Historical Fiction Friday: A Review

This was in the spotlight a few weeks ago. I finally was able to read the book The Raven's Bride.

While the book is an "adult" novel the main character is very young. A good chunk of the book takes place in her early and late teens and into early adult hood(twenties) so this could appeal to teens.

Virginia lives in a poor family and she is first cousins with Edgar Allen Poe. She finds him worldly and handsome and has a crush on Mr. Poe. However, Edgar is much older that his fair cousin who hasn't reached her teens yet.

Poverty comes and stays within the family. Deaths happens as well. Virginia starts to grow up and she realizes her love for Edgar is becoming stronger. To her amazement he asks her to be his wife, and she gladly accepts. Married life isn't filled with happiness though and Virginia struggles with her husband and her failing health.

Overall, I liked this book but it wasn't one that is going to linger with the readers after you close it. I had issues with how the author tried to make seem Poe less perverted. For instance, she writes that Virginia's mother refuses to allow Poe and his new bride to have sexual relations until she is 16. I believe he is in his 20s or maybe 30ish. Many people maybe disturbed by the idea that cousins married, but this was a fairly common practice in the Victorian Era. After all, they didn't understand about genetics.

This novel is about a young nineteenth century woman who lived her life in the domestic sphere. Therefore her life may not be exciting to teens who are looking for a little more excitement. I enjoyed Virginia's story, but I can see how teens may not enjoy it as much.

As a side note, Poe isn't in the novel a lot. This has been brought up in other reviews. However, the book isn't about Poe, its about his young bride. So, I didn't expect him to be on every page stealing the spotlight.

Historical Fiction Friday

The Raven's Bride is an interesting adult novel that I think some teens will enjoy. It's about Edger Allen Poe and his 13 year old wife. Yeah, I said that right, thirteen.

Summary:

When eight-year-old Virginia "Sissy" Clemm meets her handsome cousin, Edgar Allan Poe, he seems the very image of the make-believe husband she conjures up in childhood games. He’s thirteen years her elder, but kind, soft-spoken, brooding, and handsome. Eddy floats in and out of her life as he fails his way through West Point and then the army. Each time he returns to Baltimore, their odd friendship grows, and her understanding of the moody, troubled writer deepens. As Sissy prepares for a career on the musical stage, her childhood crush turns to love. When she is 13, Eddy proposes marriage, swearing to care for her forever. Yet even child brides eventually grow up, and it's really Eddy who needs caring for, who leans on her. She gains his complete devotion, true -- yet also must endure his abrupt disappearances, strange moods, and the aftermath of alcoholic binges. Then, when she falls ill, Poe’s greatest fear – that he’ll once again lose a woman he loves – drives him both to near-madness, and to his greatest literary achievement.

This provocative novel explores the mysterious and confounding relationship between Poe and Sissy Clemm, his great love and constant companion. Lenore Hart, author of Becky, explores love, loss, the afterlife, and American literature's most haunted and demonized literary figure, by imagining the real, beating heart of the woman who loved and inspired him – and whose absence ultimately destroyed him.