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★★★★★★★★★★ (9/10)
Who ever said that unexplained rumors weren't fascinating? This novel delves into the "what if" of Arthur Dudley, the man who claimed to be the son of Elizabeth and Robin Dudley. His claims were never validated, but the rumor still circulates to this day as to whether he spoke the truth. The Queen's Bastard uses what little information was known about Arthur Dudley, and the known events of Elizabeth's life to piece together what might have happened.
Like any good story, Maxwell begins at the beginning. She starts with Arthur explaining the purpose of the memoir he is writing, and why he believes his words to be important. This also helps to explain who he is in terms of his relationship to the royal family and England. Then the story jumps to the history of Elizabeth's and Robin Dudley's decades-long affair, that everyone at court seemed to know about. While the private-life events are fictional, they do make Elizabeth a much more interesting monarch. She is always described as stubborn and determined, but Maxwell wants to show that this applied to how she lived her personal life as well as her public life.
As the novel continues, Arthur grows up. Maxwell shows his whole life, from birth to age 25, which is when all record of him disappears, although she does speculate what happened to him after that through his trip to the Americas. He grows up in a completely different world than the one his parents live in. Arthur is adopted as a younger son to a family that owns a dairy, and later, take care of a chase park (where hunting parties can hire horses to chase down deer and other animals). He has a remarkable amount of fortitude, even from a young age. He bears things that a child would not usually put up with. Despite his royal birth, he is subject to the pain, poverty, and difficulties of the life of a commoner: nothing in his life is certain, and he must take the best out of every situation.
Arthur is an amazing character, although a little unbelievable. His is a life meant to be fantastical because of the secrets surrounding his past, but some of the situations Maxwell puts him in are too much to swallow. One example is that he is made a spy, and though he has no training, no experience, no way to know what he is doing, Arthur is a genius. He has been able to acquire information no one else could. Also, he decides to become a soldier and ends up in the company of William of Orange. Not only does he meet William, he becomes recognized by him, and even becomes commonly known to William's family. This is highly unlikely for a young man from a chase, with only knowledge of horses to recommend him, to accomplish. Yet, it happens in this novel, and I take these plot points as just part of the larger story. They are important, but I was more interested in how Maxwell would portray his meeting with Elizabeth and Dudley.
In the meantime, between snippets from Arthur's memoirs, Maxwell puts the reader in the court, but with an intimate view of the happenings of Elizabeth's private life. I got to see the behind the scenes arguments, the passion, the anger, the intrigues, the inner workings of Elizabeth's mind and why she ruled as she did. Maxwell gives this perspective for almost 30 years of Elizabeth's life, from when she assumed the throne, to after she meets Arthur. It is a tragic life because of all of the obstacles she needed to overcome, both as Queen, and as a person. She dealt with foreign powers, betrayals from those she trusted, and the deaths of those she loved.
Through it all, Maxwell keeps up a steady stream of interesting scenes that kept me turning the pages as if my life depended on it. I even loved that in Arthur's memoirs, Maxwell added in the occasional misspelling, strange punctuation, or odd word choice that might have happened during the time period. I had never heard this rumor about Elizabeth having a secret child, who later came back into the picture, but I was enchanted by Maxwell's imaginative story about what might have happened. Like all good historical mysteries, there will never be a way to prove or disprove this scandal, but it's a little bit more fun to have stories like The Queen's Bastard to imagine "what if."
★★★★★★★★★★ (7/10)
Harsh, depressing, morbid, yet oddly uplifting. Simply put, this is a story about a prostitute, a doctor, body-snatching, and cholera in 1831. It's a stark retelling of the vast differences between the lower and upper classes of England, and the fears that each had about the other. It's a story about survival, death, hope, and resignation. And it's confusing as hell.
Gustine, our heroine, is a fifteen-year-old prostitute with a baby. She works in a pottery factory by day, and by night, she wears an elaborate blue gown (rented from her landlord) and roams Sunderland for hopefully higher-class men who will pay her well. She's a strange person, because she doesn't seem to really care that she sells her body, as long as she has a place to live, and can provide everything her child needs. Gustine seems to have no idea of love beyond the feelings she has for her child, even when it looks like she might be developing a crush on a young doctor. It turns out that she simply wants to use him, and Gustine sinks down in my regard for her.
