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    The Map of Time and The Turn of the Screw
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    The Map of Time and The Turn of the Screw
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    The Map of Time and The Turn of the Screw
    Ebook845 pages13 hours

    The Map of Time and The Turn of the Screw

    By Anne Wilson Schaef and Henry James

    3.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this ebook

    An epic, ambitious and page-turning mystery that will appeal to fans of The Shadow of the Wind, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and The Time Traveller’s Wife

    London, 1896. Andrew Harrington is young, wealthy and heartbroken. His lover Marie Kelly was murdered by Jack the Ripper and he longs to turn back the clock and save her.

    Meanwhile, Claire Haggerty rails against the position of women in Victorian society. Forever being matched with men her family consider suitable, she yearns for a time when she can be free to love whom she choses.

    But hidden in the attic of popular author – and noted scientific speculator – H.G. Wells is a machine that will change everything.

    As their quests converge, it becomes clear that time is the problem – to escape it, to change it, might offer them the hope they need…

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateJul 9, 2011
    ISBN9780007344154
    Unavailable
    The Map of Time and The Turn of the Screw
    Author

    Anne Wilson Schaef

    Anne Wilson Schaef, Ph.D., is the bestselling author of Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much, Women's Reality, and Co-Dependence, among others. Schaef specializes in work with women's issues and addictions and has developed her own approach to healing which she calls Living in Process. Her focus now is helping people, societies, and the planet make a paradigm shift.

    Read more from Anne Wilson Schaef

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    Reviews for The Map of Time and The Turn of the Screw

