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Brat Farrar | 
 enlarge | Author: Josephine Tey
Publisher: Touchstone
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $3.01
You Save: $10.99 (78%)
New (39) Used (50) Collectible (1) from $2.49
Avg. Customer Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 47481
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.6
ISBN: 0684803852
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780684803852
ASIN: 0684803852
Publication Date: September 2, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Paperback, minor shelf wear. Ships promptly w/notification emailed after shipping.
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Amazon.com Review
Brat Farrar has been carefully coached to assume the identity of Patrick Ashby, heir to the Ashby fortune who disappeared when he was 13. Just when it seems that Brat will pull off the deception, he discovers the truth about Patrick's disappearance, a dark secret that threatens to tear apart the family and jeopardize Brat's carefully laid plans. Called "the best of its kind" by the New Yorker, Josephine Tey's classic is a tale of unrelenting suspense and tension.
Product Description
In this tale of mystery and suspense, a stranger enters the inner sanctum of the Ashby family posing as Patrick Ashby, the heir to the family's sizable fortune. The stranger, Brat Farrar, has been carefully coached on Patrick's mannerism's, appearance, and every significant detail of Patrick's early life, up to his thirteenth year when he disappeared and was thought to have drowned himself. It seems as if Brat is going to pull off this most incredible deception until old secrets emerge that jeopardize the imposter's plan and his life.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
 But thy eternal summer shall not fade June 14, 2008
One of the great pleasures of reading classic English mysteries is the indulgence of a gentle nostalgia for a bygone world. In defiance, perhaps, of the changes presaged by the First War and brought about by the Second, they represent an England that is still predominantly rural, held together by custom and civility, and where everybody understands his or her place in the social order. Nowhere is this more true than with BRAT FARRAR, published by Josephine Tey (Elizabeth MacKintosh) in 1949, but harking back to a vision of country life that has extended for centuries before that. The whole book reads like a celebration of England in an eternal summer.
The setting is Latchetts, an old horse farm in the South Downs, near the English coast. The farm has been owned by the Ashby family for generations. But the Ashby parents are dead, and Simon, the eldest of the younger generation, is shortly about to come of age. There had been a slightly older twin brother, Patrick, but he disappeared in his early teens, apparently drowned in the sea, whether by accident or suicide; the body was never found and nobody is sure of the true story. Into this walks Simon's virtual double, a young man from America now going under the name of Brat Farrar, but claiming his inheritance as Patrick. He has a plausible story, he has a natural gift with horses, and he has great personal charm; it is not long before he is accepted by virtually everybody.
But -- and this is the really daring thing -- the reader is told, long before Brat appears at Latchetts, that the claimant is an impostor, coached by an unscrupulous neighbor who hopes to share in the inheritance. By the third chapter, the author has not only taken away the mystery, but moved the story into a place from which no graceful exit seems possible. By this time, however, the reader has come to take such delight in the life of Latchetts and its people and the Sussex countryside that he reads on regardless. And the author does produce some mystery and quite a bit of danger out of nowhere; this is the most absorbing, fully-realized, and exciting Tey novel of the four that I have read. The book also turns, most unexpectedly, into a romance, but a romance with strange incestuous overtones since it involves the growing feeling between a young woman and a man whom she believes to be her brother. Naturally, the book does not have an easy or obvious ending, but it is a satisfying one. It is amazing that Tey can extract herself from the narrative and erotic morass with the delicacy that she does, but that is a tribute to her remarkable powers as a writer, here seen at their very best.
[The reader may wish to see my rather longer review of a collection of Tey novels published as THREE BY TEY, from which the above remarks are taken.]
Brat Farrar July 20, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was this first book I puchased with my own money at age 12 and I have read and reread it for almost 50 years. The story and the writing stand up to both time and a more critical taste. Characters are beautifully drawn and the mystery never palls. The other books by Miss Tey are old favorites as well,paricularly The Murders of Richard III. They are perhaps better appreciated by adults, but for good writing for young readers, I always suggest Brat Farrar. Besides, who can resist the horses!
Excellent! Mary Stewart and Dick Francis fans take note April 7, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Brat Farrer is an English orphan who, after much travel, has decided to come back to England. He is soon mistaken for Simon Ashby of Latchetts by Alec Loding, a cousin of the Ashbys. Brat is talked into impersonating Patrick Ashby, Simon's older twin who allegedly committed suicide when they were ten. Now about to come of age and inherit Latchetts, the plan is for Brat to claim Patrick's inheritance and provide Alec with a lifetime allowance as reward. What Brat doesn't expect is to care so much for the family and, more than fearing his fraud being uncovered, he is in fear of his life.
It has been 30 years since I first read this book and I'd forgotten just how good it is. The story starts off gently at the first sentence. I immediately find myself caught up in the lives of the characters and environment Ms. Tey created. Soon the suspense begins to build and I can't put the book down. Even after the climax of the story, I am still kept in suspense until, at last, Ms. Tey kindly provides me with the resolution. I particularly wish other authors would take note that this completely enjoyable, engrossing and suspenseful story took only 276 pages to tell. If you've never read Brat Farrer or, as with me, it's been a long time, treat yourself and pick it up. Also, for the Dick Francis fans, it not only has horses, but a somewhat similar feel in its style. It was, as my British acquaintances say, brilliant!
Out of present day and back to post WWII English countryside August 18, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Brat Farrar does what a good book is supposed to do. It draws you into a world you'll never be able to experience first hand. I've never been a fan of horses and all that goes with them but with this novel I gained an appreciation and some knowledge of the pleasures of owning a horse farm. It's so difficult to find a novel you "don't want to put down", I'm so glad I bought and read this one. The mystery here is not "who dunnit" or why it was done but how the main character Brat works his way out of the snare he walked into.
 A Real Poser--morality plus--4.5 star value May 14, 2006
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
This is basically a wonderful period novel with an embedded mystery--with an overview of what might have been a mystery immediately revealed. But, the devil is in the details--providing accelerating suspense & an opportunity for Tey to again excel in her characterizations, dialog, descriptions of English life, etc. I am torn between a 4 & 5 star rating, but the explanation of the details at the end seems a bit thin. On the other hand, similar to "Miss Pym Disposes," the main character is faced with moral dilemma & the opportunity to play God--but this time acts differently. Assumptions are the delight of mystery authors! The interplay of the twin brothers is absorbing & the dichotomy between the twin sisters is interesting. Most of the characters are delightful--even the duplicitous Farrar. I wondered how Tey would manage the ending relationship with Eleanor--& she did it. The ending, as usual for a Tey, was explosive & (at least to a degree) unexpected. Again similar to "Miss Pym," we are given "incontrovertible proof" that's proven wrong. As Tey says herein, "If you thought about the unthinkable long enough it became quite reasonable."
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