Tag Archives: victorian

REVIEW: ELIJAH’S MERMAID by Essie Fox

by mwgerard Posted on January 18, 2013

EssieFox-ElijahsMermaid

In Fox’s follow-up to The Somnambulist, she eschews the sprawling country estate for the dank warren of the Limehouse district.  Found floating in the river, like a Victorian Moses, baby Pearl is plucked from the Thames.  But she enjoys no pharoah’s life.  She is raised by the mysterious but efficient Mrs. Hibbert.  The woman of the House of Mermaids does her utmost to keep Pearl safe from the leering men and from knowing about the den of iniquity in which she lives.  Finally, to remove her from other’s temptations, Pearl, who has webbed toes and is inordinately pale, is sold off to a brilliant but obsessive painter.  She becomes his mermaid.

Simultaneously, twin orphans, Elijah and Lily, are being raised by a kindly, if naïve, older man.  He sends the children with his younger brother Frederick to visit London for a bit of adventure.  Uncle Freddie is the fun, popular uncle who indulges the children’s whims, including taking a trip to Cremorne Gardens.

A sketch of London's Cremorne, a popular pleasure garden.
A sketch of London’s Cremorne, a popular pleasure garden.

Amidst the music, games and sideshows, the twins happen to meet Pearl.  The meeting is brief but the connection is instant.

This Dickensian-style novel is much darker and grittier than her first.  Characters endure forced institution and unwanted advances.  There are graphic descriptions of horrific surgeries.  It is not for the faint of heart, but neither is it gratuitous.  Alternating narratives eventually intertwine as the trio of young people try to reunite, but it will come at a price.  Asylums, kidnappings, art and obsession will stand in their way.

Water, in all its forms and effects, is clearly a theme here.  But so is personal liberty (or the lack there of), particularly for females.  Every female character is in some way trapped.  A speech by the psychiatrist Dr Cruikshank typifies the leading attitude of mental professionals. :

He was tapping his cane against his thigh while sliding closer to Freddie and speaking confidentially. ‘Women are so like children, you see, in their appetites for unhealthy food.  It is the heat and overexcitement that causes most of the trouble…not to mention this modern obsession with reading books and magazines.  You will note we have none available here.  Why, half the women in my care would probably be entirely sane but for the stimulation brought on by the use of literature.  I say that might be the problem…’  ~Pg. 286

The very idea that reading and imagination is damaging is an idea that can be dismissed  now, but was a common theory then.  It demonstrates that even the most “free” woman — well-to-do, cared for, even happily married — would have so much predetermined for her.

Yet through all of this, the three young people manage to find a sense of self.  Even more impressive, they determine to fight for it.

JW_Waterhouse_Mermaid
The Mermaid by John William Waterhouse – 1900

Again, Fox demonstrates a deep knowledge of the time, the setting and the dialogue.  She opens each chapter with a quote from a popular song or story of the era — Wilkie Collins, Charles Kingsley, Poe, Greenwell, Carroll.  And, as before, the entire tome is begun with a  familiar painting, this time The Mermaid, by JW Waterhouse.  The author immerses us in the dreadful but compelling underworld of a not-so-distant past.

As with the Somnambulist, this book does not have a US publisher.  Interested readers can purchase it via this direct link to The Book Depository, which has free worldwide shipping.  You can also read the first few pages here.  My thanks to Essie Fox and her UK publisher, Orion Books, for the review copy.  (Yes, I saved the stamps.)

Please visit the author’s site for more info about this era and her works.  It’s also just really fun to explore.
_________________________

ISBN: 9781409123354
Publication date: 08 Nov 2012
Page count: 416
Width: 153 mm
Height: 235 mm
Thickness: 34 mm
Weight: 542 g

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REVIEW: BEAUTIFUL LIES by Clare Clark

by mwgerard Posted on January 7, 2013

BeautifulLies

 

Yes, the novel is as gorgeous as the cover.  Ethereal, impactful*, vintage and evocative.  The heroine, Maribel, is the vivacious wife of parliamentary representative Edward Campbell Lowe.  Himself a boisterous, outspoken politician, the two make an unforgettable pair, if an unlikely one.

Maribel employs her energies in photography, working to capture true images — something all too elusive in Victorian London.  She attempts to find some truth among the Native Americans that are in London with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show.  Ever the gracious host, William Cody is welcomes her into his massive encampment.

BillInLondonMap
The American Exhibition in London, 1887.

Maribel also make subjects of her dear friend, Charlotte, and unfortunate ruffians of London’s less affluent neighborhoods.  One of these photographs is smudged in such a way that spiritualist believe it to be an example of supernatural intervention.  Ever the realist, Maribel staunchly denies such a claim and refuses to allow its publication.

A Victorian era "spirit photograph." Images were double-exposed for this effect, but because the medium was so new, most sitters were unaware of the trickery.
A Victorian era “spirit photograph.” Images were double-exposed for this effect, but because the medium was so new, most sitters were unaware of the trickery.

This is but one of Maribel’s struggles to uphold truth in a world so reliant upon appearances.  But Maribel hides a secret of her own.  As she tries to help her own husband succeed in Parliament, she risks peeling back the layers of her own beautiful lies.  In the midst of all of this, tabloid journalism is on the rise in London and a ruthless bloodhound of a newspaper man is on her scent.

The prose is honest and modern, despite the vintage setting.  Sentences roll and swirl and drip off the tongue.

