Melmoth by Sarah Perry: A review

This is a ghost story. Or, perhaps more properly, it's a story of the undead. Not vampires. No, this undead persona does not suck the life's blood of those still fully alive; she is merely an observer. She bears witness to all the cruelty and violence of which humanity is capable and, in her continued existence, we see the toll that such witness-bearing takes.

Melmoth is a character from a gothic masterpiece called Melmoth the Wanderer, written in 1820 by Charles Maturin. In that work, Melmoth was a man. Others have written tales since that featured the character but always as a man. Perry updated the myth, changing the central character to a woman and including various folklore and Christian images.

I loved Perry's last book, The Essex Serpent, and I came to this one expecting to love it, but I found that I didn't. At least not immediately. I found it hard to get into at first, I think, primarily because the central character, Helen Franklin, is a bit of a cipher at first. There's not much to distinguish her or to make us want to know more about her. She is, in fact, a rather lonely and pitiable character.

Helen is English, but when we meet her she is living in Prague where she is a translator of implement instruction manuals. She is described as small and insignificant with an air of sadness and even self-hatred about her. Only much later do we begin to understand the source of that sadness and self-hatred.

Helen has a friend (one of her few) named Karel and it is through him that she first learns the myth of Melmoth, or Melmotka, as she is known in Prague. Karel gives her a collection of texts that tell of a weary wraith-like figure in black who wanders the earth with bleeding feet as she bears witness to sorrow. Perry introduces us to these various texts.

They tell of Josef Hoffman who grew up in wartime Czechoslovakia and who first sees Melmotka as he is marched off to a concentration camp. There is also a letter from Sir David Ellerby written to his wife, Elizabeth, whom he tells of meeting a woman in an inn who had encountered Melmoth. We read the "Cairo Journals of Anna Marney," which tell of the life of a Turkish beggar who in his earlier life had been a cog in the bureaucratic machine that brought about the massacre of Armenians. These historical notes are compelling and it was with them that I really began to appreciate what Perry was doing.

We keep coming back to Helen's life and, finally, her great and original sin is revealed, involving a stint in Manila where she fell in love with a young Filipino trainee doctor and met a woman who had been attacked with acid by her ex-lover. I don't want to reveal any plot spoilers, so I won't say more.

In the end, I found myself greatly admiring Sarah Perry's work here. She builds her postmodern gothic piece by piece and manages to maintain throughout that atmospheric sense of something, some shadowy presence, just there beyond the limits of our vision. We know she is there, watching, witnessing all the scenes of horror that we have been a party to throughout our lives. But she views us with pity and sorrow. And with longing. She is so, so lonely.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

 

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry: A review

What a pleasure it was to read this book. From the first sentence to the last I was captivated. I didn't mind at all that the plot was slow in developing. The elegant language alone was enough to hold my interest.

Sarah Perry's book is set in the late 19th century and it takes the form of a gothic novel. This was an exciting period for scientific discoveries and intellectual debate and such debates are at the heart of this book as we watch two people, each from very different worlds, come together and form a unique relationship bond.

Cora Seaborne is from London. She has recently been released from a loveless and occasionally abusive marriage by the death of her husband. She admits at one point in the book that the day of her husband's death was probably the happiest day of her life. She still bears scars from that relationship, including a painful physical scar on her neck which she hides with scarves.

Cora was left quite well off financially by her husband's death and she decides that she will now live as she chooses to live, unconstrained by society's expectations.

She has a son named Francis, who would today be diagnosed as fitting on the autism spectrum. In the 1890s, he's just considered very odd and no one quite knows what to do with him.

Cora takes her son and his nanny, her friend Martha, to the Essex village of Aldwinter where she hopes to pursue her interests as a naturalist. She's never happier than when she is out slopping through the mud by the river looking for fossils, dreaming of finding evidence of some previously undiscovered species, like a plesiosaur.

While walking around the marshes one day, she comes upon a man struggling to free a sheep that is stuck in the mud. She plunges in to help and so encounters the local vicar, Will Ransome. They don't actually introduce themselves at this time and it's only at their second meeting that each actually learns who the other is.

Will is married to the beautiful - both inside and out - Stella and they have had five children, of whom three are still living. He dotes on Stella and his children and is passionate about his faith and about sharing that faith with his parishioners.

These representatives of science and faith meet and hit it off immediately as they engage in long intellectual discussions, sharing ideas. They become friends and it looks as if that friendship may blossom into an even deeper relationship.

Meanwhile, the beautiful Stella is not well. Her illness that the local physician has diagnosed as flu hangs on for months and finally is determined to be consumption. The outcome does not look hopeful for her.

At this time, the village of Aldwinter is engulfed by rumors of a great serpent, a dragon perhaps, that lives in the waters off shore and sometimes comes on shore to take animals or humans. No one has ever seen the animal, but many have caught glimpses or seen what they regard as evidence of the beast. Will Ransome considers his parishioners' agitation as nothing more than a form of mass hysteria, a relinquishing of their faith. He doesn't believe that such a creature exists.

Cora hopes that it does exist and that it is her much wanted undiscovered species. She hopes to discover it and donate her find to a museum.

The story switches back and forth between London and Aldwinter and there are several other prominent characters who contribute to the exposition of the plot. The tale is told with grace and intelligence and we come to care deeply about all these characters and to hope for the best outcome for each of them.

This was simply a delight to read from beginning to end, thoroughly satisfying both intellectually and emotionally. Sarah Perry is a very gifted writer.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars