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The Patrick Melrose Novels: Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, and Mother's Milk Paperback – January 31, 2012

by Edward St. Aubyn (Author)
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NATIONAL BESTSELLER

An Atlantic Magazine Best Book of the Year
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year

"The Melrose Novels are a masterwork for the twenty-first century, written by one of the great prose stylists in England." ―Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones

Soon to be a Showtime TV series starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Blythe Danner

For more than twenty years, acclaimed author Edward St. Aubyn has chronicled the life of Patrick Melrose, painting an extraordinary portrait of the beleaguered and self-loathing world of privilege. This single volume collects the first four novels―Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, and Mother's Milk, a Man Booker finalist―to coincide with the publication of At Last, the final installment of this unique novel cycle.

By turns harrowing and hilarious, these beautifully written novels dissect the English upper class as we follow Patrick Melrose's story from child abuse to heroin addiction and recovery. Never Mind, the first novel, unfolds over a day and an evening at the family's chateaux in the south of France, where the sadistic and terrifying figure of David Melrose dominates the lives of his five-year-old son, Patrick, and his rich and unhappy American mother, Eleanor. From abuse to addiction, the second novel, Bad News opens as the twenty-two-year-old Patrick sets off to collect his father's ashes from New York, where he will spend a drug-crazed twenty-four hours. And back in England, the third novel, Some Hope, offers a sober and clean Patrick the possibility of recovery. The fourth novel, the Booker-shortlisted Mother's Milk, returns to the family chateau, where Patrick, now married and a father himself, struggles with child rearing, adultery, his mother's desire for assisted suicide, and the loss of the family home to a New Age foundation.

Edward St. Aubyn offers a window into a world of utter decadence, amorality, greed, snobbery, and cruelty―welcome to the declining British aristocracy.

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    688 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Picador
  4. Publication date
    January 31, 2012
  5. Dimensions
    5.53 x 1.31 x 8.22 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    9780312429966
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0312429966
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This volume introduces American readers to the first four Melrose novels—Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, and Mother’s Milk—published in Great Britian from 1992 to 2006. (The fifth book, At Last, is available as a separate volume.) In Never Mind, Patrick is five years old, living in Provence with his incredibly rich American mother, Eleanor, and his sadistic, abusive English father, David. In Bad News, Patrick, now 22, goes to New York to collect David’s ashes, and there he feeds his addiction to various drugs in a spectacular fashion, spending over $10,000 in the course of a single day. If Bad News calls to mind Bright Lights, Big City, Some Hope is more like Wodehouse, with Patrick, now sober, attending a country-house party at which Princess Margaret is also a guest. Mother’s Milk returns to Provence, where Patrick is vacationing with his wife and sons in the house that Eleanor has turned into a New Age wellness center. Mother’s Milk was a Man Booker finalist, making this volume especially welcome for readers who savor literary British fiction. --Mary Ellen Quinn

From Bookforum

A brew of romans a clef set amid a sparklingly decadent upper-crust English background, the novels are a mordant portrait of a class that St. Aubyn loathes but is undeniably his own. In each novel we read a kind of status report on Patrick's progress, one in which his growing desire to come to grips with his legacy and the shadow of maturity does battle with a pathological case of self-loathing, an appetite for sex and self-medication. Bleak as the material may sound, the Melrose novels are modern masterworks of social comedy. —Eric Banks

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0312429967
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Picador; First Edition (January 31, 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 688 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780312429966
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0312429966
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.28 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.53 x 1.31 x 8.22 inches
  • Customer Reviews:

