"To me the voice of reason sounds a little like that
of Henry Chester, weak and petulant, arguing against itself to hide the
treacherous quiver of tears. I say that today's science is yesterday's magic,
and today's magic may be tomorrow's science. Love is the only constant in
this uneasy rational world..."
This is a consuming Gothic novel by the author of
Chocolat. What lies hidden in that later novel is brought to the fore
here. Whilst Vianne Rocher has a love/hate relationship with
the Tarot in Chocolat, the cards here form the divisions of the text, the
stepping-stones we take to reach the conclusion. And it is possible to
make a reading from these cards, unlike those of T. S. Elliot's Madame
Sosostris.
Henry Paul Chester is a Victorian artist, the
owner of a deadly secret, which goes to the very depth of his heart and
art. Here we seem to be on traditional Gothic turf: that of James Hogg
and his 'Confessions of a Justified Sinner', for Chester postulates that he may
well have a secret double. Joanne Harris obeys the literary conventions
of the early Gothic here by making Chester a Catholic - Matthew 'Monk' Lewis'
Ambrosio removed from his Abbey and placed into the art world. He is just
as repressed and far back in denial as Father Reynaud is in
Chocolat. Then there's a touch of Sheridan Le Fanu too, with the
distressed maiden taking liberal doses of laudanum. However, 'Sleep, Pale
Sister' is not just a homage to old fictions. Joanne Harris is an
excellent story teller, with a quite distinctive style. The tales of Le
Fanu and Stoker may have had their powerful, exciting moments, but Harris
outshines them all with her excellent technique.
Chester is obsessed with painting young,
'innocent' girls. Which leads him to spot the nine-year-old Effie in
a park. For the price of a few shillings, Chester gets his perfect
model. Effie becomes the star of a series of portraits of young,
distressed children, such as 'The Little Beggar Girl'. After ten years,
Chester marries his 'perfect' model, and this is precisely the moment when
their relationship sours. She turns to one of Chester's rivals, the
unscrupulous Moses Zachary Harper, for solace. But he is not about to
lead her to the Promised Land. It is at a carnival that Effie finally
heeds her calling, summoned by Fanny Miller, a brothel keeper who sees
something of her dead daughter in Effie. With Effie under her spell,
Fanny finally unlocks Henry Chester's dark secret. Together with Mose,
she devises a deadly plan to expose and ruin Chester. But with the use of
magic, there is always the danger of the unseen...
In Chocolat, there's a delicious scene in which
Harris refers to 'Alice in Wonderland', and it seems as though she could be
hinting to Charles Dodgsons' suspected paedophilia. But there
is also the example of the Pre-Raphaelite John Ruskin, whose name is often
mentioned in this novel, as Chester seeks the art critic's approbation.
Ruskin too married an Effie, Euphemia Gray. Ruskin's marriage was
annulled after six years due to it being unconsummated, leaving Effie free to
marry another Pre-Raphaelite artist. It's possible that Joanne Harris got
part of her story from this source, from Ruskin's repressed sexuality.
One also has to take note of the fact that Kate Atkinson has taken the name of
Euphemia as the heroine of her latest novel, 'Emotionally Weird'. Now
that Harris and Atkinson are both published by Doubleday, it would seem prudent
to investigate such links between these two writers. However, Atkinson's
use of Effie may well be coincidental, since this name seems to be beloved of
the Scots and 'Emotionally Weird' is very celebratory of all things
Scottish. Besides, 'Euphemia' means 'to speak well', and since Effie is
not the most articulate of narrators (in her narrative which knows it is
prose), this is probably another sign of Atkinson's wordplay at work.
However, as mentioned before, Harris' 'Sleep,
Pale Sister' can be linked to a number of other Victorian and Pre-Victorian
Gothic fictions. Also running through the novel is the figure of
Scheherazade, the heroine of 'A Thousand and One Nights', who, to prevent her
execution by the king, her husband, cleverly told him so many fabulous tales
that the time of her execution had to be constantly stayed, because he was so
eager to hear their resolution. Of course, the Arabian Nights do have a
happy conclusion, and it's intriguing to see Joanne Harris playing with the rules
of convention here.
'Sleep, Pale Sister' is then a quite complex work,
but combined with Harris' typically strong plot, any reader will be compelled
to race to the end. It's a very rewarding novel, operating on many
levels. Take, for instance, Harris' employment of 'My Sister's Sleep',
the poem which forms the basis for one of Effie's portraits - it does have a
great deal of relevance to the plot. One of Harris' main themes is that
of Childhood, as excelled in her latest novel, 'Blackberry Wine'. It is entirely
appropriate then, that she should attempt to tackle the Victorians, who are
widely credited with having created 'childhood'. However, Harris is quite
clear as to how some Victorians set out to pervert their creation. This
is a narrative conceived from the same pen as that of Chocolat, and
therefore deserves to be read by a much wider audience. At its heart lies
the same battle between the supposed rational man and the 'hysterical' woman,
as defined here by the fictional psychoanalyst Dr. Francis Russell. Like
'Chocolat', the novel is narrated by an equal balance of male and female
antagonists. You'll not be disappointed by this rare and bloody fiction.
AuthorTrek Rating:
10/10.
This novel features the world of Pre-Raphaelite art,
centred around the critic John Ruskin. Here are some Ruskin links:
John Ruskin's Home
at Brantwood
- with pictures and bio.
The King of the Golden
River - this is a short story Ruskin wrote for the twelve-year-old
Effie Gray, who he later married. The heroine of Sleep,
Pale Sister is also called Effie, and Ruskin may have provided some of
the influence for Henry Paul Chester.
My Sister's
Sleep - this poem by Rossetti provides the inspiration for one of
Chester's portrayals of Effie.
Scheherazade, the heroine of 'One Thousand and One
Nights' features heavily in Sleep,
Pale Sister. Here are some links about her:
Narrate, or Die -
A. S. Byatt wrote this after including Scheherazade in 'Possession'.
Scheherazade -
here are details about the composer Korsakov's treatment of her story.
The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade -
a cheeky Edgar Allan Poe usurps the happy ending.
Letters of a Victorian Madwoman -
the sad tale of 'Andrew' M. Sheffield from America, is an example of a real
woman who was declared insane and insitutuionalised in America for being just a
little too different. She bore the name of a man, had sex out of
wedlock, and committed a man's crime. So, the threat Effie faced of being
sent to an asylum was real enough. Like Henry Chester, though, Andrew M.
Sheffield was an addict of chloral hydrate.
What were Chloral and laudanum? Here are some
links:
Chloral Hydrate
- read
a modern perspective.
Chloral Hydrate -
the encyclopedia definition.
Opium Throughout History
- how
the British government used to have a very different attitude to drug control,
and how drug culture still affects artists today.
Who were the Pre-Raphaelites? Here is a link
for them:
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
Victorian Fairy Arts -
discusses the artists' use of laudanum, and the patricide, Richard Dadd.
Who was the Dancing Columbine? She was a character
in Commedia dell’arte, a theme that Joanne Harris utilised to a greater extent
in “Holy Fools”. Find out more here:
Sleep,
Pale Sister is constructed around them, and Vianne Rocher tries to avoid
them. But what are tarot cards really?
Tarocchi of Mantegna -
asks whether the cards are of hermetic origin. These last handful of
links would seem to indicate some shared themes between Sleep
Pale Sister and Holy Fools
Carnivals are very much present in Joanne Harris' work:
Chomsky's Challenge: The Pertinence of
Bakhtin's Theories
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