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Victorian England. A world of rural fairgrounds and glamorous London theatres. A world of dark secrets and deadly obsessions…
Twin sisters Keziah and Tilly Lovell are identical in every way, except that Tilly hasn’t grown a single inch since she was five. Coerced into promoting their father’s quack elixir as they tour the country fairgrounds, at the age of fifteen the girls are sold to a mysterious Italian known as ‘Captain’.
Theo is an orphan, raised by his grandfather, Lord Seabrook, a man who has a dark interest in anatomical freaks and other curiosities … particularly the human kind. Resenting his grandson for his mother’s death in childbirth, when Seabrook remarries and a new heir is produced, Theo is forced to leave home without a penny to his name.
Theo finds employment in Dr Summerwell’s Museum of Anatomy in London, and here he meets Captain and his theatrical ‘family’ of performers, freaks and outcasts.
But it is Theo’s fascination with Tilly and Keziah that will lead all of them into a web of deceits, exposing the darkest secrets and threatening everything they know…
Exploring universal themes of love and loss, the power of redemption and what it means to be unique, The Fascination is an evocative, glittering and bewitching gothic novel that brings alive Victorian London – and darkness and deception that lies beneath…
It's my pleasure to be hosting the blog tour for The Fascination today. Many thanks to Essie Fox, Orenda Books and Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me and for sending an advance copy of the novel.
For many people, Victorian Britain evokes thoughts of repressed prudes and "We are not amused" but there was a different side to the country, even seedier than Dickens' social commentaries highlighting the vast chasm between the rich and the poverty-stricken. Holywell Street was described as "the most vile street in the civilised world" by The Times and pornographic postcards, brothels and peep shows catered to every fetish or perversion. It was a time when freak shows and circuses toured the country and the public were lured by the promise of being titillated and horrified. If The Greatest Showman offered a sanitised, yet stirring call to celebrate "This is Me", The Fascination goes further and the result is a richly imaginative, explicitly honest exploration of this extraordinary period – and ultimately a captivating celebration of what it means to be different.
The narrative is shared between two young characters; Theo, the orphan living with his cold, darkly mysterious grandfather, and Keziah who is also without her mother and is being raised alongside her twin sister, Tilly by their drunken, brutish father. The twins are forced to travel around country fairs, selling the elixir their father erroneously claims is the reason why Keziah is a regular sized young woman yet Tilly is still the size of a five-year-old, and it is at one such fair where they first make Theo's acquaintance. While the twins are shockingly sold to a stranger, Theo has to endure hardships of his own when he is cast out of home, and it's perhaps this denial of love and security that draws them together.
The vulnerability of women in particular is depicted throughout The Fascination and though mostly seen through Keziah's eyes, other characters, most notably Theo's childhood governess, Miss Miller and Martha, a friend of the twins who hides her face away in public to disguise what was then called a hare-lip, also illustrate the way in which the hypocritical combination of lust and shame frequently made victims of the innocent. Those thought to be different frequently suffered terrible fates and with few options open to them, were forced to parade their conditions and disabilities in order to survive. In a novel which examines the most repugnant excesses of humanity, the bonds formed between a disparate group of people brought together by the charismatic, compassionate Captain is the light which shines through the squalid darkness.
Theo is employed by a disgraced doctor, now proprietor of the grisly Museum of Anatomy and while some of the exhibits are beyond grotesque, there's a fine line between the horrors on display here and the often violent acts of a profession where surgeons were – often with due cause – referred to as sawbones. Of course, this was also an era of remarkable advancements and Essie Fox ensures the more enlightened, progressive side of medicine is portrayed too. Meanwhile, it is often painfully clear that Theo is torn between his desire to help others and the unspeakable fascination instigated by his grandfather years ago.
The lurid sense of time and place is dazzling throughout, cleverly exuding gothic menace as the depravities of the rich and powerful are shown to be far more shocking than any actions undertaken by those just trying to find a way to live. The Fascination is populated by a kaleidoscopic cast of characters who could have stepped out of novel by Dickens or Elizabeth Gaskell, as the lives of Keziah, Tilly, Theo and the band of people who have become like family are threatened like never before, As a look at life in Victorian times, The Fascination is exceptional but beyond that, it's a reminder that we are still guilty of judging and fetishising differences today. This is a powerful, beautifully moving novel about belonging and acceptance; I thought it was wonderful and cannot recommend it highly enough.
Follow the blog tour, details are below.
About the Author
After studying English Literature at Sheffield University, she moved to London where she worked for the Telegraph Sunday Magazine, then the book publishers George Allen & Unwin – before becoming self-employed in the world of art and design.
Always an avid reader, Essie now spends her time writing historical gothic novels. Her debut, The Somnambulist, was shortlisted for the National Book Awards, and featured on Channel 4’s TV Book Club. The Last Days of Leda Grey, set in the early years of silent film, was selected as The Times Historical Book of the Month. Her latest novel, The Fascination is based in Victorian country fairgrounds, the glamour of the London theatres, and an Oxford Street museum full of morbid curiosities.
Essie is also the creator of the popular blog: The Virtual Victorian. She has lectured on this era at the V&A, and the National Gallery in London.
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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