The Hyena's Daughter by Jupiter Jones - #bookreview

 1797

If she were herself, Mary Wollstonecraft would feel sick as a dog from all the wine they have made her drink. Red wine to compensate for blood loss. But she is not herself. By now, she is half-ghost...

***

I am required to make it clear at the beginning of my reviews that I received this book for free from the publicist. I have not been paid for doing this and all opinions are my own. I am Bookshop.org affiliated, which means I earn a very small amount of money if you buy from there using my direct link. Although I include purchase links to Amazon, I am not affiliated with them. I include them to make it easy for you to navigate to them if you so wish.

***

The Blurb

The Hyena’s Daughter tells the far-too-untold story of a c19th sisterhood, the daughters of Mary Wollstonecraft: Fanny Imlay and Mary Shelley, the famed writer of Frankenstein, plus their step-sister Claire Clairmont, lover of Lord Byron.

Are they the three graces? The fates? They’re women, as alive and breathing and rebellious and analytical as you and me, and well aware and critical of the hemmed-in nature they’re expected to accept as women of their time – a time of “a new way of thinking, a new-world independence, a revolutionary world.”

It features their connection to Percy Bysshe Shelley – “how could we not love him, with his lofty ethics and words that flew like birds?” –and many of the other contemporary poets and thinkers of the time.

Pacy and assured, it turns its history to life from fragment to sensuous fragment. If the dead brought to life is to be Mary Shelley’s theme, this novella asks what the real source of life spirit is, the vital spark. This book, full of detail and richesse, is a piece of vitality in itself.”

My Review

This is an enjoyable novella about the daughters of Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Most of us are aware of her middle daughter, Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein. However, the two remaining daughters have remained in the background.

The youngest daughter, Clara Clairmont, is largely known as the wife of poet, Lord Byron. However, the eldest daughter, Francoise Imlay, also known as Fanny Godwin was unknown to me and for this reason I found her the most interesting of the three.

It is through Fanny that we really see how the role of the unmarried spinster played out during the 19th century. The book is full of detail and we get a real insight into the role of women in society at the time.

The book is written in short chapters and which move the book along at a fast pace. Much surrounds the scandal of Mary and Clara running away to be with the poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Although the book is set in the early 19th century it felt very relevant. It addresses themes of sisterhood, family and the role of women. It considers what happens when people faced financial difficulties. For such a short book it packs quite a punch and my heart went out to Fanny in particular. To be the oldest daughter who remains a spinster was considered shameful. She also ends up as the go-between between her sisters and parents.

The book is an impressive and creative addition to our knowledge of the Wollstonecraft/Shelley/Byron canon of books. I enjoyed reading it very much and I highly recommend it.

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1068176609

Publisher:  Weatherglass

Formats:  Paperback

No. of Pages:  200 (paperback)

Purchase Links

Bookshop.org

Weatherglass Books

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

Jupiter Jones is the winner of the Philip Hoare Prize for creative non-fiction and the Colm Toibin International Short Story Prize. She is the author of three previous novellas: The Death and Life of Mrs Parker; Lovelace Flats; and Gull Shit Alley and Other Roads to Hell.

You can also find Jupiter at:

Author Website

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(ARC and media courtesy of the publisher)

(all opinions are my own)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

A Theory in Vienna by Heidi Gallacher - #bookreview #blogtour

‘I bring to light a truth, which was unknown for many centuries with direful results for the human race.’ – Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis. 

The Blurb

 Imagine you’d discovered something. Something that could save hundreds of thousands of lives. But they wouldn’t let you tell anyone. Wouldn’t it drive you mad?

 Young Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis uncovers the real reason thousands of young women are dying after childbirth. Yet, in mid-19th century Europe, his simple methods are ridiculed. Semmelweis faces the battle of his life to convince others that the cause is simple…

 Based on the true story of a forgotten hero, A Theory in Vienna brings the remarkable story of this man to life.

My Review

Based on true events, this is the remarkable story of Ignaz Semmelweis, an unsung hero of the 19th century.

Semmelweis was a young doctor who was appalled by the high mortality rate of mothers and their babies who died from puerperal fever when in the doctors' lying-in ward. By contrast, those who delivered their babies on the midwives' ward were far more likely to survive.

Semmelweis made it his life's work – first discovering the cause and then trying to convince other doctors that they needed to implement his rigorous methods of hygiene. To the modern eye, his theory seems like nothing more than common sense; however, he had to battle ferociously to get the medical profession to take him seriously. Unfortunately, he was battling against the egos of experienced doctors who weren't willing to make changes to their practice.