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Edward St Aubyn

Edward St Aubyn

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4 out of 5 stars
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1,007 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Gerald Beckman
5.0 out of 5 stars How I wish I could use the English language like Edward St
Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2014
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How I wish I could use the English language like Edward St. Aubyn! As one who has spent countless hours writing and rewriting scenes in order to attract and hold the attention of readers, I can say St. Aubyn is not only a master but a grand master of the craft. The story itself, of Patrick Melrose and his dysfunctional family, is unrelentingly dark and savage. Every character is so fully formed and perfectly brought to life you feel you would know them if you happen to see them at a party, and when you saw them you would want to slap them silly for their cruel and boorish behavior. They are all profoundly flawed and brutal to themselves, each other, and the world at large and seem to feel that everybody else is just like them. I've read that the story is to some degree autobiographical, and if so I feel sorry for the author. Sexual abuse, drug addiction, alcoholism, rampant marital infidelity, fraud of every kind at every level, lying, deceit; yet there are flashes of humanity. Patrick kicks the drugs, then (as though it's not a drug) the alcohol, and he loves his two sons, and after a fashion even loves his hateful mother who looked away, or was too blind to see, when Patrick's father raped him, then wasted his inheritance on a scoundrel. Patrick's wife is almost too devoted a mother, but the children are the better for it. They are delightful as pictured so far, but I have not yet read the final book in the series so I don't know how they turn out. I just downloaded it and can't wait to find that out and see how Patrick copes with life from where we left him and the family at the end of Mother's Milk. So, while the story is gripping and laden with emotional barbs that won't let loose, the even greater attraction, for me, was his endlessly inventive way with the language. I urge you to take advantage of Amazon's "Look Inside" feature and check out that aspect of the book. If you're as fascinated with words and their usage as I am, you'll be hooked too.
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Hollis Hanover
4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book, stunning writing
Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2012
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If you happen to be, as I am, a flaming liberal solidly in the 99 percent, nothing is more fun than reading these four novels and reveling in St. Aubyn's treatment of his characters. I suppose his worst nightmares involve the people in his books coming to life and showing up for a party at St. Aubyn's house. The novels are Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope and Mother's Milk. The last novel in the series, not a part of this collection, At Last, won't make this review although I may patch it on later.

All the people in this group of novels are English, rich, consider themselves part of the privileged classes, and thereby see that they are superior to everyone. They are also sex addicts, junkies, pederasts, thieves and masters of vicious sarcasm, back-biting and condescension. Their conversations consist of snarky remarks about whomever among their friends is absent at the time. Confidences are nonexistent for the most part and those which exist do so for only a brief instant, having the half-life of the rarest of radioactive elements.

Patrick Melrose, whom we meet as a five year old lad, is introduced to us behaving in so risky a fashion that, were it not for the title of the collection, we would expect him to be dead before the first half of Chapter One had expired. Get used to it. It is his modus operandi for the next forty or so years. From balancing on the lip of a treacherous well as a five year old, to walking the top of a perilous wall, to injecting questionable drugs with used needles, to shopping for goods in Harlem, to sexual liaisons with strangers and, worse yet, wives of friends, to driving blind drunk in the strange environs of New England, our Patrick operates as Harold Lloyd at his scariest throughout the novels.

Well, for those who think in terms of "as the twig is bent" or maybe "spare the rod...", or whose Freudian inclinations are finely developed, poor Patrick's behavior is well explained by cold rejection from his mother, an emotionally crippled and cowed victim of domestic abuse by Patrick's father who is a brutal and hateful creep and who, just when you think he couldn't get worse, buggers sad Patrick repeatedly between ages five and eight and laments, not about short-circuiting Patricks brain and rupturing his self esteem, but rather about how sad it is that he cannot tell his friends about the experience.

Okay. This sounds like a very long version of The Aristocrats joke. But it's not. St. Aubyn writes like the muse herself, in fascinating breadth of vocabulary, genius in phraseology, wildly inventive thoughts - if you read these on a Kindle, you will be wearing out the underline key. St. Aubyn has a gift the quality of which makes those of us who now and then fantasize about writing (that's all of us, right?) cringe with embarrassment and downsize our dreams to a substantial degree - perhaps taking up commercial jingle writing.

Take this, for instance, on Patrick's maturing:

In the eight years since his father's death, Patrick's youth had slipped away without being replaced by any signs of maturity, unless the tendency for sadness and exhaustion to eclipse hatred and insanity could be called `mature'. The sense of multiplying alternatives and bifurcating paths had been replaced by a quayside desolation, contemplating the long list of missed boats. He had been weaned from his drug addiction in several clinics, leaving promiscuity and party-going to soldier on uncertainly, like troops which have lost their commander.

Or this, from Mary, Patrick's wife, on her first visit to America:

So much road and so few places, so much friendliness and so little intimacy, so much flavour and so little taste. She longed to get the children back home to London, away from the thin rush of America and back to the density of their ordinary lives.

Or this, concerning Victor, a mildly poor but intellectual chap:

Never physically alluring, he had always relied on his cleverness to seduce women. As he grew uglier and more famous, so the instrument of seduction, his speech, and the instrument of gratification, his body, grew into an increasingly inglorious contrast.

