The Calligrapher, The - Couverture souple

This beguiling novel is a provocative romantic comedy centered on a young London calligrapher named Jasper, who is an engaging, intelligent serial seducer and a breaker of hearts. But when he meets Madeleine, a captivating but enigmatic woman who is his equal in every way, he falls helplessly in love. Vulnerable for the first time, he is headed for his comeuppance at last. Jasper is transcribing the Songs and Sonnets of that other great lover, John Donne, for a rich American client. As he works on them (revealing to us the fascinating art of the calligrapher), he discovers that these wise and beautiful love poems illuminate his own experiences -- of the difference between love and lust, of the play of truth and deceit between men and women, of the cost of constancy. As well as bringing modern London vividly to life, The Calligrapher is keenly observant of contemporary relationships and modern mores. Underlying its sparkling surface are Jasper's wry but heartfelt lamentations about the diminishment of our culture: the trivial masquerading as the consequential, the rising tide of ignorance, the triumph of the lowest common denominator. At once wickedly witty and deeply serious, sweet and cynical, romantic and reflective, this stylish, wonderfully entertaining novel is an accomplished and exciting literary debut.

A modern tale of sexual mores and city life, Edward Docx’s brilliant debut is a witty novel of spurned lovers, elaborately planned seduction, plotted revenge, and surprising secrets.
Jasper Jackson is a rapacious heartbreaker who is greatly overdue for a reckoning. He is also a passionate, charming, sophisticated young Londoner, well versed in life’s finer enjoyments — art and wine, great food and engaging friendships — who happens to eke out his stylish existence in the improbable vocation of calligraphy. While working on a commission to transcribe the love poetry of John Donne, he glimpses an alluring woman in the courtyard outside his window. Madeleine is in every way his match — sexy, intelligent, and, above all, elusive. But his mission to seduce her marks the start of his unraveling.
A contemporary comedy of manners for fans of Nick Hornby or Julian Barnes, The Calligrapher dazzles with its acute observations about truth and deceit in the eternal battle of love.