Jack Maggs

by Peter Carey

Paperback, 1997

Status

Available

Call number

823.914

Genres

Publication

London: Faber and Faber, 1998

Description

The year is 1837 and ex-convict Jack Maggs has returned illegally to London from Australia. Installing himself in the household of a genteel grocer, he attracts the attention of a cross-section of society. Saucy Mercy Larkin wants him for a mate. Writer Tobias Oates wants to possess his soul through hypnosis. Maggs, a figure both frightening and mysteriously compelling, is so in thrall to the notion of a gentlemanly class that he's risked his life to come back to his torturers. His task is to shed his false consciousness and understand that his true destiny lies in Australia.

Media reviews

literaturkritik.de

Im englischsprachigen Raum, wo die Romane von Dickens ganz selbstverständlich zu jedermanns Kulturgut gehören, garantiert das literarisch-gebildete Spiel sicherlich einen unterhaltsamen Lesespaß, bei dem man sich auch noch die eigene Bildung beweisen kann. Den Leser in Australien wird speziell

die postkolonialistische Emphase aus dem Herzen sprechen, die Carey auf den letzten Seiten des umfangreichen Romans noch schnell aus dem Hut zaubert. Dem deutschen Leser muss sich der Roman jedoch vor allem als eigenständiger Roman beweisen, und da werden die erzählerischen Schwächen deutlicher offenbar. Peter Carey hätte gleich ein Drehbuch schreiben sollen, da hätte er seine Charaktere nicht erklären müssen, die Filmoptik wäre am rechten Platz gewesen, und die entscheidende Begegnung zwischen Sträfling und Kind hätte, bei einer entsprechenden Besetzung, zu einem anrührend-kitschigen Moment werden können. So ist es nur ein Text geworden, der als Text nicht funktioniert.

Show Less

— 3 more

New York Times

In ''Jack Maggs,'' Carey creates a rousing old-fashioned narrative, and brings to it a distinctly modern, unromantic sensibility.... Carey is not rewriting Dickens here but taking us behind the curtain of Dickens's creation. ''Jack Maggs'' stands in relation to ''Great Expectations'' as ''Great

Expectations'' itself stands in relation to Dickens's life: it is a fictional extrapolation in which ''real'' events and sources are merely glimpsed; they have been transformed into something fresh, which defies one-to-one correspondences.

Show Less

Guardian

In Jack Maggs, Peter Carey has written a twentieth-century, post-colonial Dickens novel, in an imaginative and audacious act of appropriation. Jack Maggs is Carey's version of Magwitch, the convict in Great Expectations. Dickens's lovable Pip has been turned into Carey's unlovable Henry Phipps. The

young Dickens appears as Tobias Oates, one of the novel's central characters, already famous for an early Pickwick-type work, the story of Captain Crumley, but as yet struggling for money, taking on what ever journalism he can get, his private life a mess, his great books far away in the future.

Carey's 1837 London, where most of the novel is set, is a brilliant Dickens pastiche, all 'sulphurous Corruption', glare and crowd and filth and dark corners, its buildings bursting with a violent life of their own. He gets exactly Dickens's effect of being in a phantasmagoric dream and yet in an overpoweringly real physical world. Eccentric minor characters rapidly appear and disappear.... It's a highly interesting combination of powerful style and weak characters. Through all the brilliant contrivance and literary panache comes a profound sadness, looking with tenderness at peculiar humans.

Show Less

Publisher's Weekly

With great panache, Carey executes an abundantly atmospheric and rollickingly entertaining reprise of Great Expectations.... Carey creates a vivid, multifaceted picture of 1800s London, especially the squalid and tormented lives of the poor and the criminal underclass.

User reviews

LibraryThing member cbl_tn

Increasingly desperate characters are thrown together by chance in late Georgian/early Victorian London. Their desires and fates soon become so intertwined that it becomes impossible for any of them to extricate themselves from their present situation. Their power struggle results in events

spiraling out of control toward an unavoidable crash. The only question seems to be how badly things will end.

