Wandering in the Victorian Age

                                         

After I finished listening to the very excellent Vanity Fair, I was looking for another nice lengthy book to listen to and decided to get the Audible recording of Possession--a longtime favorite of mine, full of poetry and gorgeous writing--both of which I have been wont to skim over in pursuit of what is a rather gripping academic mystery. 

Listening forced me to slow down and really appreciate the writing--I gained a new understanding of a novel I've read multiple times.

It's a bit of of love story--two, actually--and an academic puzzle in which a struggling young scholar studying a Victorian poet discovers letters that lead him to believe this married and famous poet may have had a romantic involvement with a less famous poetess, long believed to have been a lesbian. 

The young scholar seeks out a daunting but beautiful woman who is an authority on the long dead poetess and together they begin to unravel the tangled mystery.

The story unfolds in the present day and in the Victorian past as the relationship between the two poets develops. It's riveting, and ultimately, satisfying.

I listen to books before I go to sleep and when I am waiting for Josie. But I have to have a reading book on the go as well, so I pulled down my battered copy of The French Lieutenant's Woman--which is set in roughly the same time period. 

A proper young Victorian gentleman is engaged to a lovely (and rich) young woman when he meets the mysterious (and beautiful) creature the censorious society calls the French lieutenant's whore. Her sad story and her beautiful eyes intrigue him, entangle him, and . . .

But that would be telling.

There were so many similarities between these two books that I found myself checking to see which was published first. (TFLW was.) In both books, the author occasionally speaks directly to the reader, revealing, at times, their role as puppet master. 

And both novels deal with obsessive love, betrayal, and, a kind of redemption. And both are compelling reads. 

Reading for the Detail

The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt is a marvelous read for a details freak such as myself. A while back I was fantasizing about an ebook that would have hot links to every obscure reference -- I found myself wishing for those very hot links as I made my way through this beautiful, rich, and alluring story. 


It's not for everyone -- because of this denseness.  And it's not as compelling a story as Byatt's Possession which ranks as one of my favorite books. But I truly enjoyed it and will reread it to revel in all the lush details.


This is what The New Yorker had to say:

Byatt’s mammoth novel, spanning the two and a half decades before the First World War, centers on the Wellwood family, led by a banker with radical inclinations and his wife, the author of best-selling fairy tales. At their country estate, they preside over a motley brood of children and host midsummer parties for fellow Fabians, exiled Russian anarchists, and German puppeteers. But the idyll contains dark secrets, as a potter whom the family takes in for a time discovers. Byatt is concerned with the complex, often sinister relationship between parent and child, which she explores through various works of art—pottery, puppet shows, fairy tales—using them to refract and illuminate the larger narrative. At times, an excess of detail threatens to overwhelm the plot: no aquamarine glaze goes undescribed, no psychological process unmentioned. But, despite risking tedium, the book is ultimately engaging and rewarding. ♦

And then there's  The Road to Wellville, T. Coraghessan Boyle's exceedingly comic take on the health food industry in Battle Creek, Michigan in the early 1900's. The book is based on the real Dr. Kellog and I found it pretty hilarious. (There was a movie of the same name which evidently was quite awful.)

Wellville is another fairly dense period piece. There are several plotlines and some outrageous situations. But again -- I enjoy that sort of thing. Here's a review, that will tell you more.