    3.5/5

    73 ratings83 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Couldn't finish this one. Too much of a weird mix; still don't know if it's fantasy, sci-fi, semi-historical story or what... The prose is often pretty good, but I'm just left with a feeling it's going nowhere fast.
    • 4/5
      I feel like I didn't quite know what I signed up for as I read this novel. While good overall, the strange use of a few terms keyed me in that this is a translated work and I was frustrated a few times by how the story seemed to meander, exploring secondary characters in detail and taking hundreds of pages to set up the background of a character. By the end of the book, I did see some method to the madness and I appreciated the originally of the story and its unique structure. For those who enjoy a long, rich story with a healthy mix of time travel and Victorian London, this is a book for you.
    • 3/5
      I really wanted to love this one but just couldn't get over the awkward narrator and clumsy attempt to do a mystery with just bits and pieces held back for no good reason. still the premise is interesting and the idea of time travel always intrigues me.
    • 5/5
      After reading the time machine of H. G. Wells, this story was a highlight. This is also about time travel and the author H. G. Wells gets a main role in it. It all starts with a young man of noble society, whose friend was murdered by Jack the Ripper. As he wanted to end his life, his cousin tried to undo things by using Wells' time machine. During this time, the reader also encounters other people, who led people with so-called time machines.The story is extremely exciting and varied. The listeners live and hope with the characters. It is a story I can highly recommend.
    • 3/5
      When I first received this book from the publisher, I was caught off guard by how juvenile the cover was and expected the book to be the same. However, the book begins by having us follow the thoughts of a man as he contemplates suicide--an idea which then turns us down the alley of a whorehouse. The sexuality of this book and the 'bigger ideas' make me feel like the cover should display that and not be so misleading. I loved that the author jumped into the plot at seemingly random; it kept you interested. I will say that as much as I liked it, it did get a little annoying with his whole "I can see everything" lecture. Speaking of POVs, I didn't like the abrupt change between one character's flood of thoughts suddenly to another's. The history in the book definitely piqued my interest, leaving me wanting to read H.G. Well's "The Time Machine" which was so thoughtfully included with this book. My favorite 'history lesson' had to be with Jack the Ripper. I was disappointed since the book was supposed to have Bram Stoker in it as well, and even though he is, it's NOTHING like the world we enter with Jack the Ripper. Palma's language is intellectual and he did a great job of expressing the year 1888 through his language. I disliked how long the paragraphs were, sometimes having one paragraph take up two pages. It made it harder to read for me, as did his OUTRAGEOUS use of commas. Seriously, does he just, put, a comma wherever, he wants?? In the end, I remember smiling to myself because it's been a long time since I've stayed up all night to finish a book (think of Harry Potter) with such eagerness, and I loved that everything, like the map of time, tied together in the end. I would have given it a higher rating, but the descriptions were too much for me. Perhaps if you like Charlotte Bronte or Jane Austen you will like the way the author writes.
    • 2/5
      Well, every time I attempt a bit of a scifi romp (!!) I end up feeling like I am lacking some fundamental scifi appreciation gene. This book has been translated into English (and a bunch of other languages too) and will be released in late June. The premise is excitingly meta and mildly scifi-y so I really thought it would work for me. It only sort of worked. I think lots of people will love this book though and will be keen for Palma's other works to be translated. Those who make an appearance in this story: H.G. Wells (major player), Bram Stoker, Henry James, Jules Verne, John Merrick (aka The Elephant Man - this was my favourite bit) and Jack the Ripper. the story is trisected and while the 2nd and 3rd sections are mostly seamless, the 1st section felt like (once I had finished the novel) a self-contained piece of writing. I became attached to a character or two and was then wondering when they would reappear?I think, though, it could be a big summer book.I wouldn't listen to me on this one.
    • 3/5
      To finish this 600 page book, I had to do something unusual: take a break in the middle and read something else before going back to finish it. I’ve never done that before, but I had to get away from the all seeing, all knowing, all talking narrator who goes on like a garrulous guest at a party who traps you in the corner with an unending story. The story seems interesting, so you don’t flee outright, but you do keep an eye on potential escape routes. I grabbed this book because it was set in Victorian London and was supposed to be about time travel. It incorporates as characters some historical figures, mainly H.G. Wells. I assumed it would be a rather steampunk-ish novel. I was wrong. The novel is divided into three sections, each dealing with a purported episode of time travel. The common thread is H.G. Wells, who keeps getting dragged into people’s time travel plots- because of his recently published novel The Time Machine – when all he really wants is to be left alone to write. Although it is not known until later, all three sections are also linked with huckster Gilliam Murray, owner of Murray’s Time Travel, his company that takes paying guests to visit the year 2000. And the underlying thread, the one of philosophy and science, constantly brings up the question of what happens when you change the past- is time immutable? Is it changeable? Is there more than one universe and more than one time? Do humans have free will? I did somewhat enjoy the book- when I went back to it, I finished it rapidly. I would have enjoyed it more if it had been shorter, not because I don’t have the attention span for long books but because there’s a good deal of extraneous matter in this novel. The entire biography of H.G. Wells up to the point of the story really isn’t germane to the tale, and there are some truly eye-glazing sections where stories are repeated in full just because they are being told to a new character, and ones where people are just moving about. Don’t read it if you’re expecting action filled steampunk; it’s more along the lines of a book that was really written in the past.
    • 1/5
      I read the first chapter and I couldn't seem to get into it. I got upper confused with what was happening and it seemed like a chore to read even to the first chapter. I found that there was poor word choice as well. I was sooo hoping that this book was going to be good but it let me down.
    • 5/5
      I was expecting great things out of The Map of Time, after reading my friend's review of it. What I was not expecting was that it would be so good and marvellous – a strong candidate to The Best Book I Read This Year.The Map of Time defies classification, it embodies Historical Fiction, Science Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Steampunk, Mystery, Romance, Metafiction and even Biography, all of this articulated seamlessly into one book.The setting is Victorian London, where Murray Time Travel Company offers the chance to travel to the year 2000, and see the the final confrontation between humans and automatons.There are three main characters, as there are three stories: Andrew Harrington, who has been half-living since Jack, the Ripper murdered the love of his life, the Whitechappel prostitute Mary Kelly, and is quite ready to end that; Miss Claire Haggerty, who feels that she was born on the wrong time period, quite certain that she will never be happy; and finally H. G. Wells. The writer of The Time Machine, which is also an important book within the story, as it motivates innumerable characters to try Time Travel.I absolutely loved this book – the plot, the characters, the writing, but most of all, the narrator. Although he was not one of the characters, he was the connection between the reader and the London in the book. His tone was quirky, and the entire book felt like a story that was being told to me, and only me. Much like an aside during a theatrical play.It's hard to talk about the plot of this book, without giving to much away, and believe me, you wouldn't want spoilers on this one. It's full of twists and turns, so much that you end up with a general feeling of suspicion towards the author at the beginning of each part. But by the end, you'll still be in love with the story.I can say only good things about The Map of Time, a great book, indeed.Also at Spoilers and Nuts
    • 4/5
      I was expecting this to be a time-consuming read, but it was actually written in a rather breezy style and I had a lot of fun with it. It was far more a time travel fantasy than it was science fiction-y. It actually reminded me of The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers in quite a few ways. The book is comprised of three separate stories, but they all feature H. G. Wells and contain clever links to each other.
    • 3/5
      2.5 (for now)
      If you haven't read or you are planning to read The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, do it before reading this book since it is almost completely retold here. The Time Machine is too good to be read as a retelling for the first time.