Peter Carey imagines a back story for characters from Great Expectations. While alert readers will spot the connections, this isn't a retelling of Dickens' novel. I would suggest that the strongest similarity is in the characterization. Like Dickens, Carey paints memorable characters, all flawed to some degree, yet all human enough to arouse the reader's sympathy. I raced through the last third of the book, anxious to see how it would end. Recommended for most readers of historical fiction.

Show Less

19 more

LibraryThing member sweetiegherkin

Jack Maggs, a person shrouded in great mystery, returns home to London and ends up unexpectedly installing himself as a servant in the home of the nouveau riche Mr. Buckle. He soon finds himself a subject of "mesmerism" experiments at the hands of Mr. Buckle's acquaintance, Mr. Tobias Oates - a

blossoming author who hopes his next bestseller will be a novel based on the experiences of Maggs - particularly his past as a convict exiled to an Australian penal colony.

It's hard for me to rate and review this book as usual. For one thing, it wasn't at all what I expected. When I first read the description of the book provided by the publisher - one that emphasizes the mesmerism aspect - I expected perhaps a magical realism-type book (like Carey's My Life as a Fake) or something akin to a pseudo-scientific novel steeped in the Victorian period's mystical beliefs. It turns out the mesmerism part isn't really as much a theme or bulk of the novel as a concise description of the book would lead you to believe. Then, in between me reading the description and actually getting my hands on a copy of the book, I discovered that Jack Maggs is considered a "parallel novel" with Great Expectations. I got super excited because I am a huge Dickens fan, and I thought that given my past readings of Carey's works, he would be great at re-working some classic Dickens. Turns out, this was a bit of an overstatement as well. Sure, there are similarities between Abel Magwitch and Jack Maggs, Henry Phipp is clearly a stand in for Pip (although there is really not a resemblance between the two characters), and there are even shades of Dickens himself in Toby Oates. But to call this book a re-imagining of Great Expectations is a bridge too far; at best, it draws some influences from the classic novel. And to make a not-so-witty pun, my great expectations for this book were subsequently unmet.

Onwards to the book itself ... I had some difficulty getting into it because I felt like there was never a clear sign of the path it was taking. In terms of a succinct plot, certainly there was no clarity. The book took so many sharp turns and then re-tracings that I spent at least the first half (probably the first three-quarters) just trying to figure out if I was reading a book about the writing of a book, the unmasking of a convict, the search for a lost son, family dramas, or the capture of past memories. It seemed the book was a little of each (by no means in an order that made sense) but without any of them ever being satisfactorily resolved. The many, many references to the past (as well as some to the future) dropped hints here and there, but I felt like large parts of the story being told were simply dropped off. For instance, why did Sophina end up married to Jack's "brother"? Why did Henry Phipps fear meeting his benefactor so much that he immediately flew into hiding? And so forth and so on.

For the positives, Carey does write some very Dickensian-like characters, with interesting names, unique markers, and rich backstories. He also writes numerous passages that are things of pure beauty - rich and evocative in language, and heavy with symbolism. And I wouldn't say that I disliked the book per se, so much that I was disappointed by it not being what I expected and for having a 'plot' that was too distracted and all over the place. I am a little surprised that this book won a place on the 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die list and seems to have largely glowing reviews. Perhaps there is something I'm just missing, but this isn't my favorite book by Carey.

Show Less

LibraryThing member polarbear123

I can agree to some extent with other reviewers who might say that this book is a little light on plot. However the charm of this book lies in the dialogue between characters and their various machinations. It is about motive and deception all the way through and Carey cleverly reveals piece by

piece the background of the main chacter as we move along. If you think that Dickens is too heavy but you love the 19th century vibe and atmosphere, definitely give this one a go.

