Even so, I find myself lugging it to and fro on the train because my need to know what happens next outweighs the beast. FHM***** * At 828 pages, it's the size of a piglet and twice as heavy. Try if you like the thought of Dickens rising again to have a stab at erotic drama. Observer * The verdict: a scary tome, but crack the spine and you're into a gripping tale.

Indeed, at times it seems that the real central characters are the readers, good voyeurs that we are. Sunday Herald * It is a long read but a rewarding one. Independent * Takes the historical novel and, in the spirit of its subject matter, submits it to a good rogering in terms of graphically exposing the sexual details Dickens and Co. Daily Telegraph * An intensely imaginative time-travel experience. Which is to say that the book is both mind-bogglingly clever and page-turningly tempting. Times * Owes as much to John Fowles as it does to Charlotte Bronte. Val McDermid * Key to its success is the book's sly acknowledgment of its modernity without recourse to taking up the crude cudgels of irony. It's a feast for all five senses and in spite of its weight, it's impossible to put down. Don't miss it Daily Telegraph * An astonishing narrative sweep that encompasses Victorian society in all its colourful variety, it peels away the surface gentility and brings its world to vivid life. Enjoy! - Alice Sebold * Owes as much to John Fowles as it does to Charlotte Bronte. wildly entertaining New York Times * When a book is this big, it had better be good - this one is. Faber's take on the 19th Century English novel is a heady and intoxicating mixture of affection, respect and scabrous resistance The Times * A sexy, bravura novel. From Pointillism to broad brushstroke bravura, the prose seems to be on some benign, timed-release speed: its pace in unflagging, its onward rush irresistible. * This is an unputdownable book there is no choice but to give in to this most unbelievably pleasurable of narrative rides.

The crimson petal & the white