In 18th century France, an ambitious nobleman gains the world at the price of his soul.
The Marquis de Cressy is young, handsome and charming, with morIn 18th century France, an ambitious nobleman gains the world at the price of his soul.
The Marquis de Cressy is young, handsome and charming, with more secret admirers than Rupert Campbell-Black. Adored by ingenue Adélaïde du Bugei and lovely young widow Mme de Raisel, rather than choosing between them, he chooses both. But the selfish and conniving Cressy poisons his own happiness when he sets out to destroy theirs.
This 1758 novella makes a good introduction to French 18th century fiction - it's concise, written with insight and empathy and introduces themes dealt with at greater length by Choderlos de Laclos in Les Liaisons Dangereuses. The characters move in the same world: Paris, Versailles, townhouses, convents and chateaux.
Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni was a former actress and bestselling novelist whose works were favourites of Queen Marie Antoinette and royal mistress Madame du Barry. Most of her novels are epistolary, but this one is told in the third person....more
**spoiler alert** Very readable novel about an unlikely suffragette, Ursula, a socialite's daughter whose passion is for chemistry. How Ursula is lure**spoiler alert** Very readable novel about an unlikely suffragette, Ursula, a socialite's daughter whose passion is for chemistry. How Ursula is lured out of her laboratory to join the suffrage movement, and how the First World War brings her back to the lab to develop an extinguisher for the flamethrowers being used on the battlefield, is a fascinating story. Ursula's suffering in prison during the hunger strike era gave me a new appreciation for the women who went through this so my generation didn’t have to.
There's a love story too and although I didn't think this was quite as successful, the characters were all vividly drawn and memorable, especially Ursula's apparently frivolous but strong-willed mother (is it just me who thinks she was one of Edward VII's numerous mistresses?)...more
An early novel from Wilkie Collins which caught my eye when looking for Halloween-appropriate reads. It's not in the same class as later blockbusters An early novel from Wilkie Collins which caught my eye when looking for Halloween-appropriate reads. It's not in the same class as later blockbusters such as The Woman in White or The Moonstone, but it's a page-turner with a similar atmosphere and some memorable characters, like Uncle Joseph the German music-box enthusiast, and, on the other end of the scale of amiability, the foul-tempered manservant Shrowl.
The setting is a Cornish mansion, Porthgenna, where the Dead Secret of the title is hidden, so the novel is one of the lesser known examples of Cornish Gothic, later the locale for bestsellers like Rebecca and Mistress of Mellyn. The house has a creepy abandoned wing which is very well evoked. In the Radcliffean tradition, there are suggestions of the supernatural, but nothing which eludes a rational explanation.
The Secret itself is not that hard to figure out, but Collins wrings a lot of suspense from exactly when and how it will be discovered and what the consequences will be. Recommended....more
The story of an upper-class English Roman Catholic family from the 1890s to the close of the First World War. Although Delafield provides an author's The story of an upper-class English Roman Catholic family from the 1890s to the close of the First World War. Although Delafield provides an author's note stating that the book is not to be taken as propaganda for or against Catholicism, it is not likely anyone would take it as the former. From Sir Joseph Floyd's reluctant marriage to his naive young wife Edmunda (he wanted to enter religion, but feels a duty to provide an heir for his crumbling country house, Yardley) to the pressure put on one of his daughters in the last pages to sacrifice her career in order to support her ageing parents, this is a litany of the miseries endured by people trying to be good Catholics. Much of the difficulty arises from the minority status of Catholics in England - and as upper-class Catholics, the Floyds are a minority of a minority. It's implied that Sir Joseph's mental health issues stem from generations of inbreeding, but mixed marriages to Protestants don't solve the problem as prospective husbands are unwilling to allow their children to be raised as Catholics. Heartbreak ensues.
This is well-known territory for Delafield (she herself abandoned a religious vocation to do war work and eventually marry), treated with her usual insight and empathy. It lost a star because it felt rather unfocused - at the beginning it seems that Stella, the illegitimate daughter who results from Edmunda's adultery, will be the central character, but she disappears from view, as do various other characters. In fact, this felt to me like a 1930 one-volume novel which really wanted to be a Victorian-style three-decker. But with themes of religious conflict, the patriarchy, modernism, the ravages of war and the decline of the country house, there's a lot to enjoy here.
