Afterimage: A Novel (2000)

Afterimage is a wonderful book and easily readable in one sitting. It is so well written that you won't want to put it down.

Afterimage examines a year in the life of a household living near Tunbridge Wells in Kent. The main characters are Isabelle Dashell, daughter of a local lord, and Eldon Dashell, her husband, who live without really living. Isabelle tries -- her photography is her passion, using the housemaids and the gardener for models; Eldon, who wanted to join the search for the missing Franklin Arctic expedition, works on atlases for a single publishing company and lives life vicariously through the narratives of famous explorers. Eldon is perpetually depressed, and both he and Isabelle are incredibly lonely, unable to connect with each other on a personal level. Enter the new maid, Annie Phelan, a woman who can read (her favorite book is Jane Eyre) and who has a great deal of intelligence, who brings something new into the Dashell's home for both Isabelle and Eldon, but whose entrance also sparks a horrible tragedy.

Afterimage captures a small slice of the Victorian era, complete with its status, gender and class divisions. The writing is excellent, the characters are well drawn. I noticed that some reviewers at other sites criticize the book for not having a plot, per se, but I think those readers missed the point. My only criticism is that the end is a bit overwrought and maybe a bit melodramatic, but otherwise, it is a novel I can most heartily recommend. ( )

An accurate, artistic, lyrical story of Victorian caste system and the hyprocrisy therein. Set in 1865, Annie Phelan, is a young, poor Irish immigrant hired as a maid by an upper class English couple. As the loveless marriage twirls downward, Anne becomes a muse to both husband and wife. The wife, Isabelle, perceives herself as an artist/photographer and uses Anne as her subject matter. The husband, Eldon, uses Anne as his confessor/confidant.

After reading two of Helen Humphrey's books, which were among my favorite reads thus far in 2009, I was very disappointed in this book. It simply did not hold my interest compared to Wild Dogs and The Frozen Thames.

An engaging novel set in Victorian England that explores the relationships between mistress and maid, husband and wife, photographer and subject. Humphreys portrays perfectly the ambiguous situation of Annie Phelan, the Dashell's Irish maid, who understands her tenuous position in the household yet is drawn into friendship with both her master and mistress that gives her a measure of power she has never before experienced. ( )

http://michael-hartford.com/blog/?p=111 ( )

This one's signed!