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The Whispering Muse is everything that Gothic horror should be. It’s haunting, eerie, and compulsive. A cautionary tale that you should never underestimate a woman’s ability to exact revenge. In The Whispering Muse, Laura Purcell has crafted a totally immersive take on the Faustus myth - dark and disturbing, but with so much heart. Her best yet. Jenny has a hard life, like many families during Victorian London. Jobs are low paying and living conditions are harsh, but she makes do. After her brother leaves them in disgrace, Jenny is made to step up, to become head of the household. Her brother, Bertie needs an operation to correct club foot. They’d almost saved up enough but then her brother took that too. Jenny is invited to The Mercury theatre by its owner’s wife, Mrs Dyer, she fears its to recompense them for all her brother stole. It appears she wants to offer her a position at the theatre of dresser to their leading lady, Lilith. She is paid handsomely, however, there is a catch, of course there is.
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Reading The Whispering Muse put me in mind of City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert but I suspect that's only because I haven't read too many novels set in a theatre. The books are set in different countries and eras - 1940s New York and Victorian London - however the leading lady there (Celia) was just as awful as Lilith. In fact, my favourite quote from City of Girls works perfectly for Jennifer and Lilith too!
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A tremor shook Lilith’s frame. Her eyes flew open, fixed and staring at the gallery. The audience looked over their shoulders. Did she see something we couldn’t?”
The Whispering Muse: The most spellbinding gothic novel of
Hardyment, Christina. "Review: The Corset by Laura Purcell". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460 . Retrieved 11 May 2023.It is said that the lead actress Lilith has made a pact with Melpomene, the tragic muse of Greek mythology, to become the greatest actress to ever grace the stage. Suspicious of Lilith, the jealous wife of the theatre owner sends dresser Jenny to spy on her, and desperate for the money to help her family, Jenny agrees. I love that the story is so immersive, which is down to a clever plot but more importantly believable characters that evolve over the course of the novel. None of the characters are sugary sweet, they all have an agenda which is tested in different ways as the cost of loyalty is tested. My great-grandfather died in 1959, having completed his magnum opus, “ Síldarsaga Íslands” (“The History of Herring Fishing in Iceland”). It is said that Hrafn Valdimarsson spent his last years in Greenwich Village. Caeneus is eternal and flying around the world on his seagull’s wings. The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell is by far her best yet. I’ve enjoyed her others, immensely, but this one has the aura of a classic about it. Set in Victorian London, it follows the goings on at the Mercury Theatre in London’s West End. Jenny has been given a job there, as dresser for the principal actress, yet right from the beginning, nothing is as it seems.
The Whispering Muse, The most spellbinding gothic novel of The Whispering Muse, The most spellbinding gothic novel of
It is said that the lead actress Lilith has made a pact with Melpomene, the tragic muse of Greek mythology, to become the greatest actress to ever grace the stage. Suspicious of Lilith, the jealous wife of the theatre owner sends dresser Jenny to spy on her. People always said there was a fine line between genius and madness. Lilith had been walking it like a tightrope for too long. Perhaps I’d pushed her off the edge.” Lilith has made a pact with the tragic muse of Greek mythology, Melpomene. She will exchange something valuable for fame and greatness on the stage. Well, the deal with the devil didn’t work out for Dorian Gray did it? You get the idea of what is to come. Purcell still manages to pull the elusive rabbit magic out of the bag however. The subplots in this story was just the icing on the cake - perfectly woven. I just devoured this one!Caeneus tells his tale over the course of the journey, often to the disgust of Haraldsson, who was not very much taken with it. The other passengers, however, very much enjoyed it, though Haraldsson did come round in the end, as it is he alone that hears the tale of the driftwood and Jason’s last days. The story focuses on just one part of the Argonauts’ adventures – their arrival at the Island of Lemnos. The men arrive, hoping, in particular, to get something to drink but when they enter the taverns on the shore, they find them deserted and barren. They soon find out that the island is inhabited only by women, the women claiming that the men had all left because they did not consider the women attractive enough. The speaking bow advised Jason to leave at once but he saw a huge advantage in having an island full of available women. However, the women emit an awful stench, apparently caused by Aphrodite, as punishment for driving their men away. (In the actual legend, the women of Lemnos had murdered their husbands. Aphrodite had caused the stench as the women had neglected their worship of her. The stench had persuaded the husbands to take concubines from a neighbouring island and, as a result, the women had killed their husbands. Therefore either Caeneus and/or the women who told him the story are unreliable narrators.) Caeneus continues with the story of the Argonauts’ stay on Lemnos which lasts ten months and involves Caeneus himself getting seriously injured and temporarily reverting to his original, female form. Sjón even throws in an Icelandic saga – the Völsunga saga– told by a poetess on the Island of Lemnos and which, as Caeneus states, is actually predicting the fate of Jason. The story-telling is interrupted only once – when Haraldsson persuades the captain to let him give his lecture on fish and how it made the Nordic race superior. The lecture does not go down well. I know it's early days yet, but it's just possible that The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell has gone straight from being one of my most highly anticipated reads of 2023, to being one of my favourite reads of the entire year. I absolutely adored this!
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