Interestingly Delafield, like others of her generation, seems to have anticipated a decline of interest in commemorating the anniversary of the 1918 Armistice as time passed and memories faded. I hope she'd be happy to know that the victims of both World Wars are not forgotten and Remembrance Day on 11 November continues to be an important date in the British calendar, over 90 years after her novel was written....more
In the last of the Susan series the eponymous heroine, reunited with her parents for the Christmas holidays in the London suburb of Wichwood (a thinlyIn the last of the Susan series the eponymous heroine, reunited with her parents for the Christmas holidays in the London suburb of Wichwood (a thinly disguised Dulwich Village) sets out to help her cousin Bill raise money for charity, dragging her other cousins Midge and Charlotte and her schoolfriend Tessa in her wake. Chaos ensues as they try their hands at cleaning, babysitting, art dealing and hunting for valuable coins. A good time is had by all, other than the treacherous baronet who tries to foil their plans. Not quite as sparkling as some of the earlier entries, but Susan is as irrepressible as ever and I was delighted to find this rare title available on Kindle. It's a hot-buttered-toast kind of a book, just the thing to distract you from the modern world for a few hours....more
Mistress of Mellyn was the bestseller which kick started the 1960s and 1970s craze for Gothic fiction. A plain but principled Victorian governess, MarMistress of Mellyn was the bestseller which kick started the 1960s and 1970s craze for Gothic fiction. A plain but principled Victorian governess, Martha Leigh, comes to a Cornish mansion overlooking the sea to work for a philandering widower whose wife died in mysterious circumstances. Martha finds herself having to choose between two suitors, a plotline which would become standard for Gothics. As the novel unfolds, she begins to feel that she is in danger, and she's not wrong. Although nothing supernatural happens, Victoria Holt creates a spooky atmosphere at the house, Mount Mellyn, especially through the existence of peepholes in various rooms, which are crucial to the plot.
I just couldn't round this one up to 4 stars. While the story effectively blends elements from Jane Eyre and Rebecca, the writing doesn't possess the power of either one. Victoria Holt was a pseudonym of the prolific writer also known as Jean Plaidy and Philippa Carr, and although one book of hers in particular means a lot to me - The Queen's Confession, which inspired my passion for French history - these days I tend to find her style slightly on the flat side. I enjoyed Mistress of Mellyn but had no trouble putting it down until the final chapter, which builds to a chilling twist...then collapses like a souffle right at the most dramatic moment.
To sum up: collapsed spooky souffle still tastes pretty good. 3.5 stars....more
**spoiler alert** This is the final entry in the Marianne series and with a background of Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia, it's a riveting re**spoiler alert** This is the final entry in the Marianne series and with a background of Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia, it's a riveting read. Marianne survives the burning of Moscow and the retreat through the Russian winter, as well as much else - assaults, duels, quarrels with Napoleon, and the usual drama with which her life abounds. There's the obligatory Godfather Reveal, as the Cardinal de Chazay turns up in Moscow and tries to give Napoleon some tough love advice - which turns out pretty much as you'd expect and causes major problems for Marianne. The whole series only takes Marianne from 17 to 20, so we're left to wonder what adventures befell her in the rest of her life, but Benzoni does give her a happy ending, so let's hope she lived peacefully ever after.
To my relief she ends up with her husband, Prince Sant'Anna, a recluse no more, now living openly on his Tuscan estates as a man of colour. My main criticism of the series, and of this book in particular, is that this relationship gets seriously short-changed compared to Marianne's crazy love for Jason or her fling with Napoleon. Jason abandons her at the first opportunity, so she spends much of the book in pursuit, but although she does finally ditch him to rejoin the Prince in the epilogue, it feels very rushed. Marianne and the Prince never really have a love scene - as I suspected, he was her random hook-up in Corfu, but she had no idea who he was at the time. Disappointing!
