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This is the first published novel by Joanne Harris, of
'Chocolat' fame. That later novel has received a great deal of praise,
and has sold many copies. However, along with her new novel, 'Blackberry
Wine' it has also attracted some criticism, mainly it seems, from expatriates
who live in France, who complain that Harris has misrepresented French
inheritance law and life in a French village. It is with some trepidation
that I, who love Joanne Harris' fiction, approach her first novel. For
'Evil Seed' is set in Cambridge, a town that I consider to be my second home.
Would I find such criticisms justified?
I must make clear here that Joanne Harris and I
were never contemporaries, and that I went to Anglia Polytechnic University,
rather than that other more famous place in Cambridge. In 'Evil
Seed', Harris mentions that her heroine, Alice (named after Lewis Carroll's
muse), lived at the dodgy end of Mill Road at one time, as did I (in a rather
disgusting bedsit in Argyle Street). The danger for me to review this
book, then, is that I might wallow in nostalgia. But I think enough time
has passed since I left Cambridge for me to remain unswayed by such
memories. You could argue, for instance, that in 'Evil Seed', Joanne
Harris has produced a stereotypical image of Cambridge and its
inhabitants. One of the memories that this novel recalled for me was the
farewell card that I was given before setting out for Cambridge, a print of
Waterhouse's 'Lady of Shalott', very much like the Pre-Raphaelite portraits of
Rosemary and Ginny in 'Evil Seed'. Maybe there is a common perception of
Cambridge that the town is full of doomed young maidens waifing around in
boats. Certainly, I took this image to heart, as the Lady of Shalott
uncannily resembled the girl that I was keen on at the time. To me, you
cannot read literature at Cambridge (as I did), without seeing mysterious
wraiths ducking in and out of Gothic columns. Indeed, I even put a great
deal of imagination into creating such a Romantic fiction, a novel which I was
going to call 'La Belle Dame' (very influenced by Keats, you see). Within
my whimsy, a spectral maiden would lure unsuspecting men to bed, such as
'Learned Bernard', ask them their names, and then bump them off. She was
diligently pursued by Inspector Secret Code (well, Oxford had Morse).
As you would no doubt agree, it's just as well
that I didn't get around to writing this novel, especially since Joanne Harris
had got there before me. Harris has chosen her location wisely in other
ways. Since Cambridge is a university town, it is absolutely the right place
for her shadowy monsters to remain hidden in plain view, since there are always
new faces each year. However, there is nothing which reassures me more
concerning the keenness of Harris' vision, than her description of the
homeless. Certainly, the only thing which depressed and shocked me
in early 90s Cambridge was the number of people living on the streets.
Concentrated in the town centre, they seemed to outnumber those living in
London. At its heart, 'Evil Seed' is a supernatural tale. And yet
I've met at least two Rosemarys in my lifetime...
At several points, early on in 'Evil Seed', it
seems as though Harris has written a typical 'student' novel, which does make
your heart shrink with horror. Alice has a telephone conversation with her
ex-boyfriend, Joe, which goes on for far too long, sinking into banality, the
very thing that we seek to avoid when reading Joanne Harris. Worse still,
Joe is a musician, and his rock band talk is very dull indeed. This
telephone call does contain a very important plot development, so it could
never be completely done away with. There is another instance in which
The Stranglers' 'Strange Little Girl' is quoted. This may be snobbishness
on my part, but I feel the song is too familiar to be mentioned at such length
(although it's entirely right that Alice should mutter this song when
she's hurrying after Rafe and Java at night). The device of a spectral
Joe Cox tuning in the radio in 'Blackberry Wine' was far less intrusive.
Of all Harris' characters, I regard Alice and Joe to be the weakest (although
Joe does resonate powerfully later on). The balance of the narrators in
'Evil Seed' seems to be strangely awry. Because Alice's story was not
narrated in the first person, like Daniel Holmes', she seemed more
distant. Okay, so Daniel was writing in his diary, but since Alice is
meant to be our contemporary, then she should be closer to us. In
'Blackberry Wine', Harris created a brilliant third person narrator in Jay,
whilst 'Chocolat' and 'Sleep, Pale Sister' had excellent first person
accounts. The mixing of first and third person narratives in 'Evil Seed'
proves to be far less effective. But this is the only Joanne Harris novel
where I feel that I could cut away at the entrails, whilst leaving the guts of
the book intact, and it's probably no coincidence that this is her first novel.
