Ten of the best great fires in literature

At the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best conflagrations in literature.

One entry on the list:

Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey

John "Parrot" Larrit grows up in 18th-century Devon, where his father is a printer, producing revolutionary pamphlets and sheltering a currency forger. Destined to be a wanderer to distant (American) lands, Parrot sees the printworks and his father's life destroyed in a vividly described fire. As the flames rise, troops arrive and the boy flees across the moors.

Read about another conflagration on the list.

Parrot and Olivier in America is on Mullan's list of ten of the best cases of seasickness in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue