(Orion, 2011, 446 pages, ISBN: 9781409121190)
It’s 1881, and seventeen-year-old Phoebe
Turner, living in London’s
East End, seems destined to remain an unwilling helpmate
to her widowed mother Maud, a religious militant
on a quest to save the souls of the corrupt. Phoebe
is more drawn to her beautiful aunt Cissy, once a singer in the music halls,
and the woman portrayed in the famous Millais painting 'The Somnambulist'. But Cissy’s life isn’t ‘all music and light’ as Phoebe
believes. When tragedy strikes the family, Phoebe
must become companion to the wife of enigmatic Nathaniel
Samuels if she is to save her home. Shut
away in Dinwood Court, deep
in the Herefordshire countryside, she begins to uncover secrets about Cissy’s
past that will change her life irrevocably.
This is a novel with a distinctly Gothic feel, shot through
with lies, love, sex, death and madness. Dinwood Court
is a house haunted by shadows of both past and present, a perfect setting for
several of the darker – and more audacious – elements of the story. Unlike some
of the original Victorian tales, however, Essie
Fox provides a balance to this, grounding
the novel through her portrayal of late 19th century London
and all its realities: music halls, docks, department stores and filthy back street
shops; prostitutes, performers and proselytisers. I particularly enjoyed the
sections involving the music halls, in which their vibrancy and vivacity came
across brilliantly, especially in the characters of Cissy’s friends. All of the
major characters are fictional, although there are appearances by the music
hall director John Wilton
and several of his acts, and some characters are based on real figures such as P.T.
Barnum.
The novel is told largely by Phoebe,
an engaging protagonist and a convincing Victorian girl, neither too
self-effacing nor too modern in her outlook. Her first person narrative means that the reader is
often lulled into sharing her prejudices and misinterpretations, and as a
result has the opportunity to share in the way she grows in insight during the
course of the novel. Her narration is interspersed with short sections in the
third person focusing on Nathaniel
Samuels. I wasn’t expecting this and
wondered how well it would work overall, but the transitions were seamless and the
technique really added to the novel, fleshing out Samuels’
character and providing backstory that complemented Phoebe’s
narration, often adding to the suspense.
The narrative occasionally winds back on itself as Phoebe
arrives at a certain point and only afterwards relates how she got there – I
found this a little disconcerting at first, but soon got used to it. The prose
itself is reminiscent of a Victorian style, with precise descriptions and long
sentences that repay close attention. All the senses come into play in this
novel, creating a rich world, and one which the author isn’t afraid to tell us
is sometimes really rather foul. This goes for the prejudices of the time as
well, with extensive anti-Jewish sentiment being an important aspect of the
novel. Ultimately, like the painting of the title, the novel presents both
light and dark, danger and security, fear and self-belief; and the journey
through them all is a satisfying one.
The book also contains questions for reading groups,
extensive historical notes discussing features such as the music halls and
contemporary attitudes to Jews, and an interview with the author.
Compelling Gothic tale of love, loss, sin and redemption set
in 1880s England.
