| Title | : | Derby Day |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0701183594 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780701183592 |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | - |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2011 |
| Awards | : | Booker Prize Longlist (2011) |
Derby Day Reviews
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Aficionados of horse racing in Britain (I’m not one, though my dad was) will tell you that there are five great events of the flat racing season in this country - The St. Leger, The Oaks, The 1,000 Guineas, The 2,000 Guineas, and the greatest of them all, the Epsom Derby, (in British English the word is pronounced “darby”). In an Afterword to this book, the author indicates that his novel was partly inspired by a mid-19th century painting, The Derby Day, by William Powell Frith. The painter had attended his first Derby in the 1850s and had been impressed less by the race itself than by the huge ensemble of characters around it; pickpockets, prostitutes, thimble-riggers, travelling showmen of every description, gentlemen cads with their mistresses, and so on:
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/...
D.J. Taylor’s book is consciously written in the style of a Victorian novel, so for example the characters are referred to formally, as would have been the case at the time, therefore we get characters called Mr Happerton, Mr Pardew, Miss Ellington, etc. It’s billed as a mystery, although that’s possibly a misnomer as it’s clear from the outset that a number of the characters are up to no good, and there’s no real element of mystery as to who the villains of the piece are. The “mystery” element is perhaps more to do with how their schemes turn out. The Derby itself only takes up a couple of chapters near the end of the book. Most of the novel is in the setting up of the schemes being plotted, and the story is well-structured.
I thought this was an enormously fun read. The author conjures up a rich picture of Victorian England, especially its disreputable side. You could say that some of the characters were stereotypes but to me that’s the whole point – that’s how they would have been in a Victorian novel. For me, an entertaining read and an exuberant tribute to the genre. -
Ahhhh… Victorian novels. What don’t I love about them? Certainly not their size. Those Victorians wrote some chubby books God bless them. The time period, the plots, I love it all. Every once in a while you find a contemporary writer who can produce a Victorian novel: The Quincunx by Charles Palliser, Fingersmith by Sarah Waters and The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber come to mind. Now add to that list
Derby Day by D.J. Taylor.
The heroes of Derby Day are author D.J. Taylor for writing this novel and the novel’s object of desire, a racehorse named Tiberius. This horse will run in the coming Epsom Derby and all storylines race to that event. The current owner of Tiberius, Mr. Davenant is in financial trouble. A Mr. Happerton would love to take advantage of that situation and get a hold of Tiberius for himself. Happerton marries the wealthy and desirable Rebecca to gain the capitol he needs to further his villainous plans. Rebecca is smarter and more proactive about her life than her husband suspects and that will cost him. Circling these three are the prerequisite 287 addition characters all with tantalizing agendas of their own.
The amount of research involved in Derby Day shows on every page. Each character behaves if not with the highest hoped for moral correctness of the period then at least in keeping with the period. The food, the fabrics, the attitudes, all the incidentals of life in Victorian England are displayed with an everyday casualness that belies Derby Day having been written in the twenty-first century. The employment by the author of a slightly bemused, above-it-all narrator with knowledge of all builds an intimacy between the reader and the page that helps maintain that connection with the Victorian era.
Taylor’s starting point for Derby Day was W.P. Frith’s wonderful, panoramic painting The Derby Day. This painting was originally shown at the Royal Academy in 1858. You can see the allure for Taylor. There is so much going on in the painting. Every inch of the crowd tells a story and highlights a class situation.
Amazingly every hope, every dastardly deed, every desperate prayer, the entire sprawl of the novel does come together at the Derby. Derby Day could have been 500 pages of scattershot anecdotes and description but instead the brilliance of D.J. Taylor has made this novel a masterpiece of showmanship and scholarship that completely entertains. -
The only "mystery" in this book (despite the billing) is why I read the whole (quite lengthy) thing. The book is structured as if it were a complex puzzle, and you read it, accordingly, with extremely close attention to detail at the beginning, but eventually it becomes evident that there is no mystery to be solved and that the book's multitude of narratives won't come together, but will simply end. All the characters are trite -- the rogue, the down on his luck scion of a good family, the romantic governess, the hardened criminal -- and none get real treatment to become more than stock characters. I "think" the novel was trying to say something about the position of women at that time through the character of Rebecca and at the beginning it is implied that she has some grand scheme in mind. But plotwise there is no pay off there, and her motivations remain enigmatic and as a character she is too unlikeable (the word "horrible" is frequently used to describe her) to provide the center of gravity the novel needs. Book remains a series of set pieces -- none too fresh, and rather lengthy -- instead of a mystery, or even just a gripping tale.