I've said that Joe does become more powerful
as a character later on, and I must once again note that there is always a
certain amount of realism in Harris' magical fictions. It's true that I
have encountered a couple of real women like Rosemary, and one of them was
indeed a fellow student at Cambridge. I've seen Joe and Ginny's
relationship played out in front of me before. She the weak fragile creature
with seemingly endless powers of manipulation, he the protective man, reduced
to quivering, nervous exhaustion: adolescent affairs driven into hormonal
overdrive. It takes a brave author to tackle such themes. There is
some perception that Joanne Harris is a feminist writer, perhaps driven by the
image of the strong women in 'Sleep, Pale Sister' and 'Chocolat'. But
this is to ignore the fact that she writes so well from the viewpoint of
men. The depiction of Daniel Holmes' desires in this novel is startling.
For a feminist writer, I feel, it would be too easy to see Rosemary/Ginny as
victim. However, it is here that Harris' strong desire to tell a gripping
story outpaces such blinkered dogma, and indeed, Daniel Holmes dismisses such
beliefs when talking with his psychiatrist.
Joanne Harris has expressed some concern with the
cover of this edition of 'Evil Seed' in the past, her fear being that the
contents of the novel may be too strong for the hearts of the more mature
readers commonly attracted by such twee artwork. To be fair to the
artist, the cover is quite faithful to a passage in the book, it's just that
the style is wrong: more Alice Farrell's 'Red Rose Romance' work, more 'Flower
Fairy' than the darkness of the Pre-Raphaelites. Indeed, it seems as though
the marketeers from Severn House have not fully read 'Evil Seed'. Yes, it
is a Romantic novel - but it's Gothic Romance, not Mills and Boon! It is
a work of tragedy, in which people die messily. It's more 'Wuthering
Heights' than 'The Summer Jenny fell in Love'. This reverence of the
Pre-Raphaelites is where Joanne Harris' fingerprints most show (she even seems
to have named 'Inspector Turner' after Ruskin's nemesis). But after
having read Harris' 'Sleep, Pale Sister', it seems, for a moment, that the
Pre-Raphaelites are just tacked on here. (Perhaps there was a more
concrete bridge between these two novels at one time?) However, if you do
research into the paintings which Harris refers to in the text, such as
Rossetti's 'The Blessed Damozel', then you come across the rather interesting
history of Rossetti's model and wife, Elizabeth Siddal. She, like Elaine
in Harris' novel, started out as a milliner. You've also got to admire
Harris' use of Pre-Raphaelite parlance, since Elaine is quite accurately
recruited as a model by an artist who refers to her as a 'stunner'. This
is where Joanne Harris is so stimulating, why she is one of the most exciting
writers around, because there is always so much texture to her work, layer
after layer of rich detail.
The reason why Joanne Harris is concerned for the
hearts of her older readers is because it soon becomes clear that 'Evil Seed'
is a vampire novel. I've no doubt that fans of Buffy will devour this
novel whole, but I do have concerns about inevitable comparisons with Anne
Rice's work. Like 'Interview with a Vampire', 'Evil Seed' does contain an
infant vamp. However, 'Interview with a Vampire' failed to move me and
did not meet my expectations, and Harris creates a very different kind of
bloodsucker. 'Evil Seed' is also Harris' most carnivalesque work. I
don't think it's the blood and guts which frightens you, it's just that the
prose makes your heart beat with so much adrenaline, so much pace, that your
senses are liable to be heightened. So much so, that you will become very
fearsome of the night...
AuthorTrek Rating:
8/10.
The Blessed Damozel -
is the title of Daniel Holmes' book. Click on the picture to get a bigger
image of Rossetti's work.
The Blessed Damozel - a
link to Rossetti's original poem, with a representation of how it might have
looked in 'The
Germ', the Pre-Raphaelite journal.
Proserpine by
Rossetti. Click on the picture to get a bigger image.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti bio -
mentions the gory story of Rosetti's marriage to Elizabeth Siddal
Elizabeth Siddal -
the model for Joanne Harris' character Elaine? This link demonstrates
Harris' keen research, noting an artist's use of 'stunner' to describe
Elaine in Evil
Seed.
Ophelia -
John Everett Millais' painting is regarded as the best likeness of Elizabeth
Siddal.
Marie Spartali Stillman -
another Pre-Raphaelite model.
Maria Zambaco -
was a Pre-Raphaelite model and lover of Edward Burne-Jones.
Encarta -
entry on Edward Burne-Jones.
Paintings by Edward Burne-Jones.
Artist Index - Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones.
King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid -
Edward Burne-Jones' most famous painting, mentioned in Evil Seed.
Alice Liddell -
this a photograph taken by Lewis Carroll of the girl who inspired Alice in
Wonderland. Here, she is posed as 'The Beggar Maid' from Tennyson's
poem. Alice Farrell in Evil Seed was
named in honour of Carroll's fiction.
Aleister Crowley and the Golden Dawn
Sir Palamedes the Saracen Knight by
Aleister Crowley.
Walter
Pater - biography and links
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