The tea party was breaking up when the two women took their leave.  It was a warm evening, one of the first of the season and the moon floated like a pale wafer in the darkening sky.  Along the river the trees were ghostly with blossom.  ~Pg. 37

For years Ida had kept a picture of the saint [Joan of Arc] tucked inside her Bible so that she could look at it during the sermon on Sundays.  She said it was so that she would remember that being clever and fighting people was sometimes what God wanted you to do, even if you were a girl.  On the say that Ida did not want to be an elephant keeper when she grew up, she wanted to be a soldier-saint like Joan of Arc.  Sometimes they slipped out late at night, when the others were all asleep, creeping across the garden and into the woods beyond.  The woods were full of strange loud noises, foxes screaming and owls hooting and trees moving restlessly in the earth.  Maribel held Ida’s hand and told her it was essential for an actress to understand fear, but Ida was not afraid.  She turned cartwheels on the lawn, her nightgown a pale ghost in the darkness, and said that in the night the world was more exciting because you could not see where it ended.   ~Pg. 82

Maribel hoped that he was right.  More than that she hoped that there would be someone at Mr. Linnell’s graveside who knew what he had likes to do on a Sunday afternoon, that he had felt the cold and liked marmalade and knew how to whistle, that he had a way with dogs and had once ridden a bicycle without holding onto the handlebars.   ~Pg. 344

This novel is exceedingly well-written and very engrossing.  It clocks in at an even 500 pages, and easily could have devoured 500 more.

A great many thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the review copy.

*I’ve just had a very intriguing conversation with @cliche_mist about my use of the word “impactful.”  I admit that I was doubtful when I wrote it and so I looked it up.  I did find it listed in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary.  Still, my learned friend contends that standard usage dictionaries often allow for slang and non-words to gain a foothold in the English language.  What are your thoughts?
_______________________________

ISBN-13/ EAN: 9780151014675
ISBN-10: 0151014671
Price: $26
Format: Hardcover, 512 pages
Publication Date: 2012-09-18
Trim Size: 6 x 9

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31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN – Day 25

by mwgerard Posted on October 25, 2012

From Ruth Edna Kelley’s The Book of Halloween, a description of a Victorian Halloween:

In 1874, at Balmoral, a royal celebration of Hallowe’en was recorded. Royalty, tenants, and servants bore torches through the grounds and round the estates. In front of the castle was a heap of stuff saved for the occasion. The torches were thrown on. When the fire was burning its liveliest, a hobgoblin appeared, drawing in a car the figure of a witch, surrounded by fairies carrying lances. The people formed a circle about the fire, and the witch was tossed in. Then there were dances to the music of bag-pipes.  - from Chapter VIII

And from the London Times:

“Halloween at Balmoral Castle. – This time-honoured festival was duly celebrated at Balmoral Castle on Saturday evening in a manner not soon to be forgotten by those who took part in its enjoyments.

“As the shades of evening were closing in upon the Strath, numbers of torch-lights were observed approaching the Castle, both from the cottages on the eastern portion of the estate and also those on the west. The torches from the western side were probably the more numerous, and as the different groups gathered together the effect was very fine. Both parties met in front of the Castle, the torch-bearers numbering nearly 100.

“Along with those bearing the torches were a great many people belonging to the neighbourhood. Dancing was commenced by the torch-bearers dancing a “Hulachau” in fine style to the lilting strains of Mr. Ross, the Queen’s Piper. The effect was greatly heightened by the display of bright lights of various colours from the top of the staircase of the tower. After dancing for some time the torch-bearers proceeded round the Castle in martial order, and as they were proceeding down the granite staircase at the north-west corner of the Castle the procession presented a singularly beautiful and romantic appearance.

“Having made the circuit of the Castle, the remainder of the torches were thrown in a pile at the south-west corner, thus forming a large bonfire, which was speedily augmented with other combustibles until it formed a burning mass of huge proportions, round which dancing was spiritedly carried on. The scene at this juncture was one to be long remembered by those who witnessed it. The flames of the bonfire shot up to an immense height, illuminating the Castle wall with a ruddy glare, while the figures of the dancers in their agile and grotesque movements were shown to great advantage.

“Her Majesty witnessed the proceedings with apparent interest for some time, and the company enjoyed themselves none the less heartily on that account.”

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31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN – Day 11

by mwgerard Posted on October 11, 2012

The Victorians, possibly because of their concern about propriety, had numerous superstitions about death and funerals.  These were compiled by Victorians: The Superstistious, The Paranormal and The Insane.

  • If the deceased has lived a good life, flowers would bloom on his grave; but if he has been evil, only weeds would grow.
  • If several deaths occur in the same family, tie a black ribbon to everything left alive that enters the house, even dogs & chickens. This will protect them against deaths spreading further.
  • Never wear anything new to a funeral, especially shoes.
  • You should always cover your mouth while yawning so your spirit doesn’t leave you and the devil never enters your body.
  • It is bad luck to meet a funeral procession head on. If you see one approaching, turn around. It this is unavoidable, hold on to a button until the funeral cortege passes.
  • Large drops of rain warn that there has been a death.
  • Stop the clock in a death room or you will have bad luck.

  • To lock the door of your home after a funeral procession has left the house is bad luck.
  • If you hear a clap of thunder following a burial it indicates that the soul of the departed has reached heaven.
  • If you hear 3 knocks and no one is there, it usually means someone close to you has died. (The superstitious call this the 3 knocks of death.)
  • If you leave something that belongs to you to the deceased, that means to the person will come back to get you.
  • If a firefly/lightening bug get into your house someone will die soon.
  • If you smell roses when none are around someone is going to die.
  • If you don’t hold your breath while going by a graveyard you will not be buried.
  • If you see yourself in a dream, your death will follow.
  • If you see an owl in the daytime, there will be death.
  • If you dream about a birth, someone you know will die.
  •  If it rains in an open grave then someone in the family will die within the year.
  • If a bird pecks on your window or crashes into one, there has been a death.
  • If a sparrow lands on a piano, someone in the home will die.
  • If a picture falls off a wall, there will be a death of someone you know.
  • Never speak ill of the dead because they will come back to haunt you or you will suffer misfortune.
  • Two deaths in the family mean that a third is to follow.
  • The cry of a curlew or the hoot of an owl foretells death.

  • A single snowdrop growing in the garden foretells a death.
  • Having only red & white flowers together in a vase (especially in a hospital) means a death will soon follow.
  • Dropping an umbrella on the floor or opening one in the house means that there will be a murder in the house.
  • A diamond-shaped fold in clean linen portends death.
  • A dog howling at night when someone in the house is sick is a bad omen. It can be reversed by reaching under the bed & turning over a shoe.

It seems like they had a superstition for everything!

Are there any that you follow?


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REVIEW: THE WHITE FOREST by Adam McOmber

by mwgerard Posted on September 28, 2012

McOmber’s debut novel explores an unseen fantasy just under the surface of Victorian England.  Heroine Jane Silverlake has always been a but different, but she has never quite understood how, or why.   In an ever-changing, growing London Jane attempts to find her place.  Though she was well-born, her mother died mysteriously when she was very young.  Since then Jane hears the sounds, the souls of objects.  Her father has been patient but absent.  Her only companions are friends Madeleine and Nathan.  The three wander Hampstead Heath — one of the few places where the sounds are quiet for Jane.  They are an unlikely trio as they grow older though, and jealousies begin to arise.

Nathan, an impetuous young man from an upper class family, is obsessed with Jane’s “ability” and becomes embroiled in a strange cult that meets in Southwark.  Jane, it seems, has the ability to enter the Empyrean, a cosmic place before existence.  When Nathan disappears, though, the girls know that it is more than just a passing fad for him.  In comes the detective Vidocq, a real historical figure, to investigate the kidnapping.

The Empyrean, as imagined by Gustave Dore for The Divine Comedy

The book begins strongly; it pulls no punches.  The novel delves into the metaphysical, psychology, with an edge of steampunk, all in a Victorian Gothic setting.  McOmber’s tone is forceful yet flowing.

The story of their friendship and Pascal’s eventual dependence on Maddy for both room and board was straightforward enough.  Maddy first made his acquaintance outside a small French-style café near Charing Cross.  He’d been using a piece of charcoal to draw a picture of a street in the walled city of Nimes where white chickens wandered on cobblestone and irises made silent observance from tilted window boxes.  ~Pg. 18

McOmber’s characterization of London is equally enjoyable:

London seemed a series of tall shuttered house that evening, all crowded along a single narrow street.  The air was full of dust and the pungent smell of dense humanity.  We came as close to Piccadilly as traffic permitted and then dismounted, using a series of passages to avoid getting mired in the congested streets.  These “secret passages” were oddities of London, symptoms of a city that had been built and rebuilt — a city without order or plan.  The poor made their home in these passages, and we walked through their makeshift parlors, brushing lightly through the darkness with Nathan as our leader.  ~Pg. 109

I am not an expert, or even extremely familiar, with the fantasy genre, especially in its most recent iterations.  As Jane’s understanding of her place in the world becomes more clear, the book’s tone changes from a mysterious novel with a bit of the supernatural, to a full-fledged fantasy story.  In fact the last two or three chapters almost seem like they were written by someone else.  The entire style alters.  It was equally well-written, just completely different.

This is a solid debut novel and I would recommend it for fans of fantasy who like books rooted in real places or characters.

Many thanks to the folks at Simon and Schuster for the review copy.
________________________

Touchstone, September 2012
Hardcover, 320 pages
ISBN-10: 1451664257
ISBN-13: 9781451664256

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The Case of the Missing Mother – Cabinet Card

by mwgerard Posted on September 4, 2012

Thanks to QuelleBooks, I’m obsessed with finding these “Missing Mother” portraits.  According to the fascinating and unnerving post on Retronaut, “This was a practice where the mother, often disguised or hiding, often under a spread, holds her baby tightly for the photographer to insure a sharply focused image.”  Some are more subtle than others and it’s amusing to see feet peeking out beneath heavy tapestries.

I found this photo at a little antique store in Greenup, Illinois.

What I find so intriguing with this one is the extensive work the photographer did during the printing process to “burn and dodge” out the mother’s head.  There is also a strange double exposure on the right hand side, near the baby’s feet.   it seems clear to me that the mother’s arms are around the baby, and that her head has been “photoshopped” out, Victorian style.

What do you see?

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REVIEW: MRS. ROBINSON’S DISGRACE by Kate Summerscale

by mwgerard Posted on July 19, 2012

Kate Summerscale has once again uncovered a fascinating story from the ever contradictory Victorian era.  Not so very long ago, divorce was nearly impossible (unless you were King Henry VIII, of course).  Until 1858, “marriage could only be dissolved by an individual Act of Parliament, at a cost prohibitive to almost all of the population.  The new Court of Divorce and matrimonial Causes was able to sever the marital bond far more cheaply and quickly.”  The case brought forth by Mr. Henry Robinson is one of the first the court hears.

