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A review by candacesiegle_greedyreader
The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee
3.0
My, what an odd book! I realized about a third of the way through that I had completely lost the thread of the plot, but I kept reading because I was captivated by how Alexander Chee elegantly revels in several of my very favorite arcane and glorious mid-19th century subjects.
One is the Empress Eugenie and her influence on fashion. Eugenie played a role quite like that of Princess Diana, but with more impact on foreign relations. As the Empress of France, everyone's eye was on her, and Eugenie and her ladies would change gowns five times a day, top to bottom, inside to out. Since all this changing could easily take up most of the Empress's day, there was an art do doing this speedily and perfectly. The main character has a job being in charge of these "toilettes"--mannequins of each dress, accessories, underclothes and hoops, and this is where the book is really addictive. Chee's descriptions are wonderful, rich and sensuous, and I ate it up with a spoon.
The other gloriously arcane topic is 19th century opera. The main character possesses a beautiful voice and trains with Pauline Viardot, a woman worth a book of her own. Pauline was the daughter of Manuel Garcia, whose development of vocal technique remains a direct line to the way voice is taught today. Pauline's career is over, but she is happily tucked away in a French country home with her husband and lover, the Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev, giving lessons. Friends like Georges Sand frequently drop by. Again, wonderful stuff.
You may be wondering why the main character is being referred to as just that in this review . She has a name she adopted--Lilliet Berne--but she is not up to her rich setting. It's hard to believe where she came from and what she goes through.She is detached. She seems to be floating through it all, worshiped by men, singing like a goddess or at least fastening myriad tiny pearl buttons up the back of a Worth gown like a whirlwind. What a novel this would have been with a heroine worthy of her world!
One is the Empress Eugenie and her influence on fashion. Eugenie played a role quite like that of Princess Diana, but with more impact on foreign relations. As the Empress of France, everyone's eye was on her, and Eugenie and her ladies would change gowns five times a day, top to bottom, inside to out. Since all this changing could easily take up most of the Empress's day, there was an art do doing this speedily and perfectly. The main character has a job being in charge of these "toilettes"--mannequins of each dress, accessories, underclothes and hoops, and this is where the book is really addictive. Chee's descriptions are wonderful, rich and sensuous, and I ate it up with a spoon.
The other gloriously arcane topic is 19th century opera. The main character possesses a beautiful voice and trains with Pauline Viardot, a woman worth a book of her own. Pauline was the daughter of Manuel Garcia, whose development of vocal technique remains a direct line to the way voice is taught today. Pauline's career is over, but she is happily tucked away in a French country home with her husband and lover, the Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev, giving lessons. Friends like Georges Sand frequently drop by. Again, wonderful stuff.
You may be wondering why the main character is being referred to as just that in this review . She has a name she adopted--Lilliet Berne--but she is not up to her rich setting. It's hard to believe where she came from and what she goes through.She is detached. She seems to be floating through it all, worshiped by men, singing like a goddess or at least fastening myriad tiny pearl buttons up the back of a Worth gown like a whirlwind. What a novel this would have been with a heroine worthy of her world!