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I enjoyed reading this but am not quite sure what to make of it. It's billed as a "Victorian mystery" but didn't really seem to contain many elements of a mystery to me as it's a fairly straightforward story of misdoings in the horse racing world. It's written in some kind of Victorian style which I don't know enough about to talk about - I don't know whether it's a pastiche or satire or something else like that. It's an entertaining enough story on the surface but I suspect I am missing the depths. In short I think the author is probably quite clever but rather than showing me that I feel like he's made me feel quite stupid, which isn't really how I like to feel as a reader! Although I liked the book on the whole I wouldn't be inclined to recommend it to others really.
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This book is written in a very fun and engaging way and you will most likely have a rollicking good time while reading it. Having said that, I could not escape a feeling at the end that there was no there there. Entertaining but ultimately (I suspect) forgettable. But the ride is thoroughly enjoyable for as long as it lasts.
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Much better than his novels set in the present, since the faux-Victorian style suits Taylor’s blithely condescending sensibility. But saying a character is like Becky Sharp (from Vanity Fair) to save on characterisation...? Lazy.
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This is a skilful and subtly ironic re-working of a Victorian novel. The main difference is that the plot, centring round the betting and speculation on horses leading up to the Epsom Derby is tightly controlled with very few digressions, except where the author wants to set the scene - especially that of Derby Day itself, which uses the panoramic painting by Frith for inspiration. There are obvious and intentional echoes of Dickens and other Victorian novelists in the characters and descriptions. Two obvious examples are the debt owed to Chesney Wold and the Deadlocks for the description of Mr Davenant's family home in damp rural Lincolnshire with its ghostly and tragic atmosphere and another is the calculating sandy-haired and green-eyed Rebecca Gresham - who shares her name and character with Thackeray's anti-heroine. I liked the use of these borrowings as I felt it gave the book colour and substance. It was an absorbing read - definitely not a Dickens - but perhaps a minor Thackeray.
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Surely we are living in a new Silver Age of the Victorian sensational novel, and long may it continue. There have been many superlative entries in this happily revived genre—the works of Caleb Carr, Sarah Waters, Michael Cox and Clare Clark come to mind—but D. J. Taylor seems to have set the gold standard with Derby Day. Part mystery, part crime novel and utterly a suspense thriller, it owes much to its many Victorian models—the works of Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, the Bronte sisters, Mrs. Oliphant, Charles Reade and, most especially, the hauntingly social journalism of Henry Mayhew—but is far more than just a clever pastiche of its literary ancestors. Author Taylor is as steeped in fascinating Victoriana as any author I’ve ever read, and both Derby Day and its linked predecessor, Kept, fall into that narrow and sanctified category of books you wished would never end. And it only gets five stars because I couldn’t give it six.
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Having finished Derby Day, I can say that it's a solid detective story in the vein of Dickens, with a cast of dozens of colorful British characters...a governess, a spurned blue-stocking wife, a "sporting man" who's a cad, old lawyers, canny housemaids, etc. The writing was engaging enough that I did not mind learning how about horse-racing, a subject that did not greatly interest me before. Will try to find other books by this writer.
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If you loved Bleak House and other Dickens novels, you will enjoy Derby Day. Taylor presents a cast of characters who are all interconnected by a horse Tiberius, who is destined to run the race at Epsom in 1866. Taylor
plays homage to Dickens and I enjoyed the novel immensely. -
Trite, unpleasant characters - none of which I could be bothered to find out more about.
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I give this a two with reservations; it significantly undershot my expectations. Taylor's earlier novel, Kept, was brilliant. This was a lot of polish and pizazz without much of a book underneath. Glitzy, schmaltzy writing that could never make me care about what was happening. The subtitle is a misnomer. Unless I really misunderstood the whole book, there is no mystery. The reader is well-informed at all points in the straightforward story. So well, in fact, that I thought I must be missing something and concentrated all the more intently to try to catch it. But there's no more! In addition, there are no likable characters to root for, the plot is spread wide and thin amongst the large but inconsequential cast, and the story relies heavily on the reader's understanding of Victorian debt collecting (?!?). It's a lot of really poor choices packed into a book with a great cover and title. I think the author got way too indulgent with period-styling and forgot himself, and the book suffered because of it.