I've got a million of them. These novels are true gems, and if you have yet to read St. Aubyns, reading these will no doubt cause you to put more of his work on your to-do list. So, if you have more than enough on your list of books to read before you die, skip these and avoid frustration over which of your selections you must delete.
4 people found this helpful
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John Neufeld
5.0 out of 5 stars Astonishingly good.
Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2014
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This is a series of short novels centering on one of the great anti-heroes of modern literature. St. Aubyn is a breath-takingly good writer, one of handful who stand above the daily output of big (and little) publishing. Brilliant on kids, drugs,domestic consternation.
The best "photographer" of English scenes since Evelyn Waugh. Philosophic, ironic, bitter yet always able to see something in a dim future that will hold him up until he gets there. This book (the compilation) is for everyone who loves literature, Booker books, interior fury, hopeless enthusiasms. So settle down and go through St,Aubyn's entire catalogue You may not be able to discuss these stories immediately with friends,but soon...soon..
One person found this helpful
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Placeholder
3.0 out of 5 stars A Heavy Read
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2013
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While I can certainly appreciate the writing skill and beautiful prose of the author, I am finding this a very heavy read. It is one of those books that I will be glad I read because I like to explore different authors writing styles, but I am not engrossed in the subject matter or the main character. I am still reading Mother's Milk so I have not finished the book yet, but Some Hope I found to be deadly dull - mainly a mix of boring characters and boring conversation carried on at a boring series of parties given by upper crust or wanabee upper crust folks. I may venture into At Last depending on how Mother's Milk concludes. I will not delve into the character of Patrick Melrose as I am sure other reviewers can analyse him far better than I. I would hesitate to recommend this book to anyone, even though it was highly recommended to me.
3 people found this helpful
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Shashwat Pandey
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful!
Reviewed in India on November 7, 2023
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Absolutely stunning, talking about the edition & not about the book here, it’s gorgeous, no bents & dents, comes in a bubble wrap package and there was no damage at all! Print price is ₹999 and I got it for around 600 so try & get it around that price!
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Shashwat Pandey
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful!
Reviewed in India on November 7, 2023
Absolutely stunning, talking about the edition & not about the book here, it’s gorgeous, no bents & dents, comes in a bubble wrap package and there was no damage at all! Print price is ₹999 and I got it for around 600 so try & get it around that price!
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Elspeth
5.0 out of 5 stars Draws you in like nothing else
Reviewed in Italy on July 4, 2017
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These books, to me, were mostly about pain. I am not one to choose books with unhappy subject matter, and I have great trouble with books in which the protagonist is unlikeable, but I was persuaded to give these a try by several friends and I am ever grateful, because one of the great pleasures of reading is when the writing is so excellent that the reader is transported - no, fully immersed in - another world.
That most certainly happened with these books. One must be prepared to read about gritty lives, in which unspeakable things happen. Read about Edward St. Aubyn to understand the author better BEFORE embarking on this journey, and how the book is semi-autobiographical. One can't be in a delicate state of mind when reading these. That said, there were a couple of episodes in the final book of the trilogy that made me laugh so hard I cried.
The writing is absolutely exquisite and that was the greatest joy derived from reading these books.
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Mr. Richard L. Gordon
2.0 out of 5 stars Somwhat disappointing dissection of the frivolous class
Reviewed in Germany on December 18, 2016
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St Aubyn is a highly self-conscious Stylist and one can read his acidulous prose with a degree of pleasure increased by the thought that few contemporary writers can match him in that department. I thought the opening volume (Never Mind) by far the best of the four, since here the warm novelistic imagination triumphs over the penchant for mordant wit. Nevertheless, despite Zadie Smith's enthusiastic introduction, the remainder of the quartet increasingly fails to hold the reader's imagination, one cannot be interested in Melrose's tedious NY drug-taking and the figures back in England are hardly more than lay-props. If one must read serial novels about the upper class, Anthony Powell's Dance to the Music of Time is a better investment of one's time.
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Hiroko
1.0 out of 5 stars パトリックメルローズを耳で読みたい人へ
Reviewed in Japan on February 18, 2019
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最近ドラマ化もされ話題のパトリックメルローズのオーディオ版です。
イギリス英語に浸りたかったのと、カンバーバッチが好きなので買ってしまいました。
速さは普通です。イギリス英語独特の響きがあり、耐性がない人にとってはかなり早く聞こえてしまうかも。個人的にはイギリス英語の発音、テキパキとした印象のある音が好きなのでその点満足です。
評価ですが、
残念なことにCD[全17枚]にシミ？みたいなものがあって1トラックしか聞けませんでした。
その為星一つです。
ちゃんと聞けるものを発送して欲しいです。
返金より、ちゃんとモノを送るようお願いしています。
只今、出品者の方に連絡中ですので、
返事が戻り次第、またレビュー書きます。
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Anthony Henry
5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful and confronting
Reviewed in Australia on June 20, 2017
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A moving exploration of Patrick Melrose's life from childhood to middle age. It's a book that explores some big themes including addiction, abuse and personal freedom. Well written and insightful with a good dose of humour and wit.
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