Book Review: Emma Darwin, A Secret Alchemy
Second Novel for Author of The Mathematics of Love
Nov 10, 2008
Una Pryor is a historian in modern-day Britain, and has returned to her homeland for one week only in order to sell her house after the death of her husband. Her life now is in Australia, but while she is back in England she takes the chance to catch up with her family – the owners of the prestigious Solmani Press, printers of fine books. The family has run into financial difficulties, and Una’s Uncle Gareth feels he is “too old to start again”; the house must be sold, meaning “the end of the Solmani Press” (page 56).
The Princes in the Tower
Meanwhile, alongside Una’s present-day story run the narratives of two other speakers, this time from the fifteenth century: Elizabeth Woodville and her younger brother Anthony. We first meet Elizabeth as a young girl, as she marries and has two sons with John Grey; when he is killed in battle, she becomes the wife of Edward IV. The two sons she bears him are the famous “Princes in the Tower”, imprisoned by their uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, after Edward’s death.
Anthony is himself imprisoned by Richard, and his narrative begins shortly after Elizabeth’s. The reader literally follows Anthony on a journey, as he travels towards what he believes will be his certain death at the hands of the almighty Richard: “I understood that I would still die, and that it no longer mattered if it were known, for there was no man with the power or the will to protest, or to do Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, harm in revenge” (page 36).
Narrative Structure in Secret Alchemy
The different narrators have much in common: Una is researching a book about the reading habits of Anthony and Elizabeth Woodville, and as she investigates further into the unresolved mystery of the Princes' disappearance, she discovers that the secrets and betrayals she uncovers in the past are not so very different from the skeletons in her own family. The story is very tightly plotted, perhaps too much so; whilst it is impossible to deny that Darwin has woven her narratives together very cleverly, the events of the novel can become confusing, particularly for anyone who knows nothing of the historical events the books reflects.
Bad Press for the Woodvilles
Still, there is much to enjoy here. Darwin is particularly convincing as the young Elizabeth, showing us how she copes with being first a wife, then a mother, then a widow, and the instability of the period is vividly brought to life through colourful descriptive passages. Darwin has stated on her website that she was keen to write about the Woodvilles because they “have always had a bad press”; A Secret Alchemy certainly does much to redress the balance.
A Secret Alchemy by Emma Darwin is published in the UK by Headline Review (2008), 391 pages, ISBN 978-0-7553-3065-2.
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