      I can't remember the last time I had difficulty rating a book. Sometimes I can't make up my mind right away, but it doesn't last long. With The Map of Time it is even worse than that. On the one hand some things are five star material and on the other, there are quite a few things which deserve one star rating (for me, at least).

      That being said, The Map of Time is a very strange story. I've read only the blurb, which is so misleading that you will wonder if you've read the same book. I went into it without reading any reviews. I am not sure if that is a good thing or not. I was surprised a few times, which is a good thing. But I was also bored at times, especially when occasional tedious history or literary lessons started. Further more, after reading the complete story, I have this feeling that everything I've read isn't new and that it can be found somewhere else.

      The novel is divided into three parts, three overlapping stories. It is told by an omnipresent narrator, another thing which I'll come back to, and each of the three stories have their own shorter ones.

      The first starts with a young man preparing to commit suicide on the eighth anniversary of the death of his beloved, the last victim of Jack the Ripper. His cousin offers another solution. The rest of the story is their attempt of saving the girl with the help of H.G. Wells and his time machine.
      The second story chronologically starts before the first, but as the annoying narrator tells us (yes, us) he chose that order just because "there are stories that cannot begin at their beginning, and perhaps this is one of them." It doesn't matter anyway. This is about an upper-class woman bored with everything and everyone around her, dreaming of all-consuming love and uncontrollable passion. A company Murray's Time Travel offers journeys to the year 2000 on their flier and Claire decides to go with her friend and see the final battle between automatons and humans. Her plan is to stay there. Her attempt to stay behind triggers a strange chain of events. This story also involves H.G. Wells. It's up to us to decide if it is a true happy ending.
      While Wells is a glue that holds this book together, he is only a side character in the first two stories. In the third he is directly involved. Someone is killing people in London leaving them with a hole in their chest and quotations from novels not yet published. Their wound is so strange that Scotland Yard inspector suspects a time-traveller, so Wells is the one who tries to find the murderer who may be from another era.

      What I don't like in this book is its omniscient narrator who constantly reminds us of his presence and knowledge. The story is often interrupted by the narrator to tell us this or that about the characters, the events, the future and whatnot.
      Next, the book is pretty slow. It would have been better if it hadn't meandered all around the place (we don't have to know every single tiny thing about a character passing through a hallway).

      Some reasons why I am not rating this higher are those occasional tedious history lessons (especially near the end of the book), the depiction of women (not one of the women has any personality), wrong origin of one of the most famous people in science and retelling of The Time Machine almost in its entirety. Since I've read The Time Machine it wasn't so bad and I was just reminded of the events, but still there was no need for all that. These are just my personal preferences.

      We are warned by that omniscient narrator that the story is not what you think it is. Neither is what I just wrote here. If you want to read it, expect a lot more than you could find in what I wrote.

      Anyway, I'll play it safe and rate it almost I like it. For me this definitely wasn't a four/five-star book, but I but I'll probably try the second one anyway.

    • 1/5
      Yikes. Got half-way through and gave it up for good. Besides the summary being vastly misleading to the books actual content, there seemed to be no likeable characters, not much happening and almost no dialogue. Plus, the misogyny and portrayal of women wasn't exactly floating my boat.
    • 2/5
      I wanted to like it. But the writing is very poor. The intrusion of the narrator (and the author through skill-less prose) is very obnoxious.