Show Less

LibraryThing member PhilipJHunt

Almost 20 years since publication, "Jack Maggs" retains its freshness. Its setting, in the increasingly remote and therefore increasingly romantic, past of Australian history helps (although footnote to readers, the novel is located in London). Carey plots like an engineer--a Lego-like certainty

stepping the story along. The title character is not immediately likeable, nor indeed is one sure at first whether the novel is really about Mr Maggs. Perhaps the central character is one of the others to whom we are introduced. The story unfolds in layers with Maggs the vortex around which the drama swirls with increasing disturbance.

It's a story about the dark side of nostalgia, and of finding redemption in unpredicted outcomes. It's an easy read apart from the need to look up the occasional term long since fallen out of common use. I learned some new words, although few useful for modern conversation. When, for instance, did you last call your fruiterer a "costermonger"?

Show Less

LibraryThing member jmoncton

I loved this book! This is the story based on Dickens' Great Expectations, but told through the eyes of Jack Maggs (Magwitch in GE). Maggs meets young orphan Henry Phipps (Pip in GE) as a convict on his way to sentencing in Australia. Henry shows him kindness by giving him some food. Maggs

remembers this single act of compassion and after serving his prison sentence and making a large fortune in Australia, sends a large monthly allowance which provides Henry with a very idle and rich life. Maggs has returned to London to see Henry, a boy he considers his son. Henry, although he has enjoyed Maggs' generosity is ashamed and scared of the convict. The story revolves around Maggs' effort to find Henry and tell him his story. The book is fast paced and has some extra plot twists. Strong characters and vivid descriptions of Victorian London made this a quick and very enjoyable read.

Show Less

LibraryThing member BrianK

A post-colonial reworking of the story of Great Expectations, Jack Maggs is the tale of a transported convict who returns secretly to England to see Henry Phipps, the adopted son whose education he has financed. Unlike Great Expectations however, the convict's story is the central narrative of the

book, rather than that of the young gentleman he has secretly fostered. Jack Maggs has known very little kindness in his life and this does not change when he finally meets up with Henry. He returns to Australia after the meeting having witnessed the destruction of the dream he had nourished for so many years.

Running parallel to the narrative of Jack Maggs is the story of the novelist, Tobias Oates, clearly based on Charles Dickens, who encounters Maggs by chance in the household of a friend. Entangled in a relationship with his wife's sister, struggling to survive financially, and always looking for new material, Oates becomes fascinated withjthe convict's violent history, almost to his own undoing.

I never find Peter Carey an easy read. Nonetheless, this is a richly textured book, full of resonance. The language is muscular, the voice compelling and the whole thing seems to be attended by a dark energy that brings the story and the characters to life with startling clarity.

Show Less

LibraryThing member lindawwilson

Very enjoyable; not quite a classic, though. The characters were excellent and the writing was well done.

LibraryThing member jwhenderson

Have you ever read Great Expectations? The main character Philip Pirrip ,known as Pip, runs into a convict in the opening scene of the novel. This is Abel Magwitch who meets young Pip at a graveyard. Magwitch tricks the seven-year-old boy into believing that he has an accomplice who is a terrible

young man who would tear out and eat Pip's heart and liver if Pip did not help them. Pip, terrified, steals a pork pie, brandy and a file from his house and brings them to Magwitch the next morning. The relationship between Pip and Magwitch is integral to the development of this famous novel.
Undoubtedly inspired by Magwitch's story in Dickens, the modern-day Australian novelist Peter Carey has in Jack Maggs imagined a retelling of Magwitch's tale. Returning to the historical territory--19th-century Australia and England--of his Booker-winning Oscar and Lucinda (1988), he focuses on 1830s London, where an exiled convict has returned to breathe the air of home and to see his beloved son. Pardoned and prosperous in New South Wales, but still under penalty of death if discovered in England, the fearless Jack Maggs steps out of a coach one evening in London to search for Henry Phipps, the boy he had left behind years before. He discovers Phipps's house, but, finding no one home, Maggs seeks employment as a neighbor's footman in order to keep an eye out for his son's return. He writes letters almost incessantly to explain his past to his boy. In the meantime, at a literary dinner hosted by his new employer, Maggs makes the acquaintance of an up-and-coming young writer, Tobias Oates, whose skill as a mesmerist is needed to cure Maggs of a "fit." Oates, penetrating his "patient's" ruses, recognizes a motherlode of material waiting to be tapped, and offers the man a deal: the name of someone who can locate Phipps in exchange for two weeks of demonstrating his ability to engage Maggs's fit-inducing demons through hypnosis. As they meet, however, other forces conspire to alter the scheme of things. The story includes subplots about love affairs involving Phipps and others, but more importantly secrets about Phipps whereabouts are revealed. Carey's complexities of plot also demonstrate gradually that Maggs is honest, fierce, and fabulously deluded. This complicated story benefits from the author's ability to bring the London of Dickens alive and with it characters who echo those first created in the imagination of that literary master's mind.

