''Prisoner in a Red-Rose Chain'' (also published as ''Red-Rose Chain'') is the first novel by Canadian author

Jeffrey Moore Jeffrey Moore is a Canadian writer, translator and educator currently living in Val-Morin in the Quebec Laurentians. Moore was born in Montreal, and educated at the University of Toronto, BA, the University of Paris (post-1970), Sorbonne and the ...

it won the

Commonwealth Writers' Prize Commonwealth Foundation has presented a number of prizes since 1987. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best First ...

for Best First Book in 2000, and has been

translated Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

into a dozen different languages.

Plot Introduction

The novel chronicles the peregrinations of its love-obsessed picaresque hero, Jeremy Davenant, as he moves from

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

’s “

Plateau district Plateau District (District 4) is a municipal electoral division in the city of Gatineau, Quebec. It is currently served on Gatineau City Council by Bettyna Belizaire of Action Gatineau. The district spans the Aylmer and Hull sectors of the c ...

” and then back to York in pursuit of a destiny, that he believes is determined by a page ripped from an encyclopedia, which includes a university career based on a bogus PhD with a plagiarized thesis on the apocryphal Shakespeare play, ''

A Yorkshire Tragedy ''A Yorkshire Tragedy'' is an early Jacobean era stage play, a domestic tragedy printed in 1608. The play was originally assigned to William Shakespeare, though the modern critical consensus rejects this attribution, favouring Thomas Middleto ...

'', and the intermittently requited love of his “dark lady,” a

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: People, characters, figures, names * Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas. * Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun * Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...

named Milena.

Reception

* Frank Moher in the ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper and the flagship publication of the American-owned Postmedia Network. It is published Mondays through Saturdays, with Monday released as a digital e-edition only.

'', described Moore as “a new, sophisticated comic author who combines

John Irving John Winslow Irving (born John Wallace Blunt Jr.; March 2, 1942) is an American and Canadian novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of his fourth novel '' Th ...

’s inventive virtuosity with Tom Green’s contempt for everything stuffy and comfy.” *In his review for ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'', Jim Bartley praised the novel's “keen characterizations,” as well as its “hugely engaging set pieces and a plot that traces a gratifying arc.” *Max Davidson in ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...

'' describes it as "a sparkling first novel by a young writer of whom more will surely be heard. It is a clever book, dense with literary allusions, but also a heart-warming one, with a thoroughly likeable hero, as romantic as he is accident-prone." and concludes "a very attractive package indeed: literate, literary fiction, but without a hint of academic mustiness." *

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

is more circumspect however: "Moore is best at detailing his hero’s haphazard woo-ing and generally sad-sack life. But whenever the story leaves the well-trodden streets of Montreal—described by Moore with an easy familiarity—or academe, it finds itself on less solid ground. Jeremy’s relationship with Gerard, especially everything regarding The Page, takes up far too much of the book’s already somewhat-too-many four hundred pages. Still, in certain of its ways, a charming tale about a loser in love."Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1st, 2002
Retrieved 2015-09-25.

References

External links

*{{official, http://www.jeffreymoore.org/Archive/redrosechain.html

1999 Canadian novels Novels set in Montreal Picaresque novels Le Plateau-Mont-Royal Novels about orphans 1999 debut novels