I've just read this, as it was buck shee on Kindle. Now it's suposed to be a classic, i.e. timeless, always fresh etc.

I found it to be quite dire!

The author starts off by lecturing me about making judgements about authors based on the contents of the book, then sets about presenting us with his own petty judgements on everything strung together by a , to my mind, badly written load of old tat. As a pocket guide to nineteenth century: soft furnishings, textiles and cottaging techniques, it does it's job. Now I've read quite a few classics, to my mind a classic is a book you could pick up and read again later. This wasn't one of those. Thank fuck that he didn't publish any more novels.

I now wish I had: a time machine, a mallet, a large funnel, a rabid wolverine and the exact temporal and spacial coordinates of his cell in Reading nick!

i wasnt a huge fan of this when i read it either, it's a very good idea but to my mind badly executed with pretty crap characters (which when the premise is all about one mans soul is a big failing). i've never read any other OW novels/novellas so i'm not sure if this one was below par or if he's just over-rated.

The film is just as bad

The problem with reading OW books is the faintness of the print. I heard it was atrributed to OWs unfeasably limp wrist.