The doctor is a completely different case. He is trying to escape his past; a past haunted by the knowledge that he and his teacher were unknowingly involved in one of the worst murder cases in Edinburgh. They purchased the bodies of murdered bodies, killed by two men, Burke and Hare, who killed anyone they wanted because they knew they could sell the bodies of those they murdered. It was the doctor, Henry Chiver, and his teacher who purchased these bodies, and encouraged the criminals to continue on their spree. Henry left town, to end up in Sunderland, where he tried to become a teacher as well, but was too terrified to produce a body with which to give his students practical knowledge. He was deeply afraid that his past would come back and destroy whatever life he had made for himself. He was only too right.
All through Gustine's and Henry's personal tribulations, the Cholera Morbus is threatening the lives of everyone in Europe. This is where the struggles between rich and poor take center stage. The rich (educated, wealthy, arrogant) believe the disease is real and deadly, and are willing to take whatever measures are necessary to prevent its spread. The poor (uneducated, striving to survive, and underprivileged) believe that the disease is something either made up or created by the rich to kill the poor. Characters like Whilkey Robinson, Gustine's landlord and pimp, are convinced that Cholera Morbus is nothing to fear, and refuse to submit to any sanitary precautions the Health Board set forth or suggest. By the time the story is over, most of Robinson's lodgers are dead from the disease, and many from the rest of the town as well.
This feels like a story about the educated vs. the uneducated, science vs. belief, morality vs. immorality. The classic struggles that face cultures around the world are what drive the plot. What makes this difficult to read is the setup. There are breaks in the novel where the narrative voice changes completely, and it's never quite clear who is speaking. Time jumps around as well in places, and it would take me a few pages to figure out what had happened. Still, it was a very engaging novel, and full of little historical tidbits (such as Napoleon's death, and the global spread of this strain of cholera). It was painful to read about such a debilitating disease, but I learned about the way the study of medicine was perceived, in contrast to how most people see it today.
The Dress Lodger was an adventure in the past, consisting of body-snatching, a deadly illness, and the ways of life in a seaside city. The ending had a weird ray of hope tossed in, that came from a thread that was woven since the beginning, and made a depressing plot seem not so terrible. Given enough time to recover from the terror of an epidemic, which I've never had to experience, I would probably read this again. It was a great find from the library, and kudos to Sheri Holman for a great read.
★★★★★★★★★★ (4/10)
First thoughts: "Wow! A alternate telling of Emma. This should be good."
Thoughts now: "Didn't really have all that much to do with Emma. Even Mrs. Goddard doesn't sound the same, and she's just repeating events I've already heard before."
This is Jane Austen's great-great-great niece retelling Emma from the point of view of Mrs. Goddard, the mistress of the school that Harriet attends, through a series of letters between Mrs. Goddard and her recently remarried sister in London, Mrs. Pinkney. I found the story Mrs. Pinkney was telling to be a great deal more interesting than the gossipy version of Emma that Mrs. Goddard gives.
Through Mrs. Goddard, Austen-Leigh gives us the behind-the-scenes reactions of characters that are important, but not as vital as Emma herself. Mostly, we hear about Harriet and her emotional turmoil, Mrs. and Miss Bates (who talk of almost nothing but Miss Fairfax), and the local gossip about what's going on. This Mrs. Goddard is just as motherly, but not as elegant, as she is in Emma. I find myself wondering why she's trading idle gossip, other than that her sister asked her to. Austen-Leigh tells a great deal about the daily goings-on of a school, such as cleaning, problems with the students, teacher issues, and disputes between the cook and the baker, but I didn't really learn any more about Emma. I guess I was hoping to find out something new, and was disappointed because it wasn't there, and maybe wasn't even meant to be there.
Mrs. Pinkney, on the other hand, is very engaging. She's a widow who recently married her late husband's friend out of convenience. She was left with little money, and decided that the safety of a new marriage would be her best option. Little does she know that she's in for a lot of work with her new husband, Mr. Pinkney. It's fascinating seeing how they work out their misunderstandings and form a bond I never expected when the novel started. Mrs. Pinkney's "adoption" of young Charlotte is also exceedingly interesting. She is supposedly an orphan and at the mercy of a great-aunt who cares nothing for her. Charlotte was sent to a school in London, with the expectation that when she turned 18, she would find a position as a governess. Mrs. Pinkney makes Charlotte her protege, and Charlotte leads a life full of fun, happiness, and love. Her other adventures in the novel, I'll let you discover for yourself.
I don't think I'll read this book again. Which is convenient because I borrowed it from a library. It just didn't have the same level of involvement as Jane Austen's Emma. I can't really expect this, but if anyone is going to try to write a sequel, retelling, or reinvention of an Austen novel, they need to try a bit harder than Joan.