I could feel Semmelweis's frustration oozing from the page and the author did a great job in portraying this. He was an ordinary man whose conviction in discovering the cause of such high mortality rates was second to none. He was a determined individual who became known as The Mothers' Saviour.

There are descriptions of the historical background in both Hungary and Austria - in itself a period of political uncertainty and  upheaval. The descriptions are vivid and tangible.

This was an interesting novel that I am very glad to have read. Medical practices that we take for granted in our present age are thanks to this man – perhaps even for life itself. I knew nothing of him prior to reading this book and I heartily encourage you to read this book for yourselves. 

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1835743072

Publisher:  The Book Guild Ltd

Formats:  e-book and paperback

No. of Pages:  320 (paperback)

Purchase Links

Bookshop.org

The Book Guild

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

Heidi was born in London in the Sixties. She grew up in South Wales, UK and moved to Paris as a young adult where she taught English for two years. She currently lives in Switzerland and recently completed an MA in Creative Writing.

Her first short story was published in Prima magazine (UK) in 2018. Heidi now writes historical fiction. Her first novel, Rebecca’s Choice is set in Tredelerch – an old house in Wales that belonged to her family generations ago. This novel won an award from The Coffee Pot Book Club in 2020, Debut Novel Bronze Medal. 

Her second novel, A Theory in Vienna, is set in 19th century Vienna and Budapest. It tells the incredible story of unsung hero Ignaz Semmelweis, whose life-saving discovery was ridiculed at the time.

Heidi enjoys travelling (the further North the better!), singing and writing songs, and spending time reading and writing at her Swiss chalet where the views are amazing. 

You can also find Heidi at:

Authors Page at The Book Guild

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(ARC and media courtesy of The Coffee Pot Book Club)

(all opinions are my own)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

10 Year Blogversary - My Favourite Book from 2020 - The Five by Hallie Rubenhold - #BookReview

 

"There are two versions of the events of 1888. One is very well known; the other is not. The first one is the one printed in most history books......... Then there is the other version..... which most choose to forget."

***

Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. They came from Fleet Street, Knightsbridge, Wolverhampton, Sweden and Wales. They wrote ballads, ran coffee houses, lived on country estates, they breathed ink-dust from printing presses and escaped people-traffickers.

What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888.

Their murderer was never identified, but the name created for him by the press has become more famous than any of these women.

In this devastating narrative of five lives, historian Hallie Rubenhold finally gives these women back their stories.

***

Continuing with my ten year blog anniversary celebrations, here is another of my favourites of the decade. Today I am publishing my favourite read from 2020 and it was originally posted on 27th May of that year.  This nonfiction title made a huge impact on me has stayed with me ever since.

I originally read this during the pandemic and my review reflects that. I have updated the review a little so there is more information about the book and the author but essentially the review is as it appeared that day.

I have a library copy of this book which I had borrowed before all the libraries were closed. However, half way through this book I knew I would want a copy of my own so bought one online. It is a fantastic book and one that I know I shall return to.

I suppose it resonates with me as my own ancestors were in the same area at the time of the murders. Flower and Dean Street is well known for it's Victorian doss houses and the 1881 census places my own great-great grandparents as being resident in Flower and Dean Street at the time the census was taken. It is a strange thought that they were rubbing shoulders with the Ripper victims and possibly even the Ripper himself.

The author has clearly done extensive research in preparation for writing this book and it contains a bibliography that runs to twenty-one pages. She has taken all of these resources and written an accessible and engaging book.

At no point does she deal with the brutality with which these women lost their lives. Instead, she focuses on the women who were murdered; their childhoods, adolescence and  adult lives which were cut tragically short. She challenges the belief that they were 'merely prostitutes,' as was contemporaneously believed and reported and presents us five women who were trying to live and survive during difficult times and in straightened circumstances.

Ms. Rubenhold has humanised and given these women a voice. Certainly, they were women who were down on their luck, homeless and alcoholic but with the exception of two of them there is no evidence to suggest that they were sex workers.

I wholeheartedly applaud the author for this book. She presents us with five women who were not merely victims of the Ripper but were victims of the time in which they lived. They were victims of their gender, time and world into which they were born - a time in which women did not have a voice. Well done Ms. Rubenhold for giving us the means by which we can see these women for who they really were and not merely as the Ripper's victims. I highly recommend this book.

ISBN: 978 1784162344

Publisher: Black Swan

Formats:  e-book, audio and paperback

No. of Pages:  432 (paperback)

About the Author:

Hallie Rubenhold is a bestselling author, social historian, broadcaster and historical consultant for TV and film.

She published The Five; The Untold Lives of The Women Killed by Jack the Ripper in 2019 and was the winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction. It is the first full length biography of the Ripper’s victims. 

