform its festering sewers. Meanwhile in his dometsic life he is troubled by the baffling coldness shown towards him by his beautiful bride, Isobella. As he struggles to win her round, he works feverishly on a revolutionary drainage plan. This is his dream, his dazzling vision of the future: a London free of effluent. Then a sudden and mystifying disappearance throws his whole life upside-down. He is forced to embark on a harrowing search, which plucks him from his respectable life and throws him into a London previously unknown to him. A netherworld of slum-dwellers, pickpockets and scavengers of the sewers. He will find it is this very world that holds unexpected answers to the mysteries that surround him.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #150675 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

About the Author
Matthew Kneale was born in 1960 and read history at Oxford. He is the author of three other novels: Whore Banquets (winner of the Somerset Maugham award, 1987), Inside Rose's Kingdom (1989) and English Passengers (2000). He lives in Italy.

Customer Reviews

More fascinating historical fiction from a great storyteller
Matthew Kneale seemed a relative unknown before his "English Passengers" was short-listed for the Booker Prize and named the Whitbread Book of the Year, but with his recent climb to fame has come acknowledgement of a shining talent that's far from new. Kneale is no strange to accolades. 2001 sees the re-release of one of Kneale's earlier novels, "Sweet Thames," which won the 1993 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. This book, like "English Passengers," shows off the author's talent for capturing the past. This time the scene is 1840s London, when the city is facing a crisis over its lack of an efficient sewer system. To the rescue comes Joshua Jeavons, a young engineer with a plan he thinks will remedy the city's troubles-if he can only convince the authorities of its merits. A myriad of obstacles stand in his way: his unsupportive employer, obstinate city officials, his cool and elusive wife, and a sudden influenza epidemic that strikes the capital. With the slums of London succumbing to illness and his wife mysteriously vanished, Joshua sets out on a desperate mission to put his drainage plan into effect, as well as to locate his estranged wife. His adventures make for a quick-paced read filled with fascinating historical detail. Kneale evokes Victorian London in all its complexity, chronicling the political and social issues at stake at the time, as well as bringing to life the city's inhabitants. Joshua's pursuit takes him to the far corners of the metropolis, from affluent neighborhoods to decrepit tenements, even into the city's vast but inadequate sewer system. These locales, as well as the wide range of people to which he is introduced, make for enthralling entertainment, and the mystery of his wife's disappearance keeps the pages turning until the book's startling conclusion. Fans of "English Passengers" will not be disappointed in this work, and it will appeal to anyone with an interest in the Victorian era or the city of London, its history and people.

Flawed but enjoyable historical novel
I am yet another reader who came to this book after reading Matthew Kneale’s “English Passengers”. “Sweet Thames” is not the near-perfect novel that “English Passengers” is and it’s clear that in this earlier book we are seeing Kneale develop his style: the writing is superb, but the storyline and characters are not nearly so well-drawn as in “English Passengers”.

The narrator in “Sweet Thames” is Joshua Jeavons (Kneale is fond of repeating this name, which kind of grates after a while), a man on a mission to reorganise London’s sewerage system. Jeavons is a largely unappealing character, although over the course of the story we do come to sympathise with him a little more. Jeavons is convinced that his scheme for effluent depositories is the answer to the capital’s sewerage problem and sets out to prove this. This, however, is not the main focus of the novel as he becomes very deeply involved in a mystery that is particularly close to home.

It’s a little infuriating as a reader to watch Jeavons’s own prejudices and preconceived ideas prevent him getting to the root of what is happening, time after time – the reader is likely to be ahead of the protagonist in terms of perceiving the truth of what has gone on. Nevertheless, there’s a lot to admire here and overall, it’s a pretty good read. I really enjoyed the descriptions of Victorian London and the subplot about the mystery of the cholera epidemic. There are also some very funny little moments in this book and I really liked the ending – although the way in which things unravel is perhaps a little unconvincing, the conclusion was the one I personally was hoping for.

All in all, not in the same league as “English Passengers”, but an entertaining little novel – flawed but enjoyable, and showing us glimpses of the truly outstanding talent Kneale was to develop over time.

Great flow!
This was the first book I read by Matthew Kneale. I LOVED it! How can someone make such an interesting book out of sewerage and the Thames at low tide? The plot twists and turns were unexpected and the characters were well described. I felt I was there, could even smell the odors of the early London streets. I never expected the ending, which is what makes it so good for me. I hate to get into a book that turns predictable. Looking forward to reading his next book.