Show Less

LibraryThing member JBD1

Carey's retelling of Great Expectations, done really well. Fascinating characters made this nearly impossible to put down once I started. A most enjoyable jaunt through late 1830s London.

LibraryThing member Fernhill

The best novel I have read in a while. Great characters, good plot, good dialogue. I really liked it.

LibraryThing member PilgrimJess

Homage to Dickens.

This is the first book that I have read by Peter Carey and was recommended to it by a friend but whilst I can see why she and others liked it it just didn't really do it for me.

Jack Maggs was sentenced to transportation for life to Australia due to thievery but whilst there he

makes his fortune so supports a young orphan Henry Phipps who showed him some mercy when Phipps was a young boy. Maggs was brutalised as a child but pays for Phipps education in the hope that the latter will be able to avoid the same experiences and hardships. Maggs regards Phipps as his adopted son and over the years has been in contact with him by mail but returns to England,at considerable personal risk, to meet him in person. However, when he arrives at Phipps house he finds it empty and takes a position at the neighbouring property owned by a Percy Buckle as a footman. There by chance he meets an ambitious writer called Tobias Oakes who uses hypnosis to draw out Maggs secrets to use in a book for his own personal gain and a maid called Mercy Larkin who sees past Maggs gruff exterior to a softer, damaged core. There are various twists and turns in all their lives before Maggs and Phipps actually meet as Maggs past is slowly revealed. Maggs is still being misused by the other characters but with more subtlety than in his youth.

From very early on it is obvious that this is a homage to Dicken's Great Expectations. Maggs read Madgwich, Phipps is Pirrip, Oakes is obviously Dickens himself and there are also similarities in writing style and language although naturally Carey has brought his a little more up to date. Carey's portrayal of Dickensian London is really atmospheric and brutal and really draws you in but this is not Dickens and while it is a little unfair to compare the two it is difficult not to with the main character names so alike.

In the end I felt a real empathy for Maggs and the way he has been abused but that said for me he was just too passive and is rather lead around the tale rather than actively participating. Whilst there are many hints to his darker side only once do you actually see it. Much of the tale was rather plodding in nature and many of the plot twists I found pretty predictable and the ending which felt rushed which for me let it down overall. That said I already have Carey's The Illywhacker in my possession so certainly read another of his books at some time or other.

Show Less

LibraryThing member edgeworth

On a drizzly spring evening in 1837, the mysterious figure known as Jack Maggs makes his long-awaited return to London. Where he has been and why he has returned we do not know yet, but the first few pages of Jack Maggs are a delight to read, capturing the sights, sounds and smells of Dickensian

London, and Maggs’ disorientation as he returns to a city he does not recognise, lit now with gas light: “The city had become a fairground, and as the coach crossed the river at Westminster the stranger saw that even the bridges of the Thames were illuminated.”

‘Dickensian’ is usually used alongside ‘Victorian’ to describe a particular era of the 19th century, but here it’s even more appropriate: Jack Maggs is a reimagining of Dickens’ novel Great Expectations, with Maggs being a version of the convict character Magwitch. He has escaped from New South Wales to find his beloved Henry Phipps (Pip) and tell him his story – but Phipps may not want to be found.

