Maude Horton’s Glorious Revenge by Lizzie Pook

Beginning in the year 1851, Maude Horton’s Glorious Revenge by Lizzie Pook is a meticulously researched work of historical fiction that brings into focus the Franklin Expedition, forbidden love, and some of the more garish aspects of Victorian England. Two key events shape the story, a public hanging at Newgate Prison and, simultaneously, a private hilltop burial just outside London. Everything else in the narrative leads to these two incidents. Early on, we are introduced to Maude Horton, a single young woman who lives with her grandfather both of whom are grieving the loss of Maude’s younger sister, Constance.

Constance had disguised herself as a boy to work aboard the Makepeace, a vessel sent to recover any survivors from the Franklin Expedition. Having died aboard the ship while still in disguise, the Admiralty’s official position remained that the death of Jack Aldridge (Constance’s alias) was a tragic accident. Maude becomes determined to discover what truly happened and begins an ambitious quest to uncover the truth. She is aided in her investigations by a former ship’s mate, Francis Heart, who provides her with Constance’s shipboard diary. For his part, Heart wishes to expose the monstrous behaviour of some of the individuals aboard the Makepeace and is motivated by personal revenge. He directs Maude’s attention to the presence onboard the Makepeace of the rapacious Edison Stowe, a former scientist-turned-entrepreneur who ferries paying guests to public hangings and related macabre entertainments.

The novel is told through the use of a dual timeline. One voice is that of the aforementioned ‘Jack Aldridge’, while the other comes from contemporary accounts shared by Maude and Edison. Jack’s diarized commentary sweeps us into the world of the ship’s adventures with genuine descriptive power:

The Makepeace is a ship larger than any I have seen, and she creaks and groans like a beast with cold, tired bones. Above, she still has the smell of wood shavings and varnish about her, the stench below decks, however, is enough to make the eyes stream – burning whale oil, the filth of men, mouldering clothes and dank pails of urine cast about. It’s cramped down here, the space humming and ticking with the intensity of men squashed in together. We lash up our hammocks nightly and the tables for supper come down from the ceiling on chains. There’s little room to walk, save for two narrow aisles which run along the hull at either side. With less than six feet of headroom, the taller men exist in perpetual hunched-over agony.

The entries describe shipboard life, Jack’s fears of exposure, and some of the nefarious things Jack witnessed. It becomes very clear that there were those on the Makepeace who were planning something underhanded and malicious. While attempting to expose those involved, Jack placed herself in mortal danger.

This is a fast-paced story, with well-drawn characters, and a gripping sense of tension that runs throughout. The descriptions are developed with the kind of meticulous and sensory detail that only a careful researcher can muster. The resulting tale is utterly immersive, transporting readers to smoke-filled taverns, cobbled Victorian streets and alleyways, the frozen Arctic tundra, and a creaking hulk that becomes its own world with every aspect of human behaviour on full display.

Layered throughout the novel is a depiction of Victorian sensibilities concerning the importance of science and art. Pook lets us know that each of the two sisters represents one aspect of this pairing,

Henry Horton taught his granddaughters that the world was made up of two things: science and art. Maude preferred the stories of science, the rational, methodical facets of pills and potions: opium mixed with chloroform and cannabis will suppress a cough, just as if you distil a globe of coal tar for long enough it will become carbolic acid. Rules, calculations, assessment of risk and everything in its order is what suited her best. Constance called her a bore, mocked her prim nature. Constance lived for the art of it all, the spectacle.

Both Horton sisters are characters who step outside the expectations of polite society at the time to pursue their ends in ways that are entirely consistent with progressivist thought in the period, and the belief that advancements in science and technology would improve the human condition and encourage reform. Pook has written a layered, complex and impressive mystery that documents several aspects of the Victorian period with veracious precision. Highly recommended.

Lizzie Pook is a London-based travel writer and journalist whose work has taken her to some of the farthest-flung parts of the planet, from the trans-Himalayas–in search of elusive snow leopards–to the vast, uninhabited east coast of Greenland. She has written for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Times (London), Lonely Planet, and Condé Nast Traveler. Lizzie is the author of Maude Horton’s Glorious Revenge and Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter. Visit her at LizziePook.com or connect with her on Twitter @LizziePook.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster (Jan. 16 2024)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1982181990
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1982181994

Lucy E. M. Black

Website

Lucy E.M. Black (she/her/hers) is the author of The Marzipan Fruit Basket, Eleanor Courtown, Stella’s Carpet and The Brickworks. Her new short story collection, Class Lessons: Stories of Vulnerable Youth will be released October 2024. Her award-winning short stories have been published in Britain, Ireland, USA and Canada. She is a dynamic workshop presenter, experienced interviewer and freelance writer. She lives with her partner in the small lakeside town of Port Perry, Ontario, the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island, First Nations.