Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Bellman & Black

Bellman & Black
Bellman & Black
Author: Diane Setterfield
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Hardcover
reviewed on + 1438 more book reviews


Bellman Black has a Gothic atmosphere coupled with a beautiful writing style. The Victorian novel begins with a introduction predicting future events. As an adult he falls in love, marries and has children, a perfect life. However, when several deaths occur he sees at each funeral, a stranger in black which brings to his mind a childhood incident.

The forgotten event, killing of a rook when he was eleven, is recalled and he finally encounters the mysterious man in black. By this point, he has lost all his family members but one who is dying. To save her, he makes a compact with the man in black. His new career, based on death, is amazingly successful but always at the back of his mind he wonders when the man in black will collect. Even as he devotes his energies to work, he is lonely and his life devoid of personal relations. It's a good, good read amidst Gothic elements.