Losing Nelson

Losing Nelson is a novel of obsession, the story of Charles Cleasby, a man unable to see himself separately from the hero--Lord Horatio Nelson--he mistakenly idolizes. He is, in fact, a Nelson biographer run amok. He is convinced that Nelson, Britain's greatest admiral, who lost his own life defeating Napoleon in the Battle of Trafalgar, is the perfect hero. However, in his research he has come upon an incident of horrifying brutality in Nelson's military career that simply stumps all attempts at glorification. "Books about the sea and those who sail it are much in vogue. This seems to have been set off by the surprising and much deserved popularity of Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm, not to mention the Aubrey/Maturin novels of Patrick O'Brian. . . . [Losing Nelson is] the best book of the lot."--Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World (1999 Critic's Choice). A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1999; A New York Times Notable Book of 1999. Reading group guide available.

Author: Barry Unsworth
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 10/01/2000
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.50w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780393321173

Review Citation(s):
Entertainment Weekly 11/10/2000 pg. 79
New York Times 11/19/2000 pg. 80
New York Times 12/03/2000 pg. 109
Entertainment Weekly 05/18/2001 pg. 74

About the Author
Unsworth, Barry: - Barry Unsworth (1930-2012), who won the Booker Prize for Sacred Hunger, was a Booker Prize finalist for Morality Play and was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize for The Ruby in Her Navel.