Adam Runaway

by Peter Prince

Book Overview

It is 1721 and young Adam Hanaway, devastated by his father's sudden death, leaves England to seek his fortune in Lisbon, where his uncle is a successful merchant. But almost nothing turns out as Adam... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743271580
• ISBN13: 9780743271585
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Length: 438 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A young man seeks his fortune

Set in early 18th century Lisbon, Adam Hanaway is a man on a mission. Fleeing London after the financial ruin and death of his father, Adam has traveled to Portugal in hopes of restoring the family fortune. Known by his contemporaries as "Adam Runaway", for his penchant for flight in crisis, Adam hopes to establish himself through the good offices of his uncle, Felix Hanaway. Uncle Felix was also hurt by the market crash, but has retained enough of his fortune to survive with dignity and some comfort. Felix leaves the decisions to his clerk, Bartolomeu Gomes, a Portuguese who is jealous of his position and has no intention of letting young Adam usurp his place in the pecking order. Unfortunately, Felix allows Gomes to determine Adam's manner of employment, so Adam is kept from any prospective success, working side by side with the laborers until such time as he is allowed to take over some of the bookkeeping duties. Adam has found adequate, if rough, lodgings at the Baixa district in Lisbon and it is there that he meets an elderly Englishman, Allen Hutchinson and his daughter, the widowed Dona Maria Beatriz Fonseco. Dona Maria is kind to the much younger man and becomes a great friend and confidant, as does her father. Through the Hutchison's, Adam has his first run in with one of the figure of the famed Inquisition, although he fails to take seriously the religious fanaticism that has ruled the country since the Spanish Inquisition of the 15th century. There is a strange cultural contrast in Lisbon, the young English rakes making merry while the country itself burns with the fires of the auto-da-fe. Gradually stepping into a very rigid, if somewhat permissive society for gentlemen, Adam sets his sights on the very beautiful, very unattainable Gabriella Lowther, whose father is a well-respected businessman. Adam enjoys a flirtation with Gabriella, entertaining hopes of a possible association, until his plans are dashed by the machinations of Gomes at his place of employment. Thereafter, without hopes of betterment in the foreseeable future, Adam contents himself with his good friends, the Hutchinson's, and works as with them until opportunity arises. Unfortunately, Adam's opportunity comes at a difficult time for all of them. What has been a relatively uneventful life has suddenly plunged into the most difficult of straits. Every ready with an inappropriate action or foolish boast, Adam seems forever to be out of step and out of place, his plans of saving his family's fortunes all but shattered. But time and experience do for this young man what circumstances could not and he is forced into maturity in a most unexpected manner and under stressful conditions. The young man whom no one thought much of has indeed become a gentleman of honor, although his path has takes many twists and turns, most of them painful and at great personal cost, often mired in poverty and abject circumstances. Historically precise and brilliantly detailed, perhaps too

"My imprudence, my folly, and my ignorance"

It is 1721, and the city of Lisbon - alive with the scurry of English merchants, businessmen, and traders - has become a veritable gold mine. The Britain of George 1 is glorying in its new-found hegemony, is now considered to be the world's leading commercial power, its citizens descending on the Portuguese city, setting up trading stores and bargaining with the local merchants for riches from as far away as the Brazilian and African colonies. Regardless of its newfound trading wealth, Portugal remains staunchly Catholic with religious doctrine strictly enforced. Non-believers and anyone suspected from deviating from the faith is either imprisoned and tortured or burned at the stake by the unwavering puritanical "familiar" of the Inquisition. The Protestant English, often considered circumspect, are branded as heretics, but they are allowed to live and work at leisure. Protected by the powerful machinations of King George and the commercial wealth of the colonial empire, they profit from the local merchant class and look down their noses at the puritanical ways of the Catholic ruling class. Adam Runaway is not sure what to make of all this when he arrives in this turbulent city from London, ostensibly to take up a position working as a clerk for his Uncle Feliz Hathaway, but also to try to restore the family fortune that was devastated the previous year by his father. Young and naïve, Adam is plunged into the local society of British merchants, hoping to better himself, by aspiring to the rank of the merchant class. Upon taking a room in local hostel, Adam is immediately drawn to a woman of great personal style and indeterminate age, Maria Beatriz Hutchinson. Maria Beatriz and her English born father have fallen on hard times and have been forced to peddle homemade religious woodcuts on the street outside their apartment. Given immediate success to his uncle's fellow merchants, Adam also meets the beautiful Gabriella Lowther. Gabriella, the daughter of one of Lisbon's most wealthy English merchants, makes Adam at least for the time feel as though he is "indifferent to danger." But Adam unintentionally ends up threatening Gabriela's sweet-hearted innocence. Distressed and fraught, he seeks comfort in Nancy, his deliciously charming young cousin, while unbeknownst to him; his uncle's treacherous head clerk Bartolomeu Gomes threatens Adam's rise to the top. Adam is surprisingly ignorant about Gomes and about Portugal, and he often comes across as imprudent and full of folly, but he's also surprisingly loyal and tenderhearted. The Machiavellian Gomes plots to steal Felix Hathaway's fortune and considers the English accursed; to him, they have come across the sea uninvited and are using their money and the threat of military might to steal the wealth of poor Portugal. Determined to destroy Adam, Gomes has him expelled from his uncle's firm. And Adam is thus forced to clear his name, win his true love, and hopefully regain his fortune.

A fascinating world...

I just finished this novel and I miss Adam and his fascinating 18th century world already! I became totally engrossed in the societal and religious hierarchies and the conflicts which consequently ensued during this period in Lisbon. I was delighted by the unpredictability of Adam's journey; the unexpected directions the plot took as well as the very complex and real characters found in a historical novel as suspenseful as this one. If you like coming-of-age stories or historical fiction, you will not want to miss Adam Runaway...

A revelation...

I borrowed an advance copy from a friend. I needed a book for a short break holiday. I was totally surprised by the way the book grabbed me. The 19th century Lisbon setting is fresh and so beautifully evoked...the sights, smells...the people. Loved Adam, despite his occasional lapses there is something so attractive about him. I could empathise with his frustration, pain, lust, and even shame (oh there's humour too). I got totally involved in his journey. The characters are three dimensional and believable. I found myself crying at the end...I didn't expect to be that moved...but it all does come together in a way that you just don't expect. By the end you know you've experienced something much more haunting than you might expect from a very entertaining story about a young man's struggle to find love and success. I have trouble reconcilling the book I read with the Publisher's Weekly review (that's why I'm writing this review).