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A review by flappermyrtle
The Victorian Chaise Longue by Marghanita Laski
3.0
This is a book I might not have picked up, weren't it for the fact that Persephone has reprinted it and it must, therefore, be good. This as an illustration of the store I put in the Persephone crew's literary judgement.
I believe "The Victorian Chaise Longue is one of the early Persephone's - a quick check shows it was in fact the 6th novel of their run. I can see why a book such as this was chosen; it is short (about a 100 pages), thrilling, and classifies as classic Persephone both in terms of its forgotten female author and veritably twice when looking at its subject matter.
The strange story, woven through two periods of time and the mind of two - or maybe one? I was never quite sure - women in quite the same position but with bewilderingly different cultural contexts, leading to a shocking difference in their treatment. Both Milly and Melanie have had a child recently, a child they have not been allowed to see because of their TB inflammation that leaves both of them bedridden and dependent on others.
Female sexuality is the big elephant in the room in both stories, the doctors referring to 'energetic behaviour' in Melanie, exhausting herself with excitement over small things. Melanie herself, a woman in the 20th century, is able to speak of it, albeit in somewhat vague terms. In the Victorian part of the book, the word cannot be spoken, and it is incomprehensible to many characters that a woman herself would desire a man sexually. This is why it takes Melanie forever to work out what has happened to Milly, why she is in this position and, frighteningly, that she will never get better or get a proper hearing from someone who might help her. I thought this opposition was made very clear and forces home how so many women were treated as if they were porcelain dolls, not allowed any say in their recovery, their wishes often not granted as if from an unruly child rather than a fully grown adult. Reading this book in the 21st century in that sense adds a third layer, contrasting the Victorian, early-20th century and contemporary situation of women, illness and childbirth in a very interesting way. Considering campaigns like "Behandel me als een dame" in which women ask to be heard by their doctors and a call to doctors to take into account different effects medicines and illness might have on women's and men's bodies, this is still a battle that is raging.
Unfortunately, I did not feel the stifling fear many other reviewers rave on about. While the Victorian room Milly is in is painted in detail, I felt Melanie's confusion blurred it all. Additionally, her mind is so active, trying to look for solutions, way to make sense of her current situation, that I hardly realised the body was prostrate, except for when she attempts to sit up and fails miserably. I read this book lying in the sun, which might not have helped me inhabit the dark, stuffy room with its bad smell, either. The moment she realises she is inhabiting a dead body and all those around her are dead, too, the clothes rotting away, the food decayed, is morbid and dreadful, though.
The whole religion-thing is lost upon me. The idea of reincarnation appealed to me, and the story poses a few interesting questions here, but I felt it was perhaps too spiritual a turn to give to a horror story with a fairly simple premise.
Finally, that is what it is: a well-written little story with horror elements, very precise descriptions and a psychological side that makes it more interesting. It is perhaps too short to cover all the themes it would like to discuss, but that is also part of its charm, the in-medias-res nature of it all. Definitely worth a try if you like other Persephone Books or perhaps stories in the style of Edgar Allen Poe, which this reminded me of in some ways.
I believe "The Victorian Chaise Longue is one of the early Persephone's - a quick check shows it was in fact the 6th novel of their run. I can see why a book such as this was chosen; it is short (about a 100 pages), thrilling, and classifies as classic Persephone both in terms of its forgotten female author and veritably twice when looking at its subject matter.
The strange story, woven through two periods of time and the mind of two - or maybe one? I was never quite sure - women in quite the same position but with bewilderingly different cultural contexts, leading to a shocking difference in their treatment. Both Milly and Melanie have had a child recently, a child they have not been allowed to see because of their TB inflammation that leaves both of them bedridden and dependent on others.
Female sexuality is the big elephant in the room in both stories, the doctors referring to 'energetic behaviour' in Melanie, exhausting herself with excitement over small things. Melanie herself, a woman in the 20th century, is able to speak of it, albeit in somewhat vague terms. In the Victorian part of the book, the word cannot be spoken, and it is incomprehensible to many characters that a woman herself would desire a man sexually. This is why it takes Melanie forever to work out what has happened to Milly, why she is in this position and, frighteningly, that she will never get better or get a proper hearing from someone who might help her. I thought this opposition was made very clear and forces home how so many women were treated as if they were porcelain dolls, not allowed any say in their recovery, their wishes often not granted as if from an unruly child rather than a fully grown adult. Reading this book in the 21st century in that sense adds a third layer, contrasting the Victorian, early-20th century and contemporary situation of women, illness and childbirth in a very interesting way. Considering campaigns like "Behandel me als een dame" in which women ask to be heard by their doctors and a call to doctors to take into account different effects medicines and illness might have on women's and men's bodies, this is still a battle that is raging.
Unfortunately, I did not feel the stifling fear many other reviewers rave on about. While the Victorian room Milly is in is painted in detail, I felt Melanie's confusion blurred it all. Additionally, her mind is so active, trying to look for solutions, way to make sense of her current situation, that I hardly realised the body was prostrate, except for when she attempts to sit up and fails miserably. I read this book lying in the sun, which might not have helped me inhabit the dark, stuffy room with its bad smell, either. The moment she realises she is inhabiting a dead body and all those around her are dead, too, the clothes rotting away, the food decayed, is morbid and dreadful, though.
The whole religion-thing is lost upon me. The idea of reincarnation appealed to me, and the story poses a few interesting questions here, but I felt it was perhaps too spiritual a turn to give to a horror story with a fairly simple premise.
Finally, that is what it is: a well-written little story with horror elements, very precise descriptions and a psychological side that makes it more interesting. It is perhaps too short to cover all the themes it would like to discuss, but that is also part of its charm, the in-medias-res nature of it all. Definitely worth a try if you like other Persephone Books or perhaps stories in the style of Edgar Allen Poe, which this reminded me of in some ways.