Isabella was already a widow (her husband “went mad”), with a significant dowry and inherited property, at age 31 when she wed Henry Robinson.  Henry was a civil engineer — respectable, if not overly impressive.  They had two children together and Henry built a sizable home, called Balmore House, for the family.

It appears the structure still stands today, in Caversham near Reading.
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1934709

Yet Isabella was not content.  Far from it.  She was smart, inquisitive and tenacious.  She wanted to be surrounded by thinkers and artists.  And she wanted to be loved, not tolerated or used. What sounds perfectly reasonable today was radical 150 years ago.  Intelligent women were tolerated, within certain limits, and only when it didn’t interfere with duty.

Like many 19th century people, Isabella Robinson kept a diary.  Summerscale writes:

By 1850 the Letts company was selling several thousand diaries a year, in dozens of different formats.  These were the books in which Isabella wrote; they came bound in cloth or in red Russian calf hide, which gave off a faint scent of birch bark, and couple be fitted with protective covers and spring locks.  ’Use you diary with the utmost familiarity and confidence,’ Letts counselled the novice diarist, ‘conceal nothing from its pages nor suffer any other eye than your own to scan them.’  …

Women, in particular, took to diarising with a passion. … The act of diary-keeping honoured many of the values of Victorian society — self-reliance, autonomy, the capacity to keep secrets.  But if taken too far, these same virtues could turn to vices.  Self-reliance could become radical disconnection from society, its codes and rules and restraints; secrecy could curdle into deceit; self-monitoring into solipsism; and introspection into monomania.                               Pages 152-4

In this case, her diary did more damage than she could have imagined.  As her marriage became increasing unhappy, Isabella wrote of secret and exciting interactions with other male figures in her life.  She admitted to being miserable, to wishing she could leave her despicable husband.  While in the throes of a life-threatening fever, Henry finds her diary, reads it and decides to use it against her in court.

Not only was Isabella Robinson subjected to the humiliation of begin taken to divorce court, her innermost thoughts were read in court, transcribed by the newspapers.  In her letters during the time she seems to be almost in denial that anyone could use private thoughts and ideas as evidence.  She sounds frustrated but confident that common sense will win out.  Yet a conundrum seems to be all that Isabella faces.  She is encouraged by friends to claim madness, that he writings were nothing but hallucinatory.  No answer is satisfactory.  If she claims they are imaginings, then she is mad.  If she claims the entries to be true, then she must be mad to have written them down.

Even while Isabella Robinson had involved conversations with Charles Darwin, was good friends with phrenologist George Combe, and was related by marriage to William Wordsworth.  Yet she was also considered a poor example of womanhood. Despite her efforts to find some sort of peace within her unhappy life, she was left to be embarrassed by a society that would rather not accept her.

Summerscale’s research is impeccable. Several pages are devoted to notes with extra tidbits of information.  She completely encapsulates the strange grey area that was the Victorian era.  She has combed through thousands of letters, newspaper articles, and yes, diaries, to paint as complete a picture as possible.  And despite the title of the book, does not use Isabella’s diary as a source for salacious tidbits, like tabloids would have.  It is just one reference point for a greater portrait.

Many thanks to Bloomsbury for the review copy.
__________________________________________

June 2012
$26.00
384 pp
5.5 x 8.25 in
Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9781608199136
ISBN-10: 1608199134

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Texts From Jane Eyre | The Hairpin

by mwgerard Posted on July 10, 2012

Wow, this is just stunningly hysterical.  Especially for someone who just wrote her masters thesis on this…

JANE WHERE HAVE YOU GONE
I AM BEREFT AND WITHOUT MY JANE I SHALL SINK INTO ROGUERY
i am  with my cousins
WHICH COUSIN
IS IT THE SEXY ONE
Please don’t try to talk to me again
IT IS YOUR SEXY COUSIN
“ST. JOHN”
WHAT KIND OF A NAME IS ST. JOHN
I’m not going to answer that
I KNEW IT
DID YOU LEAVE BECAUSE OF MY ATTIC WIFE
IS THAT WHAT THIS IS ABOUT
yes
absolutely
BECAUSE MY HOUSE IN FRANCE DOESN’T EVEN HAVE AN ATTIC
IF THAT’S WHAT YOU WERE WORRIED ABOUT
IT HAS A CELLAR THOUGH SO YOU KNOW
DON’T CROSS ME
HAHA I’M ONLY JOKING

Read all of them here: Texts From Jane Eyre | The Hairpin.

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BRIEF REVIEW: JANE EYRE (2011)

by mwgerard Posted on July 3, 2012

Director Cary Fukunaga has given a new generation a gorgeous version of this classic tale.  Since its publishing in 1847, under the pseudonym Currer Bell, Jane Eyre has fascinated both readers and storytellers.  This adaptation is beautifully shot, very well-acted, and enhanced by a stunning score from Dario Marianelli (Atonement, I Capture the Castle).  The set of Thornfield is perfect.  It’s devastating and romantic and even funny at times.

And until the last third of the movie, I thought someone had finally made a perfect adaptation.  But, like Jane, my dreams were dashed, made all the more painful because I had dared to hope at all.

