A Taste of Victoriana

If Victorian literature is your thing, then Kept: A Victorian Mystery by D.J. Taylor is your book.  The novel starts out with two men traveling to Scotland to steal a rare bird's egg.  Throw in the death of a wealthy landowner, lawyers, relatives, a noted naturalist living in a crumbling manor house, fraud, servants below stairs, a madwoman in the attic....have I caught your attention yet?  There is actually more.  Each chapter of the novel introduces different characters--eventually (most) all is tied together.  I didn't expect this to actually be a mystery, but in the end it was indeed just that.  There was a good review of Kept in The Guardian if you need more convincing.  I first came across this novel via Book World, and then found a library copy (as it has only been published in the UK thus far).  It just oozes Dickens,  Wilkie Collins and Arthur Conan Doyle. 

Before you jump headlong into this novel, however, be prepared.  While I found it immensely enjoyable, early on I saw that I would have to devote myself to some serious reading.  I pretty much had to ignore all other books on my night table.  At times I felt like I would read and read and read and make no progress whatsoever.  Of course that may say more about how I read rather than how Taylor writes!  His writing is fairly dense--more like eating thick, ultra rich chocolate cake with mounds of chocolate frosting on top rather than say a nice airy angel food cake!  I am not always the fastest of readers, and this is a novel that I think needs to be read fairly conscientiously.  Characters were constantly introduced and then not mentioned for many, many pages.  I would then have to think back....and why is this person important?  What is his relation to the story?  I am glad I stuck with it, though, as it was worthwhile to see how things played out.  And there were a few nice little twists in the story, too.  It is the sort of book that when the last page is turned and the book closed I feel satisfied by and a sense of reading accomplishment.

Now I think I can safely get back to the other books that have been waiting patiently. I had started Jane Harris's The Observations earlier, and now I am happy to be able to continue on with the story.  It has a similar setting--another Victorian novel, but this one seems much easier to read.  No new books, though, until I finish the latest Jacqueline Winspear novel!  And when I do choose (and it will likely be a library book), I think I am going for something completely different--perhaps something set in contemporary times with one narrator?  I am already pondering the stack!