4 Stars
This book is perfect for Gothic fiction lovers. If you enjoyed Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier or Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights by the Brontë sisters, this book is definitely for you. (Even the author’s surname – change the m to an n – may make you think of the Brontës.)
Briar Monroe, after the death of her parents, is set to act as a travel companion for her aunt. Because of illness, her aunt arranges for Briar to stay at Thornby Manor, the home of Lady Elizabeth Danville, until she can join her niece before they embark on their travels. When Briar arrives at Thornby Manor, she learns that Lady Danville died recently, but Lord Danville insists Briar stay as a guest. Lord Danville is often away so the manor is left in the charge of Marie Clara, the governess – though the only Danville child is an adult son named Gabriel.
It is immediately obvious that Thornby Manor is home to many secrets. For instance, Lady Danville died under rather mysterious circumstances. Gabriel, troubled by his mother’s death, has a difficult relationship with his father. When Gabriel arrives, he and Briar team up to uncover the truth of Elizabeth’s illness and death.
The novel has all the classic Gothic elements. In terms of setting, there’s the isolated Victorian manor house which always seems shrouded in mist which circles the house like a vulture. Briar thinks of the manor as “a talisman of darkness, an emblem of death.” There are dark passageways and shuttered rooms in the attic. The dining room is described as being “reminiscent of a narrow coffin.” The weather is always extreme with howling winds and rain: gales make “creaking banisters groan like waking ghouls.” Trees resemble “skeletons shedding skins of scarlet, amber, and gold.”
An atmosphere of dread and mystery, with unexplained occurrences, permeates the book. Briar senses she is being watched, and others admit to seeing ethereal figures. Briar hears strange noises and has “ghoulish visions.” Imagery is used to great effect: skeletons; a dead magpie; “snaking trails of mottled mist bled between the trees like weeping wounds”; bars of the iron gates “tipped with a pointed spear like Cerberus’s teeth”; flames “like snakes on a charm, licking at the grate with eager tongues”; piano keys “gleamed like bared teeth”; and eyes that “glittered like a beast’s.”
A common Gothic trope is the damsel in distress. Briar is certainly isolated and in a vulnerable position because of her father’s actions, but in many ways she is a bit of an anachronism. She is not the typical 19th-century woman. She is outspoken and headstrong and more than once is reminded that her behaviour is outside acceptable societal norms. She champions those who are vulnerable or treated unjustly.
Besides being entertaining, the novel does touch on some serious themes. The role of Victorian women and the treatment of mental illness are highlighted. “Hysteria, intemperance, nervousness, excitement, feebleness of intellect, strength of intellect, excessive sexual appetites” were all reasons used to admit women to insane asylums. And “How many locked away for spurious crimes, for disobeying their husbands, or simply for convenience?” (I was reminded of Liberty Street, a recent novel by Heather Marshall, a Canadian writer, that also examines the institutionalization of women for subjective misbehaviour.)
There are times when the high emotion – intense anger and sorrow – grated on my nerves. Of course, melodrama, exaggerated feelings, and over-wrought imaginations are very much characteristics of Gothic fiction. So it is to lovers of Gothic literature that I recommend this novel.
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