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rymenhildI keep complaining to people about historical lesbian romance novels with no edges and no tension. Rose Lerner's delicious The Wife in the Attic, first available on Audible and just last week available in print/e-book, doesn't have these problems. But it isn't a romance at all, really. It's textbook Gothic, more Sarah Waters than Olivia Waite, and although it's set in the world of Lerner's Lively St. Lemeston series, with crossover characters, it doesn't resemble Lerner's other books at all.
Protagonist Miss Oliver (I won't give you her first name, since she doesn't use it until a significant moment halfway through) is an educated spinster barely surviving on music lessons when she is offered a job as governess to a five-year-old girl in a manor by the sea. The food is much better than Miss Oliver was offered at her boarding house, and the master of the house offers intelligent, if uncomfortably flirtatious, conversation. On the other hand, our protagonist is locked in her rooms every night, and there's always some reason she can't leave the manor on her Friday half-holiday. And she never sees Lady Palethorp, Sir Kit's wife and the child's mother, who is supposedly ill in her own rooms. And Miss Oliver is terrified of fire, having heard too much about the time her Portuguese Jewish grandmother's family were burned by the Inquisition. And the child is afraid that her mother's soul might be destined for hell...
This setup does lead to an affair of sorts between Miss Oliver and Lady Palethorp, as advertised in the book's marketing, but I think my favorite thing about their relationship is that it in no way matches the beats I'd expect in a romance novel. Lady P is offstage through most of the first third of the book, and when she does appear, her dynamic with Miss Oliver has as much two-way jealousy, resentment, and anger as attraction, and although their relationship changes, it never does become simple.
Meanwhile, 19th-century British antisemitism, very precisely drawn according to Lerner's careful research, is one of the driving forces of both plot and characterization. So is 19th-century British Jewish immigrant culture. The interplay of ethnic identity, religious identity, and social class matters very much. Miss Oliver's mother was a Portuguese-British costermonger and the governess herself is destitute, while Lady Palethorp's equally Portuguese-British father and grandfather sold many straw hats and left her their wealth. I'm convinced by the nuances of Lerner's work on class, status, ethnicity, and religion in ways that I haven't been convinced by Lerner's prior writing.
I want to talk about the last third of the book, but I really can't until more people have read it, so if this description sounds good to you, read it and come back!
Protagonist Miss Oliver (I won't give you her first name, since she doesn't use it until a significant moment halfway through) is an educated spinster barely surviving on music lessons when she is offered a job as governess to a five-year-old girl in a manor by the sea. The food is much better than Miss Oliver was offered at her boarding house, and the master of the house offers intelligent, if uncomfortably flirtatious, conversation. On the other hand, our protagonist is locked in her rooms every night, and there's always some reason she can't leave the manor on her Friday half-holiday. And she never sees Lady Palethorp, Sir Kit's wife and the child's mother, who is supposedly ill in her own rooms. And Miss Oliver is terrified of fire, having heard too much about the time her Portuguese Jewish grandmother's family were burned by the Inquisition. And the child is afraid that her mother's soul might be destined for hell...
This setup does lead to an affair of sorts between Miss Oliver and Lady Palethorp, as advertised in the book's marketing, but I think my favorite thing about their relationship is that it in no way matches the beats I'd expect in a romance novel. Lady P is offstage through most of the first third of the book, and when she does appear, her dynamic with Miss Oliver has as much two-way jealousy, resentment, and anger as attraction, and although their relationship changes, it never does become simple.
Meanwhile, 19th-century British antisemitism, very precisely drawn according to Lerner's careful research, is one of the driving forces of both plot and characterization. So is 19th-century British Jewish immigrant culture. The interplay of ethnic identity, religious identity, and social class matters very much. Miss Oliver's mother was a Portuguese-British costermonger and the governess herself is destitute, while Lady Palethorp's equally Portuguese-British father and grandfather sold many straw hats and left her their wealth. I'm convinced by the nuances of Lerner's work on class, status, ethnicity, and religion in ways that I haven't been convinced by Lerner's prior writing.
I want to talk about the last third of the book, but I really can't until more people have read it, so if this description sounds good to you, read it and come back!
no subject
Date: 2021-08-20 01:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-20 01:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-20 03:04 pm (UTC)I did want more romance beats, but at the same time I think the book is better without them. I guess I'm conflicted.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-20 02:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-20 03:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-20 03:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-20 03:10 pm (UTC)Ynql Cnyrgubecr naq Zvff Byvire wbva sbeprf gb xvyy Fve Xvg. Vg'f irel cynaarq, va pbyq oybbq engure guna va gur urng bs natre. Zvff Byvire nterrf gb frk fur qbrfa'g jnag jvgu Fve Xvg gb trg gur bccbeghavgl gb xvyy uvz. Jvgu Zvff B'f cngebarff Ynql Gnffry, gur jbzra znantr gb nibvq orvat punetrq sbe zheqre. Ynql C naq Zvff B riraghnyyl raq hc gbtrgure, ohg gurl arire ernyyl pbzzhavpngr cebcreyl rira va gur irel raqvat. Vg'f uneq gb vzntvar gung gurve yvsr gbtrgure, jvgu gurve qnhtugre, jvyy or nalguvag bgure guna rkgerzryl zrffl naq qenzngvp.
no subject
Date: 2021-08-20 03:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-20 05:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-21 08:29 pm (UTC)It was critical to approach this as Not-A-Romance(tm) because, as you note, the beats are all off (or missing entirely) for a romance. But it does great at Gothic horror. And knowing that there wasn't necessarily a HEA meant the tension kept up to the last page. I'd actually, say "past the later page" because I think it'll take a long time and a lot of work for those people to move past what they've done and experienced. As horrific as it was, I'm glad Miss Oliver shaped the resolution by her own actions, because she spent so much of the plot being blown this way or that depending on who she last talked to. That was a weak point for me, but perhaps because I'm so impatient with that type of personality. I guess I can buy it on the basis of Miss Oliver being desperately hungry for any sort of recognition of her existence as an individual. But in that case, the change of attitude at the very end that was effected by the care package from Lively-St.-Lemiston(sp?) felt very deus-ex-machina. "They like me! They really really like me! I guess I deserve to have a future after all!" And whatever the future holds for Miss O and Lady P, I don't see that either of them yet deserves the other's trust. They have a LOT to work through still.