I feel a little bitter about this book. I'd looked forward to reading it a long time, and I invested a large number of pages with precious small payout. Also, I cannot understand how a book with Victorian London and a horse race can go wrong. Oh, and the section of the book devoted to the race, the should-be climax, was terrible. You wait all that time and he doesn't even narrate the race. Understated to a fault. -
This was a delightful book, well written with a charming voice about horse racing in the late 1800's. The characters are well drawn and interesting particularly
Rebecca and Mr. Happerton, but all of them are unique in their own way. The period is beautifully portrayed. -
Unexpectedly engrossing Victorian-style novel that made me want to read The Quincunx again. Don't miss this one even if you have no interest whatsoever in horse racing. I didn't remember this being on the Booker longlist last year, but the nomination was well-deserved.
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Just the mention of a Victorian style of novel populated by nefarious characters, the rich horsey-set among other people had my interest. It was the culminating Derby at Epsom that sealed the deal...to be read and enjoyed without delay!
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Although several people following this year's entries on the Booker Prize Longlist may not agree on its placement on the list, I don't really give a toss. Derby Day is a fun and entertaining novel, and provides for a few hours of total escape. It's a good book, and I rather enjoyed it.
Like his book Kept (which I read some time ago and really enjoyed), Derby Day is subtitled "A Victorian Mystery," and there is enough intrigue and foul play scattered throughout the novel's 400+ pages to keep a mystery reader happy. At the same time, it's a novel that brings together several characters from different walks of life in Victorian England, many of whose fortunes hang in the balance based on the performance of a race horse named Tiberius. Derby Day does indeed offer its readers a "break" in their "overworked lives": although his Victorian narrative style may not be everyone's cup of tea, the story is a great deal of fun. And I would have bought this book even if it had not appeared on this year's longlist, because of my previous enjoyment of Taylor's Kept.
In Lincolnshire, Samuel Davenant is the owner of a horse named Tiberius, who had
"won the Epsom's Two Year's Old Plate, altogether ran away with the Trial Stakes at Abingdon and absolutely tied with the Duke of Grafton's Creditor for the Middle Park Plate."
Although the horse has great potential in the upcoming Derby, Davenant is deeply in debt, scarcely able to feed it. After the disappointing purchase of two other horses on the back of Tiberius' reputation ("thinking that where one animal had gone others might follow"), and an unsuccessful lawsuit against a neighbor, Davenant has mounting bills that he cannot pay. He's a quiet man, preferring the solitude of his home, Scroop Hall, where he lives with his daughter Evie. At the same time, in London, Mr. Happerton is a rakish young man who is fascinated with Tiberius, noting that "There are men who would pay five thousand to have him running under their name." Happerton knows Davenant's financial situation and has been quietly buying up his debts, secretly planning to take Tiberius when the bills come due and Davenant is forcibly pushed into bankruptcy. The problem is that his scheme requires an outlay of capital which Happerton doesn't have. To remedy that situation, Happerton marries Rebecca Gresham, daughter of a well-to-do lawyer. But while his father-in-law's money isn't enough to fully finance his plans, Happerton's not too worried: he is a man ready with a few more tricks up his sleeve.
The action is not as cut and dried as one would think and there are a number of surprises that unfold as the novel progresses, keeping things moving with rarely a dull moment in the story. The sense of place is vividly evoked as the reader travels through the fens and wild landscape of Lincolnshire (where it "would not have been strange to peep between the fence posts and see Lady Dedlock out a-wandering"), as well as through the upper-class London neighborhoods and their counterparts in the seamier sides of the city. And Epsom, just before and during the Derby, comes alive with its sights, smells, noise and carnival-like atmosphere, all beautifully imagined by the author. Subplots abound as in any good Victorian drama, and the ever-expanding cast of characters presents a range of personalities: the cream of London society, a young governess in the bleak Lincolnshire countryside, an enigmatic jewel thief whose past is his major preoccupation, a disgraced army officer who frequents the billiard halls (a nod to Thackeray's "English Raff," from his Book of Snobs,) an older jockey on the portly side and the crowds who attend the Derby, to name a few. Twists of fate and "odd conjunctions" bring these people together from time to time, making for great dynamic among the characters, but most especially between Happerton and his wife. While Mrs. Carmody's Book of Genteel Behavior of 1861 offers the Victorian woman tips about married life and one's place in society, Mrs. Happerton turns Mrs. Carmody's advice on its head, to the point where the reader begins to doubt who really has the upper hand in that relationship.