Yes, everyone has a favorite scene that they can’t wait to see on the big screen.  Or a line that doesn’t match quite with their imagination.  But this goes beyond minuscule details.  Even more frustrating, many of these key scenes were shot, but edited out (Luckily you can see them in the extra features).

* Spoilers beyond this point *

There are no scenes that hint at or show Bertha until the failed wedding.  Although Bertha does try to set Mr. Rochester’s bed on fire, there are no cackles from the hallway, no unholy screams that keep Jane awake.  There is no Grace Poole as a red herring.  There isn’t a hint of the supernatural or any idea that something is amiss.  Most frustrating, is the lack of the veil shredding scene.  It jumps from Adele playing with the veil to Jane and Rochester heading to the church.  I think the lack of these scenes undermines Jane’s character and detracts from the richness of the story.  The uncertainty, the unsettled atmosphere is key to Jane Eyre.  Without it, it becomes little more than a “will they or won’t they” story.

There are also some important elements of Mr. Rochester’s character that are left out.  Though shot, but cut, there is a scene in which he describes his connection to Adele’s mother.  I found Wasikowska and Fassbender’s chemistry most evident during this scene, but it was inexplicably cut.  And Rochester’s speech at the altar?  Nowhere to be found.  He merely takes the wedding party to his attic, for our first glimpse of a woman who looks methed out.

* End of spoilers *

In short, what IS there on screen, is beautiful and well done.  The problem is it leaves what I consider essential scenes out.  Do see it; it was very enjoyable.  Just know that somethings are missing.  I suppose I am only all the more disappointed knowing how very close to perfection they came.

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Birthday of Charlotte Bronte

by mwgerard Posted on April 21, 2012

Charlotte Bronte

“I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.”

― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre 

Bronte was born today in 1816.

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REVIEW: THE BEDLAM DETECTIVE by Stephen Gallagher

by mwgerard Posted on March 29, 2012

My frequent readers will no doubt sigh and shake their heads at me for reading another English Victorian – set novel to do with murder and madness.  I know what I like – what can I do?  But this book was different.  While it used the framework of a Victorian sensational novel (although it’s technically set in the Edwardian), it brought with it a modern sensibility and told a good yarn.

The main character, Sebastian Becker, has landed a post as the Lord Chancellor’s Visitor in Lunacy.  In short, his job is to investigate the sanity of the landed gentry, those with wealth and power bestowed by the Crown.  Should they be found wanting in rationality, their title may be stripped and given to the next in line.  A strange job, to be sure, and no less adventurous than his previous occupation as a Pinkerton detective in America (a story I hope Gallagher explores in other books).  Much like Jonathan Harker, Esq. in Dracula, Becker arrives in an unfamiliar rural town and is met with locals who refuse to talk of their troubled past.  They are suspicious of this outsider and assume his unexpected visit can portend nothing good.  Indeed, shortly after his arrival, two young girls disappear, only to be found dead hours later.  And their unfortunate end is not the first horror experienced by this beachside community.  But do they have anything to do with a madman?  Is he mad at all?

Becker’s quarry is one Sir Owain Lancaster, lord of Arnside Hall.  He’d always been a bit of reckless adventurer, but his latest stories were simply too wild to be believed.  I minor inventor, he’d set out in the Amazon to develop a special device for navigating by the stars.  But his travel party, including his wife and young son, is decimated in the dense forest.  Sir Owain returns with just one survivor — and an unbelievable story of horrid monsters.  Insistent, he presents his findings to the public, but some call his sanity into question, the the Crown calls upon Becker.

A drawing of Bedlam Hospital

This lone survivor from the failed mission, Dr. Sibley, is Renfield, Igor and Smithers all in one.  He pretends to be Sir Owain’s caregiver, but arouses suspicion.  Gallagher introduces him as, “Not so much a man more a slimy shadow.  Hanging around in the corner like an undertaker’s mute.” Like everyone else in this town, he is hiding something.

Gallagher artfully brings the past to life by inserting certain details.  Film and photography were still in their infancy and the images that were produced had strange effects on their observers.  Since little about how it worked was understood by the general populous, just about anything captured on film has to be “real” (i.e. The Cottingley Fairies).  Found at the scene of the crime was a small film camera, with film in it.  Becker knows it may contain evidence and brings it to local photographer for developing.  The studio is described as

at the top of the house, containing attic space and a large skylight.  It was reached by a gloomy staircase through the photographer’s living quarters. His private rooms were screened off by a red velvet curtain with braid and tassels, like the dressing on a Punch and Judy booth.  Sebastian ascended through the chemical odors of the photographer’s trade, musty and unnatural, and the boiled-cabbage fragrance of his midday meal, even less appetizing.

But even more enjoyable is his inclusion of the traveling fair.  Needing a place to view the film once developed, Becker approaches a Bioscope movie tent projectionist.

In this cramped room, dominated by the projection apparatus and smelling of ozone and naptha and nitrates, a young man was cranking the handle to rewind a film spool for the next show. … There was a bench down one side of the wagon.  Strips of moving picture film hung from clotheslines above it, all of differing lengths, stirring in the draft from the door like the tails of so many kites.  Mental film cans were stacked high on every surface, and on the wall a large hand-painted notice warned of the dangers of sparks and naked flames.

But where does imagination end and discovery begin?  The Bedlam Detective tries to define where Victorian idealism meets prehistoric savagery, in the name of science and colonialism.  In Becker’s case, he is charged with treating madness as something in need of domestic protection.  But Gallagher seems to be noting that herding lunatics is just another form of colonialism — another’s idea of normalcy impressed upon a disparate population.  That, and a gentle reminder that monsters can come in many disguises.