But overall, this is a magnificent, compelling roman-fleuve which takes the reader on a Grand Tour of Napoleonic Europe and introduces a host of fascinating historical characters along the way. It's available on Kindle in French but not English. Benzoni's Catherine series is available in English (I feel a re-read coming on) so hopefully Marianne will follow suit....more
**spoiler alert** I thought this would be the obligatory "trapped in a harem" instalment of the series, similar to Angelique and the Sultan/Angelique **spoiler alert** I thought this would be the obligatory "trapped in a harem" instalment of the series, similar to Angelique and the Sultan/Angelique in Barbary or Catherine and a Time for Love, but it's not. A harem does feature, as the book opens with Marianne on her way to complete her diplomatic mission to the Sultana Nakshidil, a cousin of the Empress Josephine captured by pirates in her youth. There doesn't seem to be much evidence that the Sultana really was related to Josephine, but it was believed in the 19th century and played into Orientalist fantasies of white women in harems.
Marianne makes a good friend in the Sultana and gets help and advice on her current dilemma, her pregnancy by the man who kidnapped and raped her in the previous book. It's a distressing situation only resolved by her husband returning from the dead. I was pretty sure one of her husbands would return from the dead and fortunately it's the Prince Sant'Anna. In one of the best twists of the series, we finally discover his secret and why he is a recluse. Marianne agrees to keep the baby for his sake, but doesn't attempt to make the marriage work because as usual she's obsessed with rescuing her on/off lover, privateer Jason Beaufort.
There's not as much of Jason in this book, thankfully, because he's convalescing elsewhere for most of it, then he gets thrown into prison again. He is described as a highly controlled man of strict principles, but these are entirely informed attributes as he's a slave owner and former slave trader who behaves like a hormonal teen on steroids. His strict principles never apply to himself and don't stop him from committing arson in the last chapter. But enough of this tedious man. I am now officially Team MariAnna and hoping Marianne ditches Jason, but she hasn't much time to see the light as there's only one more book in the series.
I preferred the first half of the book, with the harem scenes, the dead husband reveal and Marianne becoming a mother, to the second half, where she takes off to Odessa in pursuit of Jason - the Prince having spirited the baby away to parts unknown in the mistaken belief that Marianne doesn't want to be involved with the child. In Odessa she immediately gets scammed by one Madame de Gachet, actually another returnee from the dead who was involved in the Affair of the Necklace and still dresses like it's the 1780s for some reason. Luckily Marianne's godfather, the Cardinal de Chazay, turns up and sorts everything out. He's undercover as an ordinary priest, but only has to show people the symbol on a ring he wears for them to quail and do his will. I thought he must be in SPECTRE, but Marianne concludes he's a Jesuit.
Marianne ends up in possession of a diamond implied to have come from the Queen's Necklace, which Chazay charges her to hand over to a minion who will come to her house in Paris in six months' time. She must do this to serve the Royalist cause, which is a bit awkward as Marianne is anything but a royalist and her primary concern is serving Napoleon's cause. She's discovered in Odessa that a key ally has betrayed him and she has to find him and warn him. So the last chapter sees the band, rather implausibly, back together, with Marianne, Jason and their various sidekicks heading to Moscow to find Napoleon....more
Marianne is ordered by Napoleon to go to Constantinople on a diplomatic mission to her distant cousin the Sultana. She'd much rather sail away with JaMarianne is ordered by Napoleon to go to Constantinople on a diplomatic mission to her distant cousin the Sultana. She'd much rather sail away with Jason, but Napoleon just needs her to do this one thing for him first. Of course, Marianne being Marianne, she can't get to Constantinople without a series of alarums and excursions: pirates, kidnappings, storms, mutinies, shipwrecks, random hookups with mysterious strangers, and so on. This is all very entertaining, but I gave four stars rather than five because it does feel like marking time and the overall story doesn't advance much. Well, Jason gets himself into difficulties again, but I'd quite happily leave him to it, unlike Marianne, who is still crazy in love. Even she takes exception at some of his antics in this book, although she blames them on the malign influence of the psycho doctor he has, for some reason, taken aboard.
As ever, the historical detail and the settings, Venice and the Greek Islands, are brilliantly evoked and there are a lot of classical references. There's also a lot of non-consensual sex, including some sex which Marianne thinks is consensual, but clearly is not. Reader discretion advised....more
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