Felony - Couverture souple

good and clever a wonderfully involved but compelling novel a most enjoyable literary accomplishment, musing splendidly on the very nature of writing. (The Glasgow Herald 20031218)

[Keeps] you riveted with its rich taste for character and the mixture of comedy and pathos that surrounds them (Independent on Sunday )

An ingenious novel- restrained, well-observed and amusing- successfully creates an imaginative world that stays with you, and that's what novels are all about (Spectator )

Lovers of literary detective stories will find hours of entertainment in unpicking Felony's tangled weave of fact and invention-a triumph of ingenuity (The Times )

A fascinating look at one of the most infamous literary events (Tatler )

Felony is the story of the literary treachery that took place at no. 43 via Romana, Florence, where Claire Clairmont, once lover of Lord Byron and mother of his daughter Allegra, lived until her death in 1879. It is also the story of Henry James's brilliant novella The Aspern Papers, which is based on that household and the nefarious doings of the lodger there, Edward Augustus Silsbee, thief and Shelleyite. Felony is about the misdemeanours inherent in writing - theft, false memory, plagiarism and greed for celebrity - and it demonstrates too the embarrassment and shame suffered in their quest. It is Emma Tennant's finest novel to date. (20030605)