Derby Day is one of those books that will appeal to a wide variety of readers -- it is filled with plotting and machinations that will satisfy readers of melodrama and mystery, it offers an intriguing portrait of a slice of time for historical fiction readers, and its constant nod to Thackeray throughout the novel will make Victorian fiction readers happy as well. If I have any complaints, they are minor -- the amount of subplots is a bit dizzying at times, as are the number of new characters that appear here and there that tended to distract my reading flow. Otherwise, Derby Day is highly entertaining, and I can definitely recommend it. -
For a book that was listed (whether long or short) for a literary prize I did actually enjoy this. I particularly enjoyed the Classical references that were scattered (mainly horses) and the odd Norfolk reference (though i doubt many people will know where the Wensum is).
However, there was some editorial/continuity issues, which if you're reading it every so often you probably wouldn't notice, but I read it in two halves so did. This was a small irritant, mainly because this was long listed for the Man Booker and I do not expect these things to appear. There were only 3 that I spotted, but once aware I couldn't ignore them.
1) Mr Glenister originally lives in Glenister Hall (pg 49), then spends the rest of the book in Glenister Court.
2) After the will reading, reference is made to a cousin of Mr Davenent's (pg 281). However, the only person Mr Glenister is with at the time is Mr Davenent's brother, who asks the questions either side if this cousin's question. This jars because who is this cousin? He is not listed as an attendee at the will reading they have just been to. The narrative also implies that this question is asked by Davenent's brother in follow up to his earlier one, apart from the reference that it is asked by a cousin.
3) Mr Pritchett calls his assistant Johnson (pg 345) and then spends every other time calling him Jones.
I do also feel that to bill it as a Victorian Mystery is a little misleading, as while it is mysterious in that you don't quite know what most of the characters are plotting, it does suggest that there's going to be some sort of murder/Sherlock Holmes-esque mystery. Which there is not. So I was a little disappointed, as it wasn't quite the Victorian set crime novel around the events of Derby day that I was expecting.
Overall though, it's nice to have a book club book that isn't a) about the war and b) doesn't flit between timelines (we seem to have had a lot of these). Probably one of the best book club books of this year. -
This was a wonderful, charming book. The author is a William Makepeace Thackeray biographer, and his affection for his subject is widely felt throughout the novel. He manages Thackeray’s blend of comedy and social commentary beautifully without ever seeming like he is imitating.
The novel, as the title suggests, centers around the lives of several “sporting gentlemen” and their wives, associates, enemies, and victims in the months leading up to the year’s biggest horse race. I loved the characters. Mr. Happerton, who is a upwardly-mobile wolf in sheep’s clothing is an absolute delight to hate. He uses debts as weapons against people, and utterly ruins a very nice man in order to basically steal his racehorse and home. Happerton and his wife, rather cheekily named Becky, are a self-conscious nod to Thackeray. They are horrible, mercenary people who love no-one but themselves - but my goodness are they ever fun. Becky Happerton isn’t quite as thrilling as her namesake Becky Sharpe however, but that is probably because she is born quite rich and can only scheme for fun and not because her existence in society depends upon it.
This book, like life in general I suppose, is more about money than horses. It is at the root of everything on every page. Many of the characters risk financial ruin on a horse, and they are justifiably written as fools. Some are sympathetic fools, like poor Mr. Davenant, the country squire who is blindsided by the machinations of Happerton when ill-fortune presents him with an exceptional horse that draws unwanted attention. Others are just lazy, useless men who would rather gamble and wait for that illusive big win that will set them up for life instead of getting a real job. And still others coldly calculate and maneuver to fix things in their favor never thinking that it will catch up to them. But, satisfyingly, it does catch up to most everyone who deserves it and things are set quite right in the end for the survivors.
