Tennyson's Gift: Stories from the Lynne Truss Omnibus, Book 2

by Lynne Truss

A New York Times Bestselling AuthorThe bestselling author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves turns a fiendishly clever eye to the literary world. Tennyson's Gift is an imaginative cocktail of Victorian seriousness and farce that re-imagines the world of the nineteenth-century English poet laureate, placing him in the midst of eccentric company that includes dodgy Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll).

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Humor, Historical, Victorian, Contemporary

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Lynne Truss is a writer and journalist who started out as a literary editor with a blue pencil and then got sidetracked. The author of three novels and numerous radio comedy dramas, she spent six years as the television critic of The Times of London, followed by four (rather peculiar) years as a sports columnist for the same newspaper. She won Columnist of the Year for her work for Women's Journal. Lynne Truss also hosted Cutting a Dash, a popular BBC Radio 4 series about punctuation. She now reviews books for the Sunday Times of London and is a familiar voice on BBC Radio 4. She lives in Brighton, England.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Tennyson’s Gift’ is a distinctly frothy confection, an absurd farce set in 1864 amid the