Many thanks to Mary at Crown Publishing for the review copy.
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Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Crown (February 7, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0307406644
ISBN-13: 978-0307406644
Dimensions: 6.6 x 1.2 x 9.6 inches

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REVIEW: GILLESPIE & I by Jane Harris

by mwgerard Posted on February 21, 2012

I am still reeling from this book.  Surprising at every turn — and I’m not easily surprised.  Nor am I easily impressed, particularly when it comes to books.  The writing is fabulous – both in style and in storytelling.

Program Guide for the International Exhibition

The first-person narrator, Harriet Baxter, is an older women now, in 1933.  She has decided to set down certain aspects of her life 50 years ago in 1888 and 1889 Glasgow.  What begins as a much-needed change of scenery, and a bit of adventure by visiting the International Exhibition, becomes a life-changing experience — for everyone.

Quite by chance, she befriends a struggling but up-and-coming painter on the Glasgow scene.  Ned Gillespie is a devoted family man.  He adores his wife and their two daughters.  They’ve managed to carve out a relatively happy life.  Harriet, herself with no family other than a stepfather she rarely sees, spends more and more time with the Gillespie family, determined to help in any way she can.  She becomes a self-appointed patron of their art as well as their struggles.

Although there is a great deal more to say about the story, I will refrain.  Much of the beauty of this novel is how it unfolds and revealing too much here would deprive any reader of that enjoyment.

Harris’ characterizations are wonderful and delightfully Victorian.  She finds a strong voice with Harriet, both in her memories and in her contemporary musings.  She defies the code of her time.  Here are two excerpts from early in the book.

This was such an exhausting conversation, hostile and full of dead ends.  I had forgotten that such was the only type of discussion in which my stepfather engaged; his interlocutors were always his adversaries; indeed he did not feel that he was engaged in real dialogue unless one participant ended by triumphing over the other.  I will admit to feeling frustrated.  We had not seen each other for many years; it seemed hard to believe that we were embroiled in such a pointless, combative exchange about nothing more meaningful than gadgets.

‘No, sir,’ I said, shortly. ‘ I know of no such device.’

His lip curled, and he gazed at me, askance: if I were a representative of the modern world, then it would appear that I was distinctly below par in his estimation.  Immediately I was filled with regret and anxiety: I had let him down! As a child, I had learned all about kaleidoscopes, in the hope of pleasing him.  If only I was better informed, now, about carpet sweepers.

page 54-55

‘Pteridomania!’ exclaimed Peden. ‘ That dreaded disease.’  He angled his body away from me, in order to address me, sideways, over his shoulder.  ‘It seems that when you ladies are weary of novels and gossip and crochet, you find much entertainment in ferns.  No doubt you preside over a fern collection, Miss Baxter?’

‘Sadly, no!’ I replied. ‘What with all my novels and gossip and crochet, there’s no time left for ferns.’

The astute reader will, of course, realise that I was employing irony; by Mr Peden gave a self-satisfied nod – as though I had proven his point.

page 61

Like Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier, at about the halfway point, the story takes an unexpected turn.  It’s a brilliant misdirection and meant that I spent each free moment intent on reading just a few more pages.  I barreled though to the end, desperate to know what will happen.  Since finishing it, I’ve been suffering from acute withdrawal, and I continue to ruminate on it.  Harris’ writing is at once fresh and vintage. The epistolary style harkens to the great Victorian novels Harriet herself eschews.  I truly can’t wait for her next effort.

The author’s website: http://www.janeharris.com/

Many thanks to Erica at HarperPerennial for the review copy.
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ISBN: 9780062103208
ISBN10: 0062103202
Imprint: Harper Perennial
On Sale: 1/31/2012
Format: Trade PB
Trimsize: 5 5/16 x 8
Pages: 528
$14.99
Ages: 18 and Up

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REVIEW: THE WOMAN IN BLACK (2012)

by mwgerard Posted on February 6, 2012


A crumbling manor, a mysterious curse, a sea mist and creepy deaths.  How could I (of all people) resist?  I am completely unfamiliar with the book (of the same name) by Susan Hill, which is rather unlike me.  And I was unable to see the staged version while in London this summer.  So I came to the film knowing nothing about the story, which was quite an unusual treat for me.

Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) is a London solicitor still struggling with the death of his wife.  He is now raising his young son Joseph with the help of a no-nonsense and efficient nanny.  His boss gives him one more assignment to prove his worth to the firm and sends him to a non-descript village in England’s East coast.  His task is to settle the estate of Alice Drablow, formerly of Eel Marsh House.  Fans of Dracula will recognize similarities in these opening scenes.  The villagers are painfully tight-lipped and Arthur finds just one person who will drive him across the tidal and misty marshes to the entrance of the Drablow estate.  Once there, he is abandoned until the tides break once more.

Ensconced in the home and determined to prove himself worthy, he begins his quest through tattered and tanned documents, looking for anything that may shed light on Mrs. Drablow’s final requests.  But Arthur gets precious little done as he is continuously interrupted by the sounds of footsteps and a vision of a veiled lady.  Confused but unperturbed he returns to the village to ask questions.  He is once again told to return to London and leave their town.  Only one villager is welcoming – Sam Daily (Ciaran Hinds).  He is quick to dismiss the superstitions and ghostly tales of the common townfolk, despite having lost his own son years before… and having a wife who claims to be a medium.