Great book - go read it. -
The Story
"As the shadows lengthen over the June grass, all England is heading for Epsom Downs’ high life and low life, society beautifies and Whitechapel street girls, bookmakers and gypsies, acrobats and thieves. Whole families stream along the Surrey back-roads, towards the greatest race of the year. Hopes are high, nerves are taut, hats are tossed in the air. This is Derby Day. In this rich and exuberant novel, the mysteries pile high, propelling us towards the day of the great race, as we wait with baited breath as the story gallops to a finish no one expects."
My Thoughts
What I thought this book was about: The Victorian horsey upper-crust attending the Derby with a little mystery and maybe some house party shenanigans thrown in for fun. Perhaps the Prince of Wales and some of his set would feature as characters.
What this book was really about: A mystery that had the husband of the lady daughter of a Marquess as a minor character. The rest of the characters were mostly shady men–including the “unknown” man that marries the Marquess’s daughter’s daughter. And a girl with either autism or severe cognitive impairment.
I started off reading this in print from the library, but couldn’t renew it. I’d forgotten it so only got about 20 pages done when I had to renew it. I needed an audiobook for my commute and also hoped it would go with a topical post I was planning, so I listened to it this time and enjoyed it. It just wasn’t really what I was expecting from the blurb. This book was nominated for the Man Booker Prize and was named as a Book of the Year by the Washington Post. If you would like a Dick Francis novel set in Victorian times, this is your book. I happen to enjoy Dick Francis, but only on audio, so this was a good choice for me in spite of my initial confusion on the story. -
A few years ago I made a pact with myself that if I wasn’t enjoying a book, I’d stop reading it and move on to the next. Before that I’d had a hard time stopping a book midway through, even when I hated what I was reading. I figured that I owed it to someone (the author? myself?) to see it through to completion.
Well, I almost gave up Derby Day. I read it faithfully every night and each time, I’d tell Brandon, “I don’t know how much more of this I can read.” Yet, despite my silly pact giving me license to set it down and move on, I kept at it.
It wasn’t always clear to me through the first half of the book, but Derby Day is actually quite a masterful crime caper set against the backdrop of England’s most popular horse race. D. J. Taylor has written Derby Day in a fantastic and successful approximation of a Victorian-era novel (I felt like I was reading Dickens more than once!), but it is this same thing that made it seem slow or painstakingly methodical at times. Yet, as all the loose ends begin to come together near the end of the book, it really pays off with a suspenseful, genius ending that I definitely didn’t see coming.
This isn’t a book I’d recommend without a few caveats: First, know that it’s a slow read. Second, the structure, language and writing style mimic that of Victorian novels—which can be quite dense. Third, if you want to try something outside your comfort zone, this might be a good book to try. As I said before, there’s a great payoff when the various plot lines start to come together. -
You know how you shouldn't go to the grocery when you're really hungry because you come home with frozen burritos and spicy salami and other things you'd never ordinarily order and won't actually consume once you stave off the ravening edge of starvation? Maybe the library is the same way. I went to the library in a bit of a reading slump, and saw this book sitting on the shelf with a bunch of other horse novels (most of which I had already read.) It had horses on the cover, referenced a race in the title, and claimed to be a Victorian-style novel complete with mysteries. So I picked it up and took it home.
And, like the box of frozen burritos bought in a fit of hunger, once it was home it morphed into something mushy and not very enjoyable. It was a fine book, though "fine" in the sense of "OK," not in the sense of wine or cheese. There was a ntoable lack of horses, except for one we never got to know. The mystery wasn't very mysterious or interesting. The characters weren't well-drawn or interesting. I don't insist on liking characters (and I certainly didn't like these) but I do insist on at least being interested.
It was OK. The writing was occasionally pretty good. Perhaps it would have more of an appeal to someone who wasn't expecting horses or mystery. -
I read this book because it was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2011, and I had yet to read it.
The story is set in London and environs during a few weeks in the reign of Queen Victoria, it is not merely a work of historical fiction but one written in a language appropriate to its time — i.e., it is a Victorian novel. It is fun and can be read purely as such, yet it is also a serious novel about a society caught between the familiar and the new, in which “the world is changing” and leaving many people behind.The 'Derby' of the title is the great horse race that has been run at Epsom Downs for centuries, an event that brings together the whole range of British society from the highest to the lowest for one glorious race.