In 2005, Hallie published The Covent Garden Ladies, and was the subject of three television programmes, including the hit drama series, Harlots (ITV Encore, Amazon and Hulu). In 2006, BBC4 broadcast The Harlots Handbook, a documentary based on Hallie’s book which she presented.

Her equally celebrated second book, Lady Worsley’s Whim (entitled The Lady in Red in the US) about the 18th century’s most infamous adultery trial became BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week in November 2008. In August 2015, it appeared as a 90 minute drama for BBC2 entitled The Scandalous Lady W, starring Natalie Dormer and Shaun Evans.

Hallie is also the author of a series of novels set during the period of the French Revolution. The first of these, Mistress of My Fate was published in 2011 (2013 in the US). The second, The French Lesson was published in the UK in April, 2016.

In addition to writing books, articles and reviews, Hallie regularly appears on TV as an expert contributor to documentaries. 

Hallie has a passion for telling a great historical tale and has a nose for unearthing previously unknown stories from little-known sources. She loves challenging our preconceived notions about our ancestors lives and revels in history’s surprising, unpleasant and gritty truths. Her extensive academic experience extends to research, teaching, lecturing and curatorial work. In the past she has been employed as a curator for the National Portrait Gallery, a university lecturer and a commercial art dealer. In 2014 she curated an exhibition on women’s reputations in the Georgian era for No.1 Royal Crescent in Bath and has been involved with several projects at the Foundling Museum in London.

Hallie received her B.A. in History from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and an M.A. in British History and History of Art from the University of Leeds. Remaining at Leeds, she embarked on her studies for a PhD and later completed her thesis on the subject of marriage and child-rearing in the eighteenth century.

She lives with her husband in London.

(author media courtesy of her website https://www.hallierubenhold.com/ / Sarah Blackie)

(all opinions are my own)

The Viscount's Daring Miss by Lotte R. James - #bookreview #blogtour

 

If Lady Rothwakes had been here to witness her eavesdropping, Bobby would've had to write a lengthy and thorough dissertation on the importance of good manners. Only, Her Ladyship was not here to witness such vulgar, ill-mannered behaviour. She had been gone a long time now, so this, like so much else Bobby did that the lady might've objected to, would go unpunished.

Not that it felt that way to Bobby. Twelve years since the best woman in the world had died, and still, it felt as if she was there, waiting around a corner to call her to tea, or reprimand her for things like eavesdropping. Feeling her presence contantly, particularly in the house, was something which was both reassuring, and painful...

***

May the best Viscount or Miss…

…win!

When her best friend and employer is injured, groom Roberta ‘Bobby’ Kingsley feels compelled to help him. She agrees to step into the saddle and compete in an endurance horse race to help secure his ancestral home. Yet the minute Bobby comes face to face with her opponent—arrogant yet infuriatingly charismatic Lawrence, Viscount Hayes—it’s clear that it won’t just be the competition that has her heart racing!

***

I am new to both this author and publisher imprint and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It was a wonderful bit of escapism and was perfect yesterday when the weather dictated that I curl up on the sofa with a good book.

The main character, Bobby, is feisty, determined and self assured. She is not the average 19th century woman and some of her values were very twenty-first century. 

Speaking as a history graduate, its paucity of correct period attitude would usually have bothered me. However, with Bobby I did not care. I was rooting for her all the way. She is the daughter of a blacksmith who was raised as the ward of Lord and Lady Rothwakes. She struggles with her place in the world and prefers to spend her nights sleeping on a bed of hay with the horses.

It is the story of a horse race and a budding romance, and I very much wanted her to succeed on both counts.

The chemistry between Bobby and Lawrence was unmistakable, and the author did a good job in bringing this to life. The book is rather racy at times and if you are a reader who prefers the more intimate scenes in a book to conclude with the closing of the bedroom door, this may not be the book for you. However, it is not gratuitous in its descriptions of the intimate side of their relationship but served to highlight the significant attraction between them.

Setting this book in the beauty of the English countryside added a further dimension to its atmosphere. 

The enemies to lovers trope is not an original one, but Ms. James did a great job in bringing all the elements of this book together. It was a captivating story, and I enjoyed it very much. 

ISBN:  978 0263305135

Publisher:  Harlequin Historical

Formats: e-book and paperback

No. of Pages:  282 (paperback)

About the Author:

Lotte James trained as an actor and theatre director, but spent most of her life working day jobs crunching numbers whilst dreaming up stories of love and adventure. She’s thrilled to finally be writing those stories, and when she's not scribbling on tiny pieces of paper, she can usually be found wandering the countryside for inspiration, or nestling with coffee and a book.

