Harriet Devine's Blog

Woman Writing

This 1867 painting is by the Italian artist Telemacho Signorini (1835-1901). It's original title was 'Unable to Wait' and depicts a young model at his studio writing him a note.

Woman Reading

This is 'The Novel' by Edward Cucuel (1875-1954). Born in America he spent much of his adult life in Germany.

I like the way she's stopped part-way through getting dressed to get on with her reading.

Girl Reading

This is 'The Old Bookcase', painted in 1929 by Friedrich Frozel. He's not on wikipedia.

Girl Reading

This one is by the great French artist Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875). He is best known for his landscapes but if you google him you can see he also liked painting women reading!

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

Diane Setterfield is not a prolific writer. Her first novel, the much celebrated The Thirteenth Tale, came out in 2006 and her second, Belman and Black, in 2013. This most recent one appeared in January of this year. I hadn't read the first two but something I read in a review of Once Upon a River made me very curious and as I was looking for a new audiobook to listen to I picked it and started listening. This was weeks and weeks ago but it's taken me till now to get to the end and share my thoughts. I'll tell you right now that I loved it.

Set sometime in the final decades of the 19th century, the novel is set on the banks of the river Thames, not far from Oxford. Much of the action happens in a riverside pub, the Swan at Radcot. This place is famous for its storytelling, and every event that takes place in and around the area is fictionalised and mythologised by one or more of the regulars. On the night on which the story begins, a remarkable thing happens. The door of the pub opens and in staggers as man who is badly wounded in the face and head. In his arms is a bundle which at first is taken for a puppet but quickly turns out to be a small child, a girl, seemingly dead. The local nurse and midwife Rita Sunday is sent for, and she takes the little body into a quiet room, where an amazing thing happens: the child, whose vital signs were completely absent, suddenly revives. A miracle, it seems, which Rita certainly cannot explain.

But who is this child and where did she come from? As soon as the story gets out, three local families claim her as their own. The first to claim her are Anthony and Helena Vaughan, a well to do local couple whose two year old daughter mysteriously disappeared two years earlier. Then there's simple-minded Lily White, the parson's housekeeper, who is convinced the girl is her long-dead sister. Finally, landowner Robert Armstrong and his wife Bess have reason to believe she must be the illegitimate daughter of their ne'er do well son Robin. The child herself, though seemingly content to be loved and looked after, fails to speak and thus cannot shed any light on the mystery.

'The river does not seem particularly intent upon reaching its destination. Instead it winds its way though time-wasting loops and diversions', says the narrator. Obviously this can also be applied to the novel itself. This is a long book, and the action meanders, like the river, between the lives of the various claimants. Far from being time-wasting, though, its impossible not to get completely caught up in the various life stories of the claimants and their families. The Vaughan's world has been completely destroyed by the loss of their little daughter - the best guess is that she was kidnapped by river gypsies - and Helena has succumbed to a deep depression. Poor Lily White, whose wicked step-brother bullies and abuses her on a daily basis, is haunted by the tragedy which  took place when she was a child. As for Robert Armstrong, he is the mixed race son of a local earl and his black servant - he has been given a good education and is a fine, good-hearted and much loved pillar of the community. He has done his best for his problematic stepson, but Robin has been nothing but trouble. Standing apart but deeply involved is the nurse Rita, a strong single woman, very adept in all forms of medicine. Another winding thread in the novel is the story of her relationship with the man who brought the little girl in from the river. He is Henry Daunt, a skilled Oxford photographer, and Rita comes to love him as much as he loves her, but her experience of seeing women die in childbirth has made her terrified of ever getting pregnant.

It's worth noting that despite the many vicissitudes everyone undergoes, these are almost all essentially good, well meaning people. I've read that The Thirteenth Tales has elements of gothic horror - there's none of that here, though there is history and mythology. I obviously can't tell you what happens in the end, or how the mystery resolves itself, but overall it is a heart warming story and left me sorry to have finally heard all fourteen plus hours of it. It was beautifully read by Juliet Stephenson and overall a great listen which is highly recommended if you're an Audible fan. If not, just read the book!