      Read the other two-star reviews. they are VERY accurate.


      I tried twice to get into it. The second time willing to repress my standards to get a good story. But it was just so bad that I couldn't do it. finished two thirds. No mas, compadre. No mas.
    • 5/5
      An outstanding book! After a lifetime of reading, it is rare that I am unable to determine within a few chapters where the author is heading. But this great book kept me guessing right until the last pages. And, as the book is a collection of three, separate but related stories, the author did it three times in a row! Bravo, Mr. Palma, bravo! And thank you for your effort!
    • 4/5
      The well-developed characters and imaginative story line kept me fascinated from beginning to end. I love the way the author told his tale with the texture and flavor of the early science fiction classics.You know those books that you wish would never end? Those where the characters become your best friends for a while? Well, this isn't one of them. It goes on and on until you're ready to say goodbye. I think it could have used a little pruning.I listened to the audiobook, and fell in love with the sound of the reader's voice. He was absolutely perfect for this book. I used it as my dog-walking book, taking it in in thirty minute segments. I've always loved walking my dogs, but I have never looked forward to my walks so much as I did while listening to this book.
    • 5/5
      Good read. I wasn't always sure of the style, but the twists and turns were clever and entertaining. Worth a read.
    • 4/5
      I didn't really like this book about 1/3 of the way through. It's broken into 3 sections and after the first I began to feel cheated. But I plowed on to the second section and things didn't seem to be getting better. Until section two turned into a lovely little story and the threads that tie all three sections are revealed. The final third is a mind blowing and thought provoking bow tie that wraps the whole novel.

      Really well done. Helps is your a fan of h.g. Wells but that's not mandatory.

      Recommend highly.
    • 1/5
      Went on a bender from a really good read to a really strange one very quickly.
    • 4/5
      Just what I needed to distract me from the summer heat. Palma has taken H.G. Wells' The Time Machine and launches from there into a wonderful premise that has the reading believing / disbelieving / believing in time travel. Palma's all-seeing narrator leads us through three intertwining stories set in Victorian England, a wonderful time period for a good genre-bender read. Palma brings the author H.G. Wells - along, to a lesser extent, Henry James and Bram Stoker - to life in his stories which is good for a potential reader of Palma' story to know. I for one, tend to enjoy stories where real historical figures are characters and I don't analyze whether or not the author gives an accurate portrayal of these individuals. Let just say Palma brings enough accuracy to our three literary figures for me to settle back and enjoy the story. Fans of Wells' novel and the subsequent movie adaptations may enjoy the details that Palma brings to his story. I know I did, but it is so much more than a Time Machine story. It is a wonderful historical fiction story first and foremost but it is also a genre-bending delight. It is a historical, literary, mystery, fantasy, steampunk-styled adventure wrapped up into one page-turning package. I have read a number of novels that have taken Victorian England and adapted it to suit the author's needs, but this one is different. The story doesn't try to tamper with the known Victorian England time period. Palma leaves that firmly intact for readers to ground themselves as they follow his characters down the train of thought of possible parallel universes and the "map of time" that parallel universes may create. I really enjoyed how Palma plays with the reader, leading them along and feeding them with tantalizing information that may, or may not, be proven correct as the story progresses, kind of like a carnival's maze of mirrors where one tries to find the right way through the maze. Palma has a gift for painting a detailed picture and for crafting his characters, drawing the reader into the scene and engaging with the characters. He also knows how to pace his story: slow enough to lay the groundwork and to bring all the subtle details to the readers attention while still carrying the plot forward at a decent pace, keeping my interest from waning. Favourite quote:"True literature should rouse the reader, unsettle him, change his view of the world, give him a resolute push over the cliff of self-knowledge." If you are a fan of [The Time Machine] and H.G. Wells' novels, and if you are like me and enjoy reading stories where historical literary figures are characters in the story, this first book in a currently three-book series may appeal to you. I thoroughly enjoyed my escapism romp through Victorian England under Palma's pen and I am looking forward to reading book two in the series - The Map of the Sky.
    • 5/5
      The book's main theme is time travel. The book is divided into three parts, which focus on different stories, yet they are united in some form and manner.

