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The adventures of adolescence had taught Piet Barol that he was extremely attractive to most women and to many men. He was old enough to be pragmatic about this advantage…’
It is 1907. The belle époque is in full swing. Piet Barol has escaped the drabness of the provinces for the grandest mansion in Amsterdam. As tutor to the son of Europe’s wealthiest hotelier, he learns the intimate secrets of this glittering family – and changes it forever. With nothing but his exquisite looks and wit to rely on, he is determined to make a fortune of his own. But in the heady exhilaration of this new world, amid delights and temptations he has only dreamed of, Piet discovers that some of the liaisons he has cultivated are dangerous indeed.
Read by Dan Stevens
(p) 2011 Orion Publishing Group
It is 1907. The belle époque is in full swing. Piet Barol has escaped the drabness of the provinces for the grandest mansion in Amsterdam. As tutor to the son of Europe’s wealthiest hotelier, he learns the intimate secrets of this glittering family – and changes it forever. With nothing but his exquisite looks and wit to rely on, he is determined to make a fortune of his own. But in the heady exhilaration of this new world, amid delights and temptations he has only dreamed of, Piet discovers that some of the liaisons he has cultivated are dangerous indeed.
Read by Dan Stevens
(p) 2011 Orion Publishing Group
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Reviews
Rich in period detail and with requisite glittering trappings, it's the sex that is most carefully observed in Mason's lusty romp
Told with humour, charm, fine attention to detail and a healthy dose of eroticism
Sex is everywhere, both well described and very funny . . . an enthralling, perfectly paced romp that breathes new life into the picaresque genre
A hugely accomplished novel - the story of Piet Barol, a young, provincial Dutchman and the social and sexual adventures he embarks upon in belle epoque Amsterdam
Elegant, upholstered and, for all the sex, well-behaved
A masterpiece. Like Henry James on Viagra. Gripping as hell . . . Piet was wonderfully drawn - rogueish and yet wholly sympathetic
A sharply written story of love, money and erotic intrigue pulsing behind the staid canal fronts of nineteenth century Amsterdam. Mason's hero is amoral but irresistible. I was gripped till the very last page
This elegantly plotted and witty tale unfolds in prose that is not just confident, but impressively stylish
Piet Barol is a dashing young man of the Belle Epoque who seduces his way into a life of decadence in this fast-paced historical page-turner
Just try to resist . . . A Continental Downton Abbey plus sex, with a dash of Dangerous Liaisons tossed in
A gorgeous confection. . . . Piet is the rare character - the rare being - whose unfailing charm and luck only make us cheer him on more
This book about pleasure is a provocative joy
Terrific. . . . The best new work of fiction to cross my desk in many moons
Think Balzac but lighter and sexier - an exquisitely laced corset of a novel with a sleek, modern zipper down the side
Superb. . . . [Mason's] gorgeous, precise descriptions mirror Amsterdam's singular combination of material opulence and Calvinist severity
[An] up-close mix of luxury, labor and longing - plus a country house's-worth of burbling romance
If Charles Dickens and Jane Austen had a love child who grew up reading nothing but Edith Wharton and Penthouse Forum - well, that person might be almost as wry, sexy, and knowing a writer as Richard Mason
A picaresque novel in the 18th-century tradition of John Cleland's Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure and Henry Fielding's The History of Tom Jones. . . . Piet is a charmer
Exquisite. . . . A showcase for [Mason's] nimble writing, but also extends his storytelling prowess
An elegantly written, sexy novel
[An] artful evocation of the European Belle Époque
Edith Wharton would be impressed. . . . Lovely and rich