Nina in Utopia by Miranda Miller

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Nina In Utopia is the breathtaking new novel from one of the most original women writers in the U.K., taking in time travel, Bedlam and the mad Victorian painter, Richard Dadd. London, 1854: Nina, the wife of an ambitious doctor, is heavily traumatized by the death of her young daughter and then mysteriously transported to the capital 150 years later. A tourist in the twenty-first century, she believes she is witnessing a Utopia, with the grime and evil of Victorian London expunged. She show more also embarks on a brief affair with a solicitous lover who introduces her to reality t.v., clubbing and takeaway curry. Returning to her own time, her husband takes fright hearing her experiences and has her committed to Bedlam, where she meets Richard Dadd and finds another Utopia under the charge of a doctor with twenty-first century ideas on patient rehabilitation. Meanwhile, her husband is on a collision course with her lover who is travelling to find her from another time. . . show less

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2 reviews

NRTurner 38 reviews

Victorian gentlewoman Nina lives in a half-world of shadows. Occupied by memories of lost dear ones. Suddenly Bella, her little daughter, hovers before her eyes. Unready to embrace merciful Fate, Nina flees. Blind, uncaring her hasty path crosses a horse-drawn carriage bearing down on her.

Returning to awareness, Nina finds herself in a halcyon world. Men and ladies go about half-dressed. Nina would never go out in fewer than five layers, the shame! A fever dream? Children scream, run free. Playing on the meadows and in amongst the trees. Is this Paradise? Is Bella to be found here?

The narrative visits each character to give different perspectives on the frustrations and desires of living in the Victorian era.

The author employs dramatic show more license artfully to give a sympathetic fate to the innocent, and tragic poetic justice for the rest. show less

Sep 4, 2012 (Edited)

polarbear123 269 reviews

This novel develops much more maturely in the second half. The first half is simply about Nina noticing ythe differences in modern day London after her time lapse. Much more intersting is the characterisation of the inmates of bedlam - this could have been developed further. Generall speaking this is a novel that could have been so much more...

½

Dec 13, 2010

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