      The setting is in London during a "Steampunk" sort of age.

      The story has plenty of characters with the main focus on a couple of main characters.

      The book has many twists and surprises, all which are difficult to forsee. I was not able to guess what was going to happen next. Until I got to the third part of the book, I correctly guessed whom the story was going to be about, but that was the only thing I guessed right.

      The book is read through the eyes of different characters. Also, the author includes his perspective of the story by stating that he can see the characters and all that is occuring in the story.

      The book has the themes of: time travel, romance, deceit, and fantasy.

      If you haven't read the book, stop reading here. If you have read the book, feel free to continue reading.

      The story that Murray mentioned about the reed people's time traveling methods was very amusing. Once I found out that Murray was a sham, I was a bit frustrated that I had just read so much and that it was a lie. But of course, Murray's story of time travel had to be included in the book because then the reader, and also Wells, would realize that the people were being hoaxed. And speaking of Murray...That character was quite despicable. A bit of a complete opposite of Wells' character.

      I think that each character's story was well developed, because there was a back story for every main character. I really enjoyed the story of Wells meeting the Elephant Man, and also the background story of Andrew's father and uncle.

      I liked the inclusion of Jack the Ripper, except that I didn't like how the author explained who he was; a sailor. I would have preffered a different "occupation" for Jack the Ripper. The sailor story didn't really seem fitting to the character of Jack the Ripper.

      I never guessed who was the person that was smearing the cow dung on Murray's building. When I found out that it was Wells, that made me laugh.
    • 4/5
      The Map of Time is intricately interwoven. I imagine the author in a large loft made of post-it notes, such that if one fell off the whole structure would flutter down. The post-its all seem to have held together, though, carefully leaving H G Wells in one piece at the end.
    • 3/5
      Eh. That's how I would describe The Map of Time. Trying too hard to be cheeky, too self-referential, too wordy, and too many cliches. Plots are well developed, some characters are nicely fleshed out, and some jokes are funny. Perhaps trying to do too much at the same time and ending up rambling on and on at times. Pathetic characters brewing in their own self pity are never too fun to read about, and indeed, the first 50 pages or so made me want to stop reading because of this. I read two of the three stories in the end, and will probably never read the third.

      Recommended for readers who like to feel smart and who have patience for wordy witticisms.
    • 3/5
      Decent in some ways but could have been much better if it was half as long. I don't mind long books if there are things happening, important character or theme development, etc. but this was just lots of extra words to go through without much reason I could see.
    • 3/5
      I found the framing annoying, groping desperately for post-modernism and trying too hard to be smart. All of these are aspects to a book that will not warm me to it.It was a struggle to read this one, I honestly didn't care if all the characters were killed. This story has a mishmash of ideas about time travel that are all thrown at the reader, sometimes in long letters, featuring H G Wells as a main character, with cameos by Bram Stoker and Henry James and honestly it didn't engage me. It features a lot of theories about time travel and many different twists and turns that end the reader in knots. Yeah, there were some parts that moved faster but I was very willing to leave long gaps between reading.There are readers for this book, I'm not one.
    • 4/5
      This was a fun read. Made me smile. Translated into English from Spanish. Pretty interesting because this is a story about nineteenth century England, mostly. With H. H Wells as the central character. A book about time travel. With some nice bumps into other historical characters including Jack the Ripper, Bram Stoker, and Henry James. A chatty omniscient narrator. A fun spoof on lots of things. Many twists and turns. Listened mostly on a road trip from Langley to Sacramento. A perfect complement to a drive.

