The Time-Traveller's Strife

A few years ago, I read the brilliant 'Little Boy Lost' by Marghanita Laski.  Ever since, I've wanted to read more by her and this month I finally got around to 'The Victorian Chaise-Longue'.

'The Victorian Chaise-Longue'
by Marghanita Laski
(Persephone Books, 1999)

In 1950s London, new mother Melanie is recovering from TB, supported by her husband Guy, the calm, firm Dr Gregory and the efficient childminder Sister Smith.  Following months confined to bed, the doctor decides Melanie can have a change of scene and rest in a room nearer her infant son.  After some consideration, a suitable place is chosen for her, a Victorian chaise-longue she bought just before she was diagnosed.  Thrilled by even this small freedom, Melanie is tucked up on the antique couch and soon falls asleep.  But when she wakes, everything is different.  Is it all just a vivid dream or has she really slipped through time to become a stranger?

It's clearly not a good month for me.  I saved reading PD James' introduction to 'The Victorian Chaise-Longue' until I'd read the novella itself.  If I hadn't, I wouldn't have realised it was a horror story.  I suppose that I'm so used to the time-traveller narrative that I never expected anything other than a happy ending.  I'm not saying that there is a happy ending, just that I always thought there would be, which affected my reading of this book.

The story plays on the themes of identity and appreciating what you have in the modern world, rather than longing for a rose-tinted view of the past.  The heroine becomes increasingly frustrated at being trapped in body of someone long dead, which other readers have found frightening.  I suppose it's a measure of how unimpressed I was with Melanie and how used I am to exploring lives real and imagined through books that I just didn't find this unnerving at all.  Perhaps as some people can happily watch the most gory of horror films with no concerns, I can read about irritating women being taught a lesson without getting scared.

Which is probably the basic issue I had.  'The Victorian Chaise-Longue' was an interesting and well written book, but ultimately I didn't give two hoots about Melanie.  She was clearly pampered and properly looked after and, though TB is a terrible disease, she was recovering from it.  Even when the metaphorical rug is whipped out from under her and she gets a taste of a very different time with morals and medical care that seem almost barbaric by today's standards, I'd pegged the book as a morality tale, little more than a fairy story for grown ups.

This hasn't put me off wanting to read more by Ms Laski and I understand that Persephone Books publish more of her work, but I was a bit disappointed by 'The Victorian Chaise-Longue'.  I hope that a second reading will allow me to pick up some hints that I missed the first time round, but I'm afraid that the best I can say about it is that it's alright. Still, I suppose I can't adore everything.

Fingers crossed that I'm a bit more excited by my next read! If you have any suggestions, don't forget that you can tweet them to me via @Girl_LovesBooks.

Now, what next...!