(book, photos and bio info all courtesy of the blog tour host, Rachel's Random Resources)

The Five (The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper) by Hallie Rubenhold - #BookReview

"There are two versions of the events of 1888. One is very well known; the other is not. The first one is the one printed in most history books......... Then there is the other version..... which most choose to forget."

Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. They came from Fleet Street, Knightsbridge, Wolverhampton, Sweden and Wales. They wrote ballads, ran coffee houses, lived on country estates, they breathed ink-dust from printing presses and escaped people-traffickers.

What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888.

Their murderer was never identified, but the name created for him by the press has become more famous than any of these women.

In this devastating narrative of five lives, historian Hallie Rubenhold finally gives these women back their stories.

***

I have a library copy of this book which I had borrowed before all the libraries were closed. However, half way through this book I knew I would want a copy of my own so bought one online. It is a fantastic book and one that I know I shall return to.

I suppose it resonates with me as my own ancestors were in the same area at the time of the murders. Flower and Dean Street is well known for it's Victorian doss houses and the 1881 census places my own great-great grandparents as being resident in Flower and Dean Street at the time the census was taken. It is a strange thought that they were rubbing shoulders with the Ripper victims and possibly even the Ripper himself.

The author has clearly done extensive research in preparation for writing this book and it contains a bibliography that runs to twenty-one pages. She has taken all of these resources and written an accessible and engaging book.

At no point does she deal with the brutality with which these women lost their lives. Instead, she focuses on the women who were murdered; their childhoods, adolescence and  adult lives which were cut tragically short. She challenges the belief that they were 'merely prostitutes,' as was contemporaneously believed and reported and presents us five women who were trying to live and survive during difficult times and in straightened circumstances.

Ms. Rubenhold has humanised and given these women a voice. Certainly, they were women who were down on their luck, homeless and alcoholic but with the exception of two of them there is no evidence to suggest that they were sex workers.

I wholeheartedly applaud the author for this book. She presents us with five women who were not merely victims of the Ripper but were victims of the time in which they lived. They were victims of their gender, time and world into which they were born - a time in which women did not have a voice. Well done Ms. Rubenhold for giving us the means by which we can see these women for who they really were and not merely as the Ripper's victims. I highly recommend this book.

ISBN: 978 1784162344

Publisher: Black Swan

About the Author:

Hallie Rubenhold is a best-selling author, social historian, broadcaster and historical consultant for film and television. She is the author of two novels, Mistress of My Fate and The French Lesson. 

She has also written non-fiction titles The Lady in Red, The Covent Garden Ladies, The Scandalous Lady W and Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies.

She lives in London with her husband.

Beloved Poison by E. S. Thomson

"The object I drew out was dusty and mildewed, and blotched with dark rust-coloured stains. It smelt of time and decay, sour, like old books and parchments.. The light from the chapel's stained-glass window blushed red upon it, and upon my hands, as if the thing itself radiated a bloody glow."

Ramshakle and crumbling, trapped in the past and resisting the future, St Saviour's Infirmary awaits demolition. Within its stinking wards and cramped corridors, the doctors bicker and fight. Ambition, jealousy and hatred seethe beneath the veneer of professional courtesy. Always an outsider, and with a secret of her own to hide, apothecary Jem Flockhart observes everything, but says nothing.

And then six tiny coffins are uncovered, inside each a handful of dried flowers and a bundle of mouldering rags. When Jem comes actross these strange relics hidden inside the infirmary's old chapel, her quest to understand their meaning prises open a long-forgotten past - with fatal consequences.

Whilst this has clearly been written for a twenty-first century audience there are some definite echoes of Charles Dickens in this delightful historical crime novel. For instance, there is Mrs Roseplucker, the brothel keeper and Joe Silks, the handkerchief thief; all names worthy of the great man himself.

The first in a series of  three books (and I am hoping there will be more) featuring Jem Flockhart, these books ooze with the sights, sounds and smell of nineteenth century London. The author's descriptive prose has the ability to transport the reader to the time and place in which the book is set.

Ms Thomson skillfully builds the tension in her plot with indicatory sentences being woven throughout the text. This created a tension and excitement and made this book a real page turner. I read this while I was on holiday and there was more than one night that I sat up reading well past the time when the rest of my holidaying companions were asleep in their beds.

I am very much looking forward to reading Dark Asylum which is the next book in the series and I hope you will join me.

ISBN: 978 1472122292

Publisher: Constable

About the Author:

E. S. Thomson was born in Ormskirk, Lancashire. She has a PhD in the history of medicine and works as a university lecturer in Edinburgh. She was shortlisted for the Saltire First Book Award and the Scottish Arts Council First Book Award. Elaine lives in Edinburgh with her two sons.