Randy’s latest this month is a modern take on Gothic classics.
A thick layer of ivy grew up the walls to the third floor, making the house look particularly ominous. Sister Margaret pushed open a large wooden door with iron fittings that made Mary feel as though she were entering the Castle of Otranto. … At the top of the stairs was a long hallway, leading to another large wooden door. There seemed to be a lot of those in the Magdalen Society, as though someone had decided on large and ominous as a decorating style.
— From The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter
Readers who do not enjoy horror but do enjoy the trappings of Gothic novels as well as those of 19th century adventure and science fiction, may find this book exactly to their taste.
Financial difficulties plague the London-based household of Mary Jekyll, daughter of Dr. Henry Jekyll, who disappeared along with his fortune around the time of the murder of Dr. Danvers Carew by Edward Hyde. What remained of the Jekyll household had been financed by a small stipend left to Mary’s mother but which ended upon her death, Mrs. Jekyll’s health deteriorating rapidly after one night seeing a hideous face outside her bedroom window. Matters are further complicated when Mary learns of a small account in her mother’s name from which monthly payments are paid to the Magdalen Society, a sanctuary for wayward women and for one orphaned fifteen-year-old, Diana Hyde, Mary’s half-sister of whom she knew nothing.
Where Mary is organized, responsible beyond her twenty years, relying on rationally planning her actions, a nearly perfect reflection of the Victorian ideal of womanhood in attitudes and actions, Diana is impulsive, relying on instinct and improvisation, and mostly oblivious to, when not contemptuous of, etiquette and social niceties. Still, Mary feels obligated to look after her sister, and Diana, more than happy to leave the stultifying atmosphere of the Magdalen Society, seems to feel something similar towards Mary even though that feeling, and Mary, irritate her.
Diana is the first of several extraordinary gentlewomen of Victorian London with whom Mary becomes acquainted, her adventures leading her to Catherine Moreau, human now, formerly a puma; Beatrice Rappaccini, poisonous to the touch and, in enclosed spaces, to anyone in her proximity; and Justine Frankenstein, an exceptionally tall and strong woman. All had fathers so obsessed with scientific pursuits they either used their daughters as subjects for experimentation or their daughters were the result of their experiments. Brought together by the odd circumstances surrounding the deaths of several women in the Whitechapel district, these young women seek to resolve that mystery in partnership with a certain consulting detective and his stout companion, and in the process become aware of the Societe des Alchimistes, a mysterious organization with which all of their fathers were affiliated.
In spite of what is after all rather somber material – betrayal by one’s creator and other loved ones, the injustice of ingrained bias in one’s society against one’s gender, and lesser indignities like kidnapping, torture, attempted murder and actual murder – Goss maintains her wry tone, as in the quote above, both employing and examining 19th century horror and science fiction. While plagued with self-doubts, her heroines are not cowed by the actions of others, but ingenious young women navigating a world that undervalues their intelligence and their power when banded together.
Earning money to support the suddenly large household of five women and two servants – the redoubtable Mrs. Poole, their housekeeper, and Alice the maid, whose hidden depths are hinted at – becomes a recurring theme and anxiety. Justine sells her paintings, Beatrice uses the science her father taught her to create medicines from plants, and Catherine writes and sells the exploits of Astarte, a female adventurer. Catherine also takes on the challenge of recording the adventures of herself and her friends. While Mary, with her decidedly middle-class English sensibility is the main focal point through which we see the action of the story, it is Mary as seen and understood by Catherine. This is made clear through a sort of Greek chorus interrupting Catherine’s narrative with questions, corrections, commentary, criticism and observations, not only of Catherine’s narrative but of themselves and each other. I’ve seen reviews indicating irritation with these interruptions, but they serve the purpose of demonstrating the individual voices and personalities of the characters, of showing how comfortable they are in partnership in spite of differences in temperament and experience and, for the author, act as a running meta-fictional discussion of the way fictions are built, how they are affected by the push-me-pull-you of veracity and artistry (thus also an implied critique of memoirs), and the standards and assumptions underpinning stories of any time period and which any one story may extend and/or reinforce, intentionally or not. And no, at no point is Goss’ novel as dry or pedantic as that sounds.
While not a horror story, The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter has a share of darkness, of tense moments and horrific imagery as Goss, without stridency, points out how time and again the stories of young women were ignored except as inspiration for and propellant of the stories of men like Jekyll, Rappaccini, Moreau and Frankenstein, most often as their victims, and usually through the woman’s death. Meantime she alludes to other fictional characters of that period who are brought forward in her next novel about the Athena Club, the Club formed by Mary, Beatrice, Catherine, Justine and Diana in the wake of their adventures and their new bond. Goss may co-opt 19th century Gothic fiction, but she also deploys her materials with energy and apparent delight in the exercise, interrogating this forerunner of contemporary horror, science fiction and urban fantasy, and delivering a critique wrapped in a smart, amusing and rambunctious adventure of five young women striving to overcome self-doubt, their society’s standards for what is feminine and an implacable enemy. Or two.
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss
Published 2017 by Saga Press
ISBN: 978-1481466509
416 pages
