Amazon.com
One of the satisfactions of Emma Donoghue's masterful fourth novel, Life Mask, is the tension between the writer's contemporary interests, like lesbianism and the balance of power in marriage, and her 18th Century subject matter. Life Mask is a fictional recreation of a plausible (but unproven) love triangle between the comedic actress Eliza Farren, the sculptor Anne Damer (the niece of Horace Walpole, a fantastic minor character here), and Edward Smith-Stanley, the twelfth Earl of Derby, a Whig (liberal) politician who left his name to the horse race he founded. Like her bestseller Slammerkin, the novel spins an intricate story from the slightest of historical traces, in this case a single reference in the commonplace book of Hester (Thrale) Piozzi: a snarky four-line epigram that hints at the danger to Miss Farren's reputation in consorting with "one whose name approaches 'Damn Her.'"
Readers who stay with Donoghue through the crowded and confusing early chapters of Life Mask will find a skillful, partly sympathetic portrait of English aristocracy during and after the French Revolution, a trove of period detail, and a spellbinding tale of unlikely but enduring love. --Regina Marler
From Publishers Weekly
Few sexual liaisons among the gentry went unnoticed in 18th-century beau monde England—the gossip papers of the era make our own tabloid culture look respectful—and though fleeting same-sex affairs were somewhat fashionable, suspected homosexuals were condemned to public humiliation and criminal punishment. Offering a fictionalized account of real-life scandal, Donoghue (Slammerkin) tells the story of three minor historical personages: the actress Eliza Farren, the Earl of Derby and the widowed sculptress Anne Damer. Famously ugly Lord Derby has been pursuing chaste young Eliza for years, hoping to marry her when his estranged, invalid wife dies. In the meantime, Eliza meets Derby's friend Anne and the two strike up a close, platonic friendship. Though she denies them vehemently, rumors of Sapphism haunt Anne Damer and endanger the reputations of everyone around her. Spanning the decade from 1787 to 1797, the novel follows this cast of characters through their complicated romantic and political entanglements. All the while, the French Revolution rages, causing major upheaval among the British nobility. Even as Derby and Anne befriend common folk like Eliza and support the liberal Whig party, hoping to topple mad King George, the mounting wave of European democracy threatens to extinguish their life of indolent leisure. Donoghue, who has written a historical examination of 18th-century British lesbian culture, Passions Between Women, has an extraordinary talent for turning exhaustive research into plausible characters and narratives; she presents a vibrant world seething with repressed feeling and class tensions. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
Who can resist the seductions of a lush period drama? The parade of fabulous clothes, the genteel manners, the veiled eroticism that always seems to burst forth in a breathless flurry of petticoats and wigs in some broom closet. Repressive social mores and constricting dress make for a fertile dramatic backdrop -- one that's ripe for a scandal. Irish writer Emma Donoghue plumbs this territory in Life Mask, her mesmerizing new novel, which at 650 pages is like one of those great 19th-century tomes that you're sad to see come to an end. Donoghue's approach with her two most recent books -- the bestselling novel Slammerkin and the provocatively titled story collection The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits -- has been to spin an intricate fictional web around bits of historical marginalia. Among the documents that inspired Slammerkin, for instance, was a broadsheet from 1764 that claimed that a servant girl named Mary Saunders, hanged for the brutal murder of her mistress, was driven to it by a lust for fine clothes. Donoghue recognized that tantalizing trifle of information as literary gold and developed it into a Dickensian tale of a penniless child whose intense longing for a red ribbon led to a life of dissolution and crime. With Life Mask -- set in the waning decades of the 18th century, the French Revolution raging in the not-so-distant background -- Donoghue shows that she is equally at home in the drawing rooms of the Beau Monde and the squalid cellars of poor working-class London. Training her eye on the lavish lifestyle of the "glittering throng," she dissects the very world that Mary Saunders yearned for but could not reach. At one point in Slammerkin Mary contemplates making a clean start and maybe becoming an actress -- "or a rich man's wife. Something that lets me wear silk all day. Something to lift me above the mob." Donoghue's new heroine, the lovely but low-born Eliza Farren, who rises to prominence as the Queen of Comedy at Drury Lane Theater and marries an earl, is the very embodiment of poor Mary's dreams. The cast of characters (all real people) listed at the back of the book spreads over six pages and includes such notables as the fiery Whig leader Charles James Fox, "Prinny" (the profligate Prince of Wales), and the legendary society beauty and Whig campaigner Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (who was the model for Lady Teazle in Richard Sheridan's "The School for Scandal"). Donoghue's story focuses on a less historically prominent threesome that moved in the same elite circles: the fantastically rich and ugly