Product Description

At the turn of the nineteenth century, ten-year-old James Miranda Barry enrolled as a medical student in Edinburgh, the start of a glorious career as a military surgeon. Across the Empire, Barry achieved fame not only as a brilliant physician, but also a legendary duellist and a celebrated social figure. But James Miranda Barry was also a woman. Her greatest achievement of all had been to 'pass' for a man for more than fifty years.

Patricia Duncker's novel tells Barry's story for the first time, in a richly inventive and entertaining tale of dark family secrets, adultery, questioned paternity and colonial history. It confirms her rare talent as a writer of profound ideas and immense storytelling power.

'A miracle of a book that is richly atmospheric and gains the murky excitement of a Victorian thriller ' Sunday Times

'A marvellous work . . . superbly imagined and flamboyantly written' Beryl Bainbridge

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #326159 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Patricia Duncker's third book is an elegant exploration of the way gender and identity shape a life. The starring role is given to James Miranda Barry, a 19th century society figure, who enrolled as a student at Edinburgh and carved out an illustrious medical career on three continents. Nothing too strange about that, except that James Miranda Barry lived life as a man but was actually a woman.

Duncker has created "an imaginative exploration" of the real Barry's life, adjusting facts and adding figures to transform a story of love and adventure into a masque of sexual identity, where the hero is really the leading lady and the love interest is a kitchen maid, turned actress, who relishes "the breeches parts" in Shakespeare's plays.

It's an enthralling, strange tale, peopled with actors and soldiers, artists and revolutionary generals. Illicit liaisons, adultery, confused paternity, colonial history and family secrets provide the transgressive background to Barry's disorientating transformation into someone who was "neither man nor woman but partook of both", who combined "a woman's delicacy and grace" with "the courage and skill of a man."

Duncker's literary skills are equally adept and disorienting. Her prose is cool and clean, shot through with lush descriptions of flowers and landscape (her decadence seems to be saved for the glories of nature). Although Alice Jones the kitchen maid actress can proclaim to Barry: "You are who the world says you are. And the world says you're a man" but with Duncker it isn't quite that simple. Barry's manly charade is played out with the subtle, startling awareness of his (sic) womanly identity. It makes for a very sophisticated narrative where all surfaces are deceptive and all experiences are dual. --Eithne Farry

Customer Reviews

The best book I've read all year
Whoever is marketing this book should be shot. I haven't see any blurb, bumf or reviews about it anywhere - which is a total sin as it is a cracking story, exquisitely written and totally original. It really is a classic and they should be shouting about it from the roof-tops. Get it for yourself - you'll want to read it over and over again.

This is a really amazing book,a feast for the mind
I really enjoyed this book it took me I while to get through but by the end I could't put it down. It is a story of an amazing journey through a tough life. The fact that it is partially true makes it even better.

A fascinating book on a fascinating person
Let's begin it like this: I work in a bookshop where there are three booksellers. We've got a completely different taste and usually disaggree on whixh books we like. But when one of us was asked to recommend a book this christmas season (and we're ofttimes asked for recommendations during that periode of time, as you may imagine), everyone of us recommended »James Miranda Barry«, as one of the most beautiful books we had ever read. And, in most cases, we sold the book, then. It's brilliant. The style is great, there's a power and magic in these words that leaves you speechless for a while. And the plot is great. There has really been a James Miranda Barry, and he was, most likely, a woman, who attracted both men and women though he (?) lived as a man for most of his live. People always wondered about Dr. Barry's sex, but he was never involved in any scandals about it. It's the story of a person who, bereft of a sexual identity, lives in danger of losing her whole identity. This may sound kitschy. But believe me - it's impüossible to write a kitschy book about someone who has ice cold fingers all of the time. Just read this book. Then, you'll understand.