 

 

 

Girl Reading

Painted in 1906 by the French artist Charles-Francois-Prosper Geurin (1875-1939).

Woman with Book

This is 'Ophelia' by Thomas Francis Dicksee (1819-1895) an English painter known for his portraits of Shakespearean characters.

Recent Reading

I've read more than I've reviewed in April so here's a quick update of three books I enjoyed, though none of them excessively.

After my very good experience of Sadie Jones's most recent novel The Snakes I was greedy for more of her intelligent, perceptive writing, so I got an audiobook of Fallout, which I think was her second novel after the prizewinning The Outcast. Fallout is set in the world of theatre and takes place back in the 1970s. The central character is Luke, son of a Polish airman father and a French mother who has been hospitalised with mental problems since he was a small boy. As soon as Luke is old enough he leaves the small Midland town where he was born and raised and heads for London. There he gets involved with a small independent theatre company as a general factotum. He loves the life but his secret ambition is to write plays. Eventually he plucks up courage to show one to a director who immediately takes it up for production. Luke is soon to become flavour of the month, but meanwhile he has fallen deeply in love with beautiful, frail, married actress Nina. His two passions are in danger of being in serious conflict - can he sort it out? I enjoyed this though not as much as The Snakes.

After I enjoyed Moray Dalton's Harriet Hall I spotted another 99p Moray Dalton and whizzed through it in record time. One by One They Disappeared was first published in 1929. It's the story of an American millionaire, Eliot Packenham, who had the good fortune to be one of the 9 survivors of the sinking of a liner called The Coptic. Packenham not only throws a dinner party each year for the remaining eight, but he has made a will leaving his considerable fortune to be divided up between them after his death. As the title suggests, several of the survivors get murdered one after another - and Packenham's own life is also under threat. Can the culprit be found before more tragedy ensues? Moray Dalton is a great new rediscovery in the world of vintage crime - I'm sure I'll be reading more of these.

I'm in the habit of following Kindle Daily Deals and spotted this the other day. Somewhere Towards the End, Diana Athill's memoir of ninety years of an eventful life, has attracted much attention and much praise, so I thought I'd enjoy it. I did, but less than I'd hoped for some reason. Certainly, especially for someone like me who is not exactly in the first flush of youth it is interesting to read Athill's reflections on the pains and pleasures of growing old and her thoughts on her inevitably approaching death. It's also notable for the frankness with which she writes of her several love affairs - she never married and has an open and unapologetic attitude to her own sexuality. But something about Athill's personality didn't quite chime with me - apart from anything else I found her declared atheism a little tedious, though of course she had a perfect right to her opinions. I felt that if I'd met her I would have admired and respected her, but probably not loved her. A remarkable woman, though, and I'm glad to have read her book.

Shiny review

I haven't been very good about keeping updates on here about my reviews on Shiny New Books. This one came out recently and it's a terrific novel which I really hope will be recognised for its importance. Set in 1932, it's the story of Doris, a girl from an impoverished and dysfunctional home who is setting out to make something of her life. She's pretty and bright, but totally inexperienced - a mixture of worldliness and naiveté. She'd like to be in the movies but though she's hopeful at first, she keeps making mistakes and having to move on from whatever situation she's got herself into. She's a fascinating heart-rending character to watch as she struggles against poverty and the spectre of prostitution. The whole thing is told against the background of Weimar Germany, with hints of Nazi-ism never far away.

I'm grateful to Penguin Classics for a review copy. You can read my full review here.

Woman Reading

This one is by the inimitable Henri Matisse (1869-1954). He's famous for his use of colour so I'm guessing this must be a relatively early work as the palette is so muted. I still love it though - he's one of my favourite painters.