Lord Derby (for whom the horse race is named); his longtime inamorata Eliza Farren; and the widow and accomplished sculptor Anne Damer. Anne and Derby are childhood friends, and it is with Anne's help that Derby hopes to introduce Eliza, an actress with no pedigree, into the fold of fine society. Derby's romantic predicament is unlike that of other married men in his set, who pursue dalliances as unabashedly as they bet on horses. But Eliza's fear of being marked as a kept woman has led her to impose a set of draconian limits on the relationship -- no gifts, no excessive flattery or familiarity in public, and private meetings permitted only in the company of her mother -- all of which Derby has stoically accepted. His long-suffering devotion is a source of endless amusement for the scandal sheets. As Derby had hoped, Anne Damer takes an instant liking to Eliza, and the two become fast friends, paving the way for Eliza's acceptance by the World -- the Beau Monde. But the women's mutual regard can't withstand the rumors of Sapphism, that "unnatural vice," which have been dogging Anne ever since her husband's suicide. The latest circulating epigram is too much for Eliza to ignore: "Her little Stock of private Fame/ Will fall a Wreck to public Clamour,/ If Farren herds with her whose Name/ Approaches very near to Damn her. "Political fireworks backlight these private dramas. The liberal Whigs, led by Fox, are trying to wrest power from William Pitt's Tory government, which has the support of the deranged George III, and to usher in reforms. Derby and his friends are ardent Foxites (though Derby draws the line at renouncing his title and stripping his carriage of the family crest, and Anne and Eliza can't quite bring themselves to give up sugar for the anti-slavery campaign: "What would one serve for desserts, apart from oranges and walnuts?"). But the escalating violence of the French Revolution breeds fear of domestic revolt among the upper classes and in government and drives a wedge into the Whig party. The gist of the clashing political viewpoints may seem familiar: "This is our civilisation's stand against an enemy of a kind we've never encountered before. . . . They aim to spread their infection of anarchy till all Europe is one howling furnace." The rejoinder: "I'm more afraid that Pitt and the King, on the pretext of national security, will destroy everything I love about England." Donoghue, who is also a playwright and historian, has alighted on another terrific story, and she pulls off a dazzling feat of choreography in setting it all in motion. She takes obvious delight in the sumptuous details of dress and comportment, the subtle inflections in conversation and the slow blooming of erotic tension. As Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire would say, "It was all simply ravish."Reviewed by Julia Livshin Copyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.
From Booklist
In eighteenth-century London, beset with talk of revolution in Europe, a titillating scandal erupts around three public figures. Lord Derby, the wealthiest man in the House of Lords and the ugliest, is tied to an unhappy marriage, and his long, unconsummated relationship with actress Eliza Farren is a source of public mockery. Eliza, a commoner, wants nothing more than to enter the elite world of the rich and aristocratic. Her reign as "Queen of Comedy" at Drury Lane Theatre allows her a glimpse of the world she seeks, but with her reputation at stake, she is careful not to make any social mistakes. However, her friendship with Anne Damer may be her undoing. Born into nobility, Anne is a widow, sculptress, and rumored Sapphist. When gossip spreads that Anne and Eliza have an "unnatural" relationship, Eliza's world crashes around her. Based on the lives of three real people, Donoghue weaves a story filled with such attention to detail that it easily captures the essence of the time--power, intrigue, dirty politics, and erotic liaisons. Carolyn Kubisz
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
The bestselling author of Slammerkin turns her attention to the Beau Monde of late eighteenth-century England, turning the private drama of three celebrated Londoners into a robust, full-bodied portrait of a world, and lives, on the brink of revolution. The Honourable Mrs. Damer is a young widow of eccentric tastes, the only female sculptor of her time. The Earl of Derby, inventor of the horse race that bears his name, is the richest man in the House of Lords-and the ugliest. Miss Eliza Farren, born a nobody, now reigns as Queen of Comedy at Drury Lane Theatre.
In a time of looming war and terrorism, of glittering spectacle and financial disasters, the wealthy liberals of the Whig Party work to topple a tyrannical prime minister and a lunatic king. Their marriages and friendships stretch or break; political liaisons prove as dangerous as erotic ones. Will Eliza Farren ever gain entry to that elite circle that calls itself the World? Can Lord Derby's pride endure public mockery of his long, unconsummated courtship of the actress? And how is Anne Damer ever to silence the whispers of Sapphism that haunt her? Let the games begin...
About the Author
Born in Ireland, Emma Donoghue spent many years in England and now lives in Canada. She is the author of Slammerkin as well as two other novels, a collection of short stories, and a collection of fairy tales. Her novels have been translated into eight languages.
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