Book 691: The Sealed Letter – Emma Donoghue

A few months ago I went through my bookshelves and made a couple of piles of books. The only qualifications were that they had to be on my shelves for a while (this has been on my shelves since April 2014) and that they probably be a quick read. This one falls somewhere in the middle of the pack of Donoghue’s books that I’ve read. It’s definitely not as good as Room or Slammerkin, but I do think it’s a little better than Hood, mostly because Donoghue really excels at historical fiction.

Donoghue has done what she did with Slammerkin where she’s taken basic historical documents/articles and filled in the blanks with wonderfully creative back stories. It’s filled with pieces of fact from the articles with which she started, the letters of some of the protagonists, and other resources of the time. Not only does she throw a shout out to SPEW (The Society for Promoting the Employment of Women) which made me think of Harry Potter and Hermione’s Society for the Protection of Elfish Welfare, but she also name checks Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice.

“Fido got it out of Pride and Prejudice, not that she resembles any of those bright girls with their future sparking before them. Well, maybe what’s her name, the one who played the piano too long and bored the guests.” (310)

At the heart this story is about the changing norms and expectations of society in the mid-19th century. Of course Donoghue has really emphasized the lesbian twist (that was already in the story), but she really highlighted the change from the stuffiness of societal expectations especially around women and their interactions with men outside of their immediate families, but also how they interact with their families.

“The Crimean left its thumbprint on the gentleman of England, Helen thinks; they all went off smooth-cheeked, and came back grimly bearded and stinking of tobacco. ‘The least one can do, as a parent, is lie to one’s children.’ she remarks. ‘I mean to protect mine from the truth till they marry and discover it for themselves.'” (69)

Honestly, a lot of this book reminded me of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening with a little bit of lesbian intrigue thrown in (I can’t put my finger on what story this matches, maybe Gentleman Jack. You’ve got a strong willed female character, Helen Codrington, who’s morals are questionable (and I’m not even talking about the adultery here), a strong self-made independent woman Fido Faithful who has incredible principles but who’s naiveté and infatuation is incredibly problematic, and a husband, Henry Codrington, who is preoccupied with his legacy and career.

Where Donoghue excelled was showing the class differences of the various characters and those they interact with throughout the story and balanced the imperialism and racism on a knife’s edge

“My words seem to evaporate from the page. I’ve become quite insubstantial, a woman of glass. An untouchable, like those creatures we walked past on street corners in Calcutta. (I read today that a cyclone there has killed seventy thousand; it’s a measure of my state that I can feel nothing but a numb blankness.) Sanity seems to give way under my feet like a frayed rope.” (217)

I think she wrote the book and characters as they would’ve been in the time period, focusing solely on the advancement of women without any expansion of “the cause” to include inverts (lesbians) or women of color, because let’s face it that’s now how it worked during this time.

The ending was the most powerful part of the book with a second emotional peak. The trial, of course, was the primary climax of the book with the story peaking and then slightly settling only to build up exponentially as the relationship between Helen and Fido is wrapped up. When Fido opens the sealed letter, which was a huge part of the trial, in the final few sentences I held my breath and when I exhaled I felt like collapsing it was that heart breaking. She risked it all and lost a lot of it for nothing.

Recommendation: This is a very slow starting book. The first 50-75 pages were a bit of a slog, but once things picked up it went a lot faster. Donoghue is a fantastic writer of historical fiction and I’m glad I read this one, but it’s somewhere in the middle of the works I’ve read by her. Honestly, I would’ve preferred more focus on Fido and her story rather than Helen, but that’s not where the drama was, so I get it.

Opening Line: “The last day of August, and the sky is the colour of hot ash.”

Closing Line: “The seal cracks between Fido’s fingers. The folded paper parts like water. The page is blank.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)