Ciaran Hinds as Sam Daily

The story pulls from many gothic elements and therefore allows the viewer to fill in the details with their own expectations.  At the same time, the filmmakers treated the genre with respect.  The set of Eel Marsh House is incredibly lush.  Wallpaper patterns, antique toys, and window latches all work to create the atmosphere.  At times I wished for a touch more lighting so those details could be better enjoyed.

Still, a hint more of realism would have served the film well.  For example, the small family cemetery on the estate looks to be made of foam and borrowed from a Disney ride.  And the rusty front gate is propped open almost too perfectly askew.

The sound design is delightful.  There is some use of typical creaks and moans, but a great deal of it was original.  The scream of the Woman in Black is horrifying and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if they mixed a recording of nails on a chalkboard in there.

Someone involved in the production design knows their stuff.  There is a wonderful blend of the modern versus tradition at play.  Sam drives a car, which is instrumental in the resolution of the story, while Keckwick (Daniel Cerqueira) drives a horse and carriage.  Telephones exist, but the village doesn’t have one.  And as Arthur rides the train, we see him notice a story on theosophy and mediums, a very popular subject at the time.  It even gives a nod to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, himself a proponent of theosophy in later years.

The story occasionally plods, but it does allow the audience to catch its breath after a scare or two.  I would have liked to see even more detail and background about the Drablow family and ‘what really happened’ through the archival material that is found.  Or perhaps in stories from a townie.  Although we basically piece it together, a bit more detail would have helped fill it out.  Without giving anything away, some motives are less than clear.

Lastly, as an ardent fan of the Grenada version of Sherlock Holmes, I was delighted that David Burke (the earlier of the two Wastons) had a small role as PC Collins.  I desperately tried to find a screenshot of him, but to no avail.  Please send a link if you find one!  (This is he as Watson.)

This is an enjoyable ghost story with plenty of scares for teenagers who want to see Harry all grown up, and plenty of suspense for adults who like to solve  a mystery.

** If you have the option, do see it in 35mm. **

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Rated PG-13. 95 minutes. Hammer Films.  Released Feb 3, 2012 (US)
Official site: http://www.womaninblack.com

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READING CHALLENGES for 2012

by mwgerard Posted on January 1, 2012

Last year, the only challenge I entered myself in was a goal of 50 books, tracked by Goodreads. I hit my goal, but this year I wanted to mix things up a little and give some props to other book bloggers.  I found a great list of options at Novel Challenges. It’s searchable by keyword and by year. 


Clocks, Cogs and Mechanisms Reading Challenge 2012

Focusing on Steampunk titles, including classics like HG Wells as well as newer graphic novels.  Levels are cleverly named Brass Gears, Flight goggles, Button-up boots and Clockwork Corset.

Merely Mystery Reading Challenge 2012
This challenge breaks down mysteries into sub-genres and the readers are encouraged to choose titles from the various types.  Choose from The Whodunit, Locked Room Mystery, Cozy, Hard-Boiled/Noir, The Inverted Detective Story, The Historical Whodunnit, The Police Procedural, The Professional Thriller, The Spy Novel, Caper Stories, The Psychological Suspense, Spoofs and Parodies.  And this one has a prize!

Victorian Challenge 2012
So this might not be much of a challenge since I read a great deal of Victorian literature already, but it will help me focus on some authors and works I have yet to delve into.  This one works more like a book club, setting authors in advance. January: The Bronte Sisters, February: Charles Dickens, March: Robert Louis Stevenson, April: Emily Dickinson, May: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, June: George Eliot, July: Oscar Wilde, August: Anthony Trollope, September: Elizabeth Gaskell, October: Mark Twain, November: Lewis Carroll, December: Louisa May Alcott.

Tea & Books Reading Challenge
From the site: This challenge was inspired by C.S. Lewis’ famous words, “You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”  You better settle in with a large cup of tea, because in this challenge you will only get to read books with more than 700 pages.
I’ve only committed to two, making me a “Chamomile Lover.”

What will you read this year?

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REVIEW: MURDER IN A FIRST-CLASS CARRIAGE by Kate Colquhoun

by mwgerard Posted on October 21, 2011
The First Victorian Railway Killing

I’m a sucker for these sorts of books.  In fact, when I received the review copy, my husband joked, “Well, someone said, ‘Let’s write a book for you!’”  It has so many themes I love: mystery, the Victorian era, trains, and a murder trial.  AND it’s British.  
Drawn from the annals of the Old Bailey and newspaper accounts, it traces the murder of one Mr. Thomas Briggs, an older but successful business man who was traveling home via the rail. Among many of the mysterious circumstances are the seeming lack of motive, the sort timespan in which the crime could have been committed and the loss of a hat (In fact, in Britain, this book was titled Mr. Briggs’ Hat).  Even more intriguing is the setting.  The British Victorians had a love/hate relationship with crime even then.  As a society, they were obsessed to the last, bloody detail of the darkest side of human nature — while at the same time obsessed with repressing and destroyed every shred of it within. 
Favored suspect Franz Muller
The book is very well researched and chock full of quotes from eyewitnesses and reports.  Yet all of this studiousness makes it feel at times a bit more academic than a mystery to be solved.  Between an inquest, an extradition and two trials, some of the information begins to feel redundant, if complete.  The author also chooses to italicize the quotes she uses, rather than surround them with quotation marks.  Rather than getting used to it, I found it increasingly distracting.  Still I read happily to the end, devouring the gripping tale of the crime and investigation itself. 
Murder in a First-Class Carriage explores a completely fascinating chapter of Victorian crime that has been lost to time somehow.  I am admittedly obsessed with this idea and often read from The Old Bailey Online for a voyeuristic peek into the past.  This book brings one of those many, dusty stories back to life.