It’s a common trait, I think, for people to partition history into segments, and also think back on the history of particular places as being self-contained. We know that 18th century Britain gave birth to the convict colonies of Australia, but the idea of them existing at the same time – for them being anything other than a one-way dumping ground – is fuzzy. And so it’s always a pleasure, I find, particularly in Peter Carey’s writing, to see the two worlds collide. Australia sheds its image (in my mind and many other Australians’ minds) as a dull and unimportant backwater and instead becomes a mysterious, exotic place. Most of the novel takes place in the upper-class dining rooms and parlours of Covent Garden and Bloomsbury, and it’s always pleasingly strange when Carey calls Maggs “the Australian” or mentions memories of Maggs’ time there – pelicans and parrots, his reliable old boots from a cobbler in Parramatta, or the dreaded prison at Morton Bay.

I haven’t read any Dickens at all, but it’s a mark of Carey’s brilliance as a writer that he can revisit old stories and classics and reimagine them without alienating an uninformed reader. You don’t need to have read Great Expectations to enjoy Jack Maggs, just as you don’t need to know anything about Ned Kelly to enjoy True History of the Kelly Gang or (I imagine) be familiar with the writings of Tocqueville to enjoy Parrot and Olivier in America.

I didn’t enjoy Bliss, I originally said True History of the Kelly Gang was “the product of a slow year for the Booker Prize” only to have it grow stronger in retrospect, and I was sometimes bored during Oscar and Lucinda but knew upon completing it that it was a great novel. Jack Maggs was a novel I thoroughly enjoyed (though it lacks the overall, retrospective solidity of Carey’s two Booker Prize winners), and I think Carey is fast becoming one of my favourite authors. I’d certainly agree with those who call him Australia’s greatest living writer.

Show Less

LibraryThing member gocam

I'd had this book in library for years before picking it up to read - wish I'd done so earlier, as it is a fine Dickensian character study of a not wholly admirable ex convict who returns from Australia to finish some business - his presence has a profound effect on the lives of a cast of well

fleshed out individuals collectively out to use, avoid, exploit, hate and love him. The narrative weaves effortlessly between Magg's quest and dark past, all the while introducing numerous compelling subplots and engaging personalities who are given the space to grow as characters. This is a fine study of place, character and society with a satisfying and unexpected conclusion.

Show Less

LibraryThing member sarah.rouse87

I was unsure what to make of this book when I started it. The further and further I got into it, I found myself unable to put it down because I wanted to know all there was about Jack Maggs. Who was he really? I felt as if the author did not completely give it away, and that was the best part, that

mystery.

Show Less

LibraryThing member curious_squid

I really enjoyed this book, and it was a better ending than most of Peter Carey novels I have read so far, but it still left a few things hanging. Overall a fun read.

LibraryThing member Kristelh

The story is set in London and is likened to Dickens, specifically Great Expectations. We have Jack Maggs who is a foundling, led into a life of crime by circumstances and then sent to Australia. This is a book by an Australian author but set in England. Jack Maggs returns to England even though he

faces execution, he considers himself a Londoner and not an Australian. It was an enjoyable read and entertaining. this is my first Carey novel. I rated it 3.5 stars

Show Less

LibraryThing member funstm

Another school read. I hated it. It was long and slow and boring.

LibraryThing member Castlelass

In this Gothic tale set in Victorian times, protagonist Jack Maggs is a transported convict returning covertly to England from Australia. It is initially a mystery as to why he is has returned, except that he wants to find Henry Phipps. He arrives at the house of Phipps’ next-door neighbor, Percy

Buckle, where he joins the serving staff. He is introduced to Tobias Oates, a novelist and mesmerist, who desires to uncover Jack’s history. We meet the other members of both the Buckle and Oates households. We learn of their financial situations and romantic entanglements.

I found this a fascinating story. The storylines are beautifully intertwined, the writing is sophisticated, and the plot is complex. It is a dark tale, filled with realistic and flawed characters. The dialogues are particularly well crafted. The characters have ulterior motives. It is filled with deceptions, manipulations, and schemes. The plot is moved forward by Jack’s search for Henry Phipps. The author skillfully reveals small bits and pieces of their backstories until it all comes together in a gripping conclusion.

Jack Maggs is a memorable character. At first, I thought Maggs would be the villain, but as I read further, I came to care what happened to him. He is multifaceted. He has committed crimes, but he also feels regret. He can be both cold and kind. He has held an idealistic version of events in his mind, and he has trouble letting go of the ideal in the face of a different reality.

I am impressed by the character development and the way Carey gives them such rich personalities. It is an atmospheric piece that transports the reader to the 19th century. I always looked forward to picking this book up and reading a bit more about the machinations of these fabulous characters. The ending is unexpected but satisfying. I truly enjoyed the reading experience.

Show Less

LibraryThing member John

I enjoyed this. Jack Maggs is a criminal transported to Australia where he has made a fortune in bricks and construction, who returns to England (illegally) to see his "son", actually an orphan whom he befriended and supported financially for years from Australia, but who is afraid of him and wants

nothing to do with him. The plot becomes complicated when Maggs takes a job as a footman at the house of Percy Buckle, next to that of his "son". Through this connection he meets Tobias Oates, an up-and-coming but penniless and indebted writer (modeled in some respects on Dickens), who uses hypnosis, first to rid Jack of blinding facial pain, but then, in a deal he strikes with Maggs, to explore the "criminal mind" on which he takes copious notes with the idea of turning it all into a best selling novel. Maggs doesn't know about the notes, but his return in the bargain is that Oates will take him to man renowned for finding anyone anywhere and it is through him that Maggs hopes to find his "son". Maggs writes a journal for his "son" in which he explains his own history as a poor young orphan taken in hand and trained to become a an expert break-and-enter artist. Buckle becomes less enamoured with Maggs, particularly when he sees Mercy Larkin, his housemaid/mistress showing rather some interest in Mr.Maggs, and Percy, working through the son, urges him, the "son" to kill Maggs. In the meantime, Oates, desperate for money (he has impregnated his wife's younger sister who lives with them), leads Maggs on a useless trip to find the soothsayer, who turns out to be a charlatan. The trip back to London becomes a nightmare for Oates who does not know whether Maggs will kill him or not. Maggs finally confronts his "son" in a violent climax that almost has Mercy killed, but then he and Mercy escape back to Australia where they finish their lives wealthy and respected.

This is a story of illusions, how people construct fantasies or ideas of their own lives that have nothing to do with reality, either innocently or with ulterior motives, and about how people will use others, in all sorts of ways and complications, for their own ends. In the end, the real power of affection and attachment is only to found between Maggs and Mercy because they are the only ones who strip away pretences and deal with each other honestly.

A good story, a good plot, well told, with interesting, distinctive and complicated characters. Carey also conveys very well the sense of living in London in the early 18th century when life was hard and cheap and one had to scramble and claw and fight to survive.

Show Less

LibraryThing member ivanfranko

Inventive novel about a convict who returns to London from NSW to complete unfinished commitments from the time before his arrest. Carey's novel is set in 1837-38, that is Dickens' London. The atmosphere is craven and dirty; life is precarious and dangerous.
Carey holds the reader's interest despite

a narrative that wanders at times. There is a strong link to Charles Dickens himself in the character of Tobias Oates, (a joke name perhaps based on the famous breakfast food, Uncle Toby's Oats available in Australasia) who is a parody of the young impecunious Dickens, and at odds with the carefully crafted "nice man" image that has grown up around him.
So, strongly atmospheric, a sparkling dialogue from characters who know all too well that life is treacherous and the double-cross awaits at every opportunity.

Show Less

Fewer