In my catch up post last week I said that I had read a couple of simply terrific books and I would be reviewing in due course. Apologies for the delay, life is a tad hectic at the moment but here at last are my thoughts on Sophie and the Sibyl by Patricia Duncker. Quite frankly, I am daunted at the thought of trying to review this book. I can say it is stunning and wonderful and marvelous but trying to explain why is almost beyond me. I have been online reading various reviews in the Guardian, Independent et al and just wish I had the knack of imparting my thoughts as well as they do.
Well, nothing ventured and all that and here we go.
It is 1872, and Wolfgang Duncker (yes, Eliot's German publishers really did share their name with the author) introduces his 23-year-old brother Max, in the hope that it will stop him drinking and wenching, to one of their house's most lucrative writers. The woman in front of him may be old, liver-spotted, and ugly, but she is the toast, and the talk, of Europe, scandalous and rejected from English society and fascinating. Her intellectualism and knowledge is frightening but by chance the Sibyl, aka George Eliot, fixes on a Fragment by Lucian of which Max has a vague memory, but enough to reply ".......For if Lucian is right and Christianity evolved out of a peculiar set of historical circumstances, then it will find its end in history as he hoped he would" Max had never made such a long speech while still suffering from a hangover. They Sibyl's magnificent eyes widened in sympathy and surprise...."
Note: a touch of the Flashman about Max I think...he has the knack of sounding cleverer than he actually is
The Sibyl takes an immediate liking to Max, so, thinking to kill two birds with one stone – to tear his brother away from the brothels and gambling tables of the city; and to keep in with their most valued client – Wolfgang sends Max to the spa town of Homburg to entertain Mrs Lewes.
We have met the Sibyl and now we must meet Sophie who Max has been lined up to marry. Young, beautiful and headstrong she fascinates and outrages Max in equal measure. She also adores George Eliot and has read all her books and would love to meet her but of course, cannot because of the Sibyl's irregular living arrangements. The Sibyl interferes with the relationship between these two and one wonders why. The simple answer would be jealousy but I feel that she likes to manipulate. She has Max in thrall and is devoted to Lewes but it seems she cannot resist meddling and comes close to wrecking the projected marriage.
This is a wonderfully intricate dance of a novel with Patricia Duncker mischievously intertwining the characters from Daniel Deronda with Max and Sophie and the Sibyl herself featuring as Lydia Glasher, the betrayed mistress in that novel. Certainly the Sibyl's behaviour in her relationship with Max seems to reflect the bitterness Lydia/Sibyl feels against Gwendolen/Sophie. It all gets rather convoluted and I know I am not making it terribly clear and I cannot decide if a knowledge of Daniel Deronda helps in the reading of this title or, if you read it after reading this book, that it might be even more confusing!
It is wittily and brilliantly done and I cannot recommend it enough. One of my favourite passages in the whole book is when Sophie, who I like tremendously, faces the Sibyl down:
"I don't judge you for what you've done or who you are. And, frankly, I don't care what you have suffered. Why should I care whether you are, or are not, legally married to Mr Lewes?.......I wasn't brought up to think about other people in such an ungenerous way. But you, you are not generous. If I had been you and had your choices before me, I would not have written your books in the way that you have done. I would not have told women to be satisfied with self-sacrifice, convention and subservience. I would not have lived one life and believed in another"
And with that Sophie turned on her heel, flung open the drawing room door and slammed it behind her.........The Sibyl sat rigid in the half light, clutching Max's card, her scorned and loving letter fluttered to her feet, her eyes dimmed.
One way and another the Furies had crossed her threshold"
At this point I cheered. Good for Sophie.
A stunning book and I simply cannot imagine that there will be another contender for my fiction Book of the Year. It is only May and many months to go and we shall see. However.....
My thanks to Bloomsbury for publishing this marvelous title and for sending me a copy and for the invitation to the recent evening at the Bloomsbury Institute where Patricia Duncker was in conversation with John Mullan.
A reading experience to remember.
