A Secret Alchemy

Thanks to both my primary and secondary school teachers, The War of the Roses was one of the more inscrutable periods of European history. Thanks to Emma Darwin's novel, the family and political dynamics are clear. She has expertly told the medieval story with a parallel, modern thread which occurs at the same genuine sites in present-day England. The family tree at the front clarifies the aristocratic and royal relations involved in the conflicts. Aside from the educational values, I could not wait to return to reading the beautiful prose which moves throughout the book. Particularly moving is the marriage proposal of Edward IV, and his alchemic allusions which persuaded Elisabeth's acceptance. If you read one historical novel this year, consider setting aside time for this treasure.

Una Pryor, a historian whose scholarly life revolves around books, returns to England to sell her house and help her cousins make the final decision about the fate of the Chantry, the home the orphaned Una had shared with her family members. (It also still houses the Solmani Press, a fine arts printing business founded by her ancestors more than a century previously.) But the story in this book is more than just the one of how Una and those around her come to terms with their own loves and losses, but that of the two figures from the past that Una intends to study -- Antony and Elizabeth Woodville (here known as Antony and Elysabeth Wydvil, providing the medieval spelling.) Elizabeth, the widow of a Lancastrian knight, goes on to captivate and marry the Yorkist king; Antony, a scholarly knight, becomes the guardian of their young son Edward, the heir to the throne. Una grapples with the realities of her past losses, of her husband to cancer two years earlier, and, years before that, of the young man who she believed was her soulmate and who worked with her Uncle Gareth at the Solmani press. In the parallel narrative that frames the book, Antony and Elysabeth take turns recalling what led to their own most grievous loss -- that of the young prince, Edward. (He would become one of the 'Princes in the Tower', probably murdered, possibly by the uncle who took his crown, or by the invading Tudor king who killed that uncle and founded a new dynasty.) Una laments the fact that she can never really know what their world was like, even as she plans to write a scholarly work about their book collections. She wonders what their world smelt like: "sweet herbs and banquets? Latrines and flyblown meat? Sweat and fear?" What did it sound like? The court overseen by Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville was famous for its music, but Una wants to know more. "If I strain my eyes hard enough, perhaps I might hear them. If I could only peer hard enough through time-thickened, time-thinned air, they might come before my eyes." Readers of this beautifully-written novel are far luckier -- we see and hear, thanks to Darwin's command of both the historical facts and a wonderful prose style that seems to slip almost effortlessly from the more flexible modern style used in the passages devoted to Una and her quest to save the Chantry to a more stylized English, marking the passage of centuries and the shift to a completely different world and world view of Antony and Elysabeth. Antony, for example, reflects on Edward IV's womanizing and carousing in the latter days of his reign: "He grew high in flesh and slack, the bright gold of him tarnished." In the hands of a lesser writer, or left without the more relaxed 'modern' passages, that might sound precious or affected. Instead, it just becomes Antony's voice. Of the three characters, it is Antony that emerges the most clearly. His narrative is told as a look backwards in time as he travels across England in a day, knowing

Una Pryor returns to England to settle her affairs, as well as the fate of her family's old home and printing business The Chantry, the cousins are torn whether to sell or to preserve it and it's long history. Interspersed with Una's story is that of Anthony and Elizabeth Woodville as they reflect back on their lives and the events that lead to what is now known as the Wars of The Roses and the disappearance of Elizabeth's two sons - the Princes in the Tower. Darwin does a nice job of crafting the voices of both Elizabeth and Anthony as well as weaving Una's struggles with her grief over the death of her husband and a surprise meeting with a man from her past. It was quite refreshing to see the Woodvilles (especially Elizabeth) portrayed in a more realistic manner and not the black hearted villains you typically find them in novels on this period from today's latest and *cough* greatest authors. I have to say the two reviewers who posted just before me have done such a darn good job of putting this book into words that I really don't have much more to add. While I didn't find it the fastest paced book, I did enjoy it a great deal nonetheless. Four stars.

A Secret Alchemy is narrated by two historical characters, Elizabeth Woodville and her brother Anthony, and by one fictitious one, Una Pryor, a historian who's returned to England from her home in Australia to sell her English property. During her stay in England, the recently widowed Una, who's working on a book about Anthony Woodville and his reading, visits the cousins with whom she was raised and encounters the man whom she loved as an adolescent. Anthony's story begins with the last journey of his life: he is bound for Pontefract Castle, where he knows that the future Richard III has scheduled his execution. Elizabeth tells her story from the quiet confines of Bermondsey Abbey, to which she has retired from the court of Henry VII. Neither tells his or her life story from beginning to end; instead, they each focus on a few selected episodes, such as Elizabeth's courtship by Edward IV and Anthony's exile abroad. As a result, the cast of characters is relatively small: we meet Edward IV, Edward V, a few Woodvilles, Anthony's lover, and Elizabeth's long-time attendant and confidante. There's a cameo appearance by Thomas Malory and a couple of very brief ones by the future Richard III. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Anthony's and Elizabeth's stories, and had tears in my eyes after reading both (which doesn't happen very often, especially when I know the ending). Anthony's tale, especially the love story Darwin gives him (which I found very plausible) and his terrible grief when he realizes that his charge Edward V is at the mercy of Richard III, is very moving. Elizabeth, who's so often reduced to a caricature by historical novelists, is beautifully drawn here. She's strong-minded and courageous, yet vulnerable. There's even a touch of humor here and there, as when Elizabeth's earthy sister Margaret comments on the queen's morning sickness. The contemporary story, Una's, was well done also. I didn't find it as compelling as the medieval ones, but Darwin did a nice job of working the historical strands and the contemporary strand into an integrated whole. Darwin has researched her novel with care, and she provides an afterword putting the tales of Anthony and Elizabeth in their historical context. I heartily recommend this novel.

After reading this unusual split time novel it took a little thought to decide how much I truly enjoyed the effort.The story is woven between the lives of Anthony Woodville, his sister Elizabeth, queen of Edward IV, and Una Pryor, a modern English academic. Una is researching the books Elizabeth and Anthony may have owned.Her appearances are autobiographical sketches of an orphaned toddler raised by her Bohemian private printing press owning aunt and uncle.The extended family live in an arts and crafts bungalow attached to the ruins of a medieval chapel. The lives of the Woodville sibs are portrayed sympathetically without being sanguine, minus the ventures into Ricardian white hot hatred of this historically important family. With all the back and forth between modern and medieval, staying focused on the characters was quite easy thanks to Darwin's compact style.I especially enjoyed the parallels between then and now, some subtle, others not. The ancient chantry and Eltham Palace was an agreeable one. Anthony's final journey to his death at Pontefract crafted as a pilgrimige was also evocative. Ms. Darwin leaves no doubts as to what she believes happened to the Princes in the Tower.This book is filled with people you will care about and I found myself wishing to know what happened next to Una, her family and friends. My only criticisms would be that at some points the navel gazing was a bit much and a touch of humor would have been appreciated. Also, Edward IV was almost a caricature of the oft portrayed debauched womanizing drunkard when we know that he was a historically complex monarch and man. Good summer read for those who love the Wars of the Roses era and are looking for a unique perspective.