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Many thanks to Kate at Overlook Press for the review copy.

Murder in the First-Class Carriage
By Kate Colquhoun 
352 pages
ISBN 13: 978-1-59020-675-1
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Release Date: October 27, 2011

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REVIEW: MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN by Ransom Riggs

by mwgerard Posted on September 20, 2011

Anyone who knows me could have guessed I’d like this book just based on the cover.  Slightly creepy, old black and white photograph and a Victorian-style title. I came across this book while in a book store at the Newark airport, of all places.  My husband and I were headed to Scotland for our honeymoon but we had a six-hour layover, which left plenty of time to pour over the titles this shop had — thankfully more than the usual top ten thrillers and romance novels.  
At the outset, the author makes it clear this is no typical scary story.  Our main character relates his confusion and desperate feelings when pieces of the strange tales his grandfather told him begin to come true.  A true teenager and constantly at odds with his parents, he struggles to discover what these clues mean. At times, the book reminded me of “Bedknobs and Broomsticks”, “The Orphanage” and “Harry Potter”.  But it is none of those things entirely.
To the book’s credit, I had read nearly half of it before I realized it was probably meant to be in the young adult genre.  The plot, story and characters are strong.  The hints only become obvious as more characters his age come into the story and his interaction with them come front and center.  Riggs does not “talk down” to his reader, which is refreshing in any genre.  The main character, though confused, is not rash or inherently irresponsible.  He is not perfect, but neither should he be ignored — an excellent role model for a younger reader. 
Perhaps the strongest characteristic is the inserting of bizarre photographs.  These are real photos that Riggs has found along the way — in yard sales or in friend’s collections.  He builds his “peculiar children” around them and their images make them far less fantastical.  Creepy, perhaps.  But more real. 
I must admit to having a soft spot for this detail.  I too collect cast-off and sometimes strange photographs.  I wonder about the people in them, and the ones that took them.  My book photo includes one such photo:
I even own an original photo by Yefim Tovbis, one of the people Riggs borrowed a surreal photo from. It’s been a dozen years or so since I bought it but it’s always had a place of honor on the wall.  It shows, as do the photos in this book, how striking images can alter our perception of reality and burn place on our memory.  
I highly recommend reading MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN.  It was great fun as an adult and can only imagine it must be so for a mid-late teenager as well.  I would not suggest it for someone younger than 10 or so since it can be a bit scary.  Although I was watching Hitchcock when I was 4, so judge for your own child.  
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I did not receive a review copy of this book.

View the author’s site here: http://www.ransomriggs.com/

ISBN:9781594744761
Book Dimensions:5 3/16 x 8 3/16
Page Count: 352
Release Date: June 7, 2011
Book Price:$17.99

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REVIEW: THE QUICKENING MAZE by Adam Foulds

by mwgerard Posted on July 18, 2010
I always look forward to starting new books — ones to review or otherwise.  When I knew this one was on its way, I watched the mail everyday.  It is by a British author.  It’s about an asylum … and poets … and madness … and takes place in Victorian England. What more could I want?
The novel is a fictional imagining about real people and places.  Dr. Matthew Allen was a psychiatrist, phrenologist and steampunk inventor who owned and ran the High Beach Private Asylum, situated on the edge of Epping Forest, east of London.  
At the time, the forest was a netherworld between bustling London and country idyll.  The old growth trees were a hiding place for gypsies and become a perfect metaphor for the tricky, surprising line between sanity and madness.
The forest was also an inspiration for nature poet John Clare – inmate at the asylum.  He is joined in the sanitarium by Septimus Tennyson, brother to Alfred who takes a home in the village to be nearby his ailing brother  (Foulds often references Tennysons as yet unwritten tribute to friend Arthur Hallam, one of my favorite poems).
Fould’s book wound up short-listed for the Man Booker Prize in late 2009 as a work of “intense and atmospheric imagination.”  It is a very addicting read, even if it seems deliberately obtuse at times.  Foulds manages to create distinct voices for each of his characters, ones that leave the reader sympathetic to each delusion.  

The book is written in numerous first-person, inner thoughts from these characters and Allen’s family.  As Dr. Allen sinks further into his ill-fated machinations, as  Margaret falls victim to her own imaginings and Hannah attempts to navigate courtship, we wonder if anyone will leave High Beach the better for it. Ironically, we never hear the thoughts of Dr. Stockdale, who, seen though the eyes of others, becomes the villain of the tale.  
Foulds’ most impressive feat, however, is not the story-telling.  He truly has a refreshing way with words.  It is not affected or forced.  Descriptions simply drip with tangibility.  However, a word of warning.  This is not a source for historical accuracy.  Anyone looking for or expecting the concrete and clear excitement of something like The Devil In the White City will be quite lost and frustrated.  

Thanks to Meghan Fallon for the review copy

Book: Paperback | 5.23 x 7.87in | 272 pages | ISBN 9780143117797 | 29 Jun 2010 | Penguin | 18 – AND UP
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