"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies..." (George R.R. Martin)
and Alice's life is a life really worth reading. This is a fabulous
book, and a great story. I love the way we get to know Alice through
her thoughts, and through the little vignettes about her life that
appear in the early part of her tale. "I used to think that snowflakes
were fairies when I saw them as a child. Good fairies, white and kind
yet strong enough to protect me should I have need."
The
descriptions throughout the book create beautiful, and often
mouth-watering, pictures. The scenes portraying the feasts and foods of
the day leave one wanting to be sitting at the table enjoying the
repast with them. "... a glistening swan, roasted and embellished with
fruit and sweetmeats. ... stuffed inside it would be an aviary of birds:
goose, chicken, partridge, pheasant, woodcock, snipe, pigeon, heron,
capon and song-birds."
This tale talks to me on so many levels.
Mr Lake captures the essence of this young woman perfectly. We meet her
emerging into womanhood, still innocent enough to recall her childhood
dreams;
`I used to spend hours staring into the fire as a child. I
thought the flames were little creatures ... once I began to read, I
populated the fire with more exotic creatures, dragons, phoenix and
salamander. I made up stories concerning them. ... I was always a
Princess and the brightest flame was always the Prince. ... always, he
would defeat my tormentors and carry me away on his white horse.' I
remember such dreams from my own childhood, and although those days are
long gone passages like this transport me right back there.
The
story transports us to another world as we follow Alice on her
incredible journey from innocent dreams, and her protected and
privileged life, through a living hell when she falls from grace and
meets reality head on. I was shocked, horrified and heartbroken all at
once but I love the emotion it evoked as I read it. The tragic loss of
innocence, the fear, the anger, and the dread of what would happen next.
The stench of the streets filled my nostrils, and I trembled at the
treatment metered out to so many, particularly women, of the day.
The
characters that inhabit Alice's world enchant, enrage and engage. I
loved and hated them in turn, but I believed them all and their
descriptions again evoke fantastic pictures;
"The man entered the
room, placing his feet down carefully as if fearful of stepping in the
wrong place. He was in his forties by the look of him, clean shaven and
with curling hair, his face long and with a chin like a shovel. His nose
was also long and seemed to be designed to sniff ahead of him,
compensating, perhaps for his little eyes which were small and crossed
and seemed to be insufficient for their purpose. He was tall and thin
with skinny legs which did not look as though they would readily bear
his weight. He had the look of a heron. 'This is Nicholas Frost, ' ...".
I
came to feel I knew these people well, and I knew who to fear, who to
trust and who to love. I found myself holding my breath as I turned the
pages. I was sad when I got to the last page, but I know this is a book
I will read again. It's a book that deserves more than one reading.
Alice's world is complicated, convoluted and quite terrifying, but so
intriguing and such a pleasure to inhabit from a safe distance.
My favourite line in the book was too hard to choose, it took me some time to whittle it down to just two - ;
"... my head, like Anne's, may well have fallen from my shoulders and rolled, pitter-patter, across the timbers of the stage."
"Not even the great god Janus was as two faced as the nobles of the Kingdom on that day."
Congratulations on a wonderful, and page turning, book.
