OSCAR amp LUCINDA Peter Carey VINTAGE INTERNATIONAL Vintage Books A Division of Random House Inc. New York FIRST VINTAGE INTERNATIONAL EDITION NOVEMBER 1997 Copyright ?? 1988 by Peter Carey All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books a division of RandomHouse Inc. New York. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Harper amp Row Publishers Inc. New York in 1988. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Carey Peter. Oscar amp Lucinda / Peter Carey. ISBN 0-679-77750-4 1 The Church If there was a bishop my mother would have him to tea. She would sit him not where you wouldimagine not at the head of the big oval table but in the middle of the long side where withhis back to the view of the Bellinger River he might gaze at the wall which held the sacredglass daguerreotype of my great-grandfather the Reverend Oscar Hopkins 1841-66. Thesebishops were for the most part bishops of Grafton. Once there was a bishop of Wollongongtravelling through. There was also a canon and various other visiting or relieving reverends.Sometimes they were short-sighted or inattentive and had to have the daguerreotype handed tothem across the table. My mother crooked her finger as she picked