In this story there is one horse in particular that is the focus on a horse, Tiberius, and Mr. and Mrs. Happerton. In some ways the couple deserve each other--they each have significant flaws that unfold over the course of the novel, and the horse and the race are on the one had at the center of the novel, and on the other hand, a distracting side bar to the main story of corruption and betrayal. -
Despite the three stars, this was a tedious read. D.J. Taylor has an exquisite ear for Victorian prose and dialogue, and one could almost believe one were reading Thackeray or Trollope, two satirizers of English Victorian Society. But where he misses is giving us characters that supply any interest in WANTING to read about them. This is the view from ten thousand feet, individuals described with an almost complete disregard for their inner lives, so that we see them moving about and setting events in train without having any idea of why they are really doing so, except for the most simplistic motivations such as "desire for money." Everybody in D.J. Taylor's world seems predatory, unethical, rapacious and venal, and I couldn't root for anyone, nor care what end they came to.
Taylor is a talented prose writer with a real sense of older times, and he has obviously done tremendous research, for which I give him great credit. I cannot count the number of times I have read modern day "Victorian" novels and been shot right out of my reader like trance by anachronisms of speech or detail. I just wished he cared more about the characters he creates. -
Since the days of Adam, there has been hardly a mischief done in this world but a woman has been at the bottom of it. “Barry Lyndon” William Makepeace Thackeray
This is not a quote used in "Derby Day", but a pertinent one I think! It is not just the acknowledgement and a couple of quotes from Thackeray that shows D.J. Taylor’s affinity and connection with the 19th Century novelist.
Plans were all in place to have this one read and reviewed just prior to the Victoria Racing Club Derby that was run here in Melbourne on Saturday 30 October. For those of you not from Melbourne, this week is our Spring Racing Carnival, a time where we have a public holiday (yes a holiday for a horse race – the Melbourne Cup) and four days of racing at Flemington with the Derby, the Cup, the Oaks and more. People party for a week, eat and drink too hard, catch up with old friends, the race meetings themselves getting about 400,000 attendees over the four days but not many of them get to see a race!!!!
For a full review visit my blog at
www.messybooker.blogspot.com -
My campaign for decimal places is revived for this novel - for me 4.5 stars.
Taylor does well to entertain readers who are not hose racing lovers, and that is the big secret of a sporting novel. So few achieve that.
The period, characters and the story are strong. London in the 1860s is brought to life. Sport was almost completely about gambling then, and not surprisingly dirty work was afoot.
The quotations at the start of each chapter are excellent, as are the occasional short chapters when the Star and Sporting Life and building up to the race. Did those journalists really write with such wit?
Like many sporting novels there is a climax, and Taylor doesn't disappoint with a high-energy last couple of chapters that answer all the questions the reader may have. -
It feels like forever since I started this neo-Victorian tale of horse racing and financial swindles but it actually only took me three weeks (and some side reading) to get through it. D J Taylor captures the language of a 19th century novel but without the vivid characters and startling coincidences of Dickens, Derby Day just didn't work as well as I'd hoped. Mrs Happerton clearly has her literary antecedents in Becky Sharp, but even she doesn't rise to the heights of Thackeray's great protagonist. So ... this was perfectly fine but if you're hankering for a Victorian novel, I'd recommend reading or rereading the OG versions: pick up Bleak House or Phineas Finn ;)
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Yes, it's a Victorian mystery, but not in the way you might think. A host of characters - the weak widower gently decaying in the depths of the country, the steely young wife of the rather louche sporting gentleman, the unfortunate Captain Raff (who's raffish indeed), along with a governess, a jewel thief, the horse Tiberius and assorted racetrack habitues - are the main event, though the plot is suitably intricate. To call it great fun makes it sound trivial, and it's anything but. Highly recommended.
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Abandoned at p. 164. After holding the book for several months but making little progress with it, I decided to return it to the library. The book had been praised as an exercise in the best practices of the Victorian novel, but it could not compete with other books that I found more enjoyable and readable. It was not Vanity Fair, nor was it Middlemarch, but how many authors could claim to have delivered such masterpieces?