      Listened on Audible. A reader who captured the tone of the narrator's voice very nicely.
    • 4/5
      I started this book unsure if I was going enjoy the rather chatty, meta writing style. The author interrupts the story fairly often to let you know that a character will not be reappearing or that because he is both omnipresent and omniscient this or that event was important or not.So it was a bit slow, but the interruptions slowed down as the story got going. I enjoyed the appearance of long dead famous authors and also H.G. Wells as a kind of main character. I also enjoyed the intermingling of the 3, at first, seemingly separate stories.As usual, I hated the time travel paradox talk where characters in the story try to decide how it works. But there are plenty of surprises, a bit of romance, and a large amount of cleverness going on here so it was worth it.Did I hear someone mention there might be a movie? (or am I starting that rumor right now?)
    • 4/5
      I was more than 2/3 done with this book, when I sat down at the dining room table and described the whole thing to my sister. In about 10 minutes. The way I described it, both of us agreed that it sounded very interesting. And it was. interesting. but it wasn't thrilling. exciting. moving.I tend to stay away from spoilers in reviews because I feel like... reviews with spoilers (or comprised largely of spoilers and not much else) are only devices to, effectually, "preach to the choir" (or find out if the choir agrees with you). So with that in mind, let me tell you what I liked, with an understanding that I'm treading delicately so as not to spoil the many twists and turns and discoveries that make this book worth reading. The book is well written, there's no question about that. Palma managed to write an essentially historical fiction, that just happened to include discussions about and discoveries involving time travel. Sort of. And it's that "sort of" that was probably most frustrating to me. The novel was more historical fiction (i.e., more history) than I had really signed up for, and is probably more time travel than the typical historical fiction reader signs up for. Don't get me wrong, I can get behind a good historical fiction novel with the best of 'em, it just wasn't what I was expecting with a book called the Map of Time, described as this one was, and reviewed as this one was. I wanted to travel through time... and quickly! Alas, that is not the path of this book.And yet. As I said, Palma wrote a good book. There is a lot of setting, character development, and background. And not as much action and plot-movement. But the setting, the character development, and the background were very well crafted. Palma made me not only purchase several HG Wells books after I finished the Map of Time, but I also researched Wells a bit and even continued to look into certain aspects of his life/works weeks after having finished the Map of Time. I also found myself researching the existence of other characters or events described in the book, to find out how much of what Palma wrote about was accurate, based in history, or just completely made up. Any book that makes me do extra research is an interesting book.So it's worth reading. But the plot? let's see, how to describe without spoiling.... There are two primary stories that are told, largely separately, that are connected by the famous Mr. Wells, and perhaps by other, tenuous threads that are interesting but not the meat of the sandwich. In the first, an incredibly depressed young man sets about to end his life, much to the dismay of his nearly identical cousin. Palma starts there, but then backtracks to provide the reason, the characters, the emotion behind such a decision. And, ultimately, of course, H.G. Wells becomes involved. But to say more about that line is to spoil some of the many surprises. The Second story centers around an allegedly charming, but notably disgruntled young lady who wants more out of life than just falling in love with one of the duds available to her. Needless to say, H.G. Wells also becomes enmeshed in her story. Then there are the many side stories, back stories, and peripheral stories, each of which is complete and satisfying, yet not so plentiful or involved so as to detract from the main stories. I know. Not as much "so what's it about" as you'd like. But, as I said above, I cannot spoil a good story.At the end of the day, the book was really good, but not great. It was very well written, intriguing, and well told. But I didn't escape completely into it. I didn't forget who I was while I was reading it. I just read it. Enjoyed it. And passed it on.Overall, FOUR out of five stars.Recommended for people who like historical fiction w/ a touch of time travel... or time travel, supported by a heavy base of historical fiction.**This and other reviews can be found at AllBookReviewer.blogspot.com
    • 5/5
      I thought this was imaginative and creative. I enjoyed how historical characters are brought into the story (H. G. Wells, Jack the Ripper, Marie Kelly, Henry James, Bram Stoker) and we get to see how they affect their world, especially H. G. Wells. I liked how Wells questions whether or not we have the right to change history, time, or the past. The fictional characters are interesting. I like how Andrew then Claire bring beliefs into the story and we see how those beliefs are used to create their worlds. Worth reading.
    • 3/5
      The more I read this novel, the more it felt like a verbose pastiche of concepts that Philip K. Dick has already done. To me, the book would have been better if it was shorter and if The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch didn't exist. ;-) On the plus side, it *is* timey-wimey, and the chapter where H.G. Wells meets John Merrick is one of the best things I have ever read. Three stars, and I'll give the sequel a shot.
    • 5/5
      Extremely enjoyable, clever, full of irony. Makes me more interested in H. G. Wells' work than I ever was before.