Poor Things is the sixth novel by Alasdair Gray that he wrote in 1992. Gray, who also writes short stories, poems, plays, scenarios and non-fiction texts, is a genuinely productive author. Poor Things show exquisitely how creative the Scottish author is. The novel has won the Whitbread Prize and Guardian Fiction Prize. It manages to surprise and fascinate the reader with all its oddities.
Poor Things is unique, strange and entertaining. The Bella Baxter character is one of the most distinct female characters I’ve ever read. I mean, one can read this even just to meet her. I think you will probably love this book, especially if you read and liked Frankenstein.
Bella is ultimately the product of a doctor. But she is much more advanced than Frankenstein’s monster, and actually, she is more advanced than most people. The illustrations in the book will help you to visualise better the things told in the story, and they are quite impressive. I can recommend it to those who want to read a different novel. Enjoy!
Poor Things
What strange secret made rich, beautiful, tempestuous Bella Baxter irresistible to the poor Scottish medical student Archie McCandless? Was it her mysterious origin in the home of his monstrous friend Godwin Baxter, the genius whose voice could perforate eardrums? This story of true love and scientific daring whirls the reader from the private operating-theatres of late-Victorian Glasgow through aristocratic casinos, low-life Alexandria and a Parisian bordello, reaching an interrupted climax in a Scottish church.
Alasdair Gray
Alasdair James Gray was a Scottish writer and so artist. His first novel, Lanark, is so seen as a landmark of Scottish fiction. He published novels, short stories, plays, poetry and translations, and so wrote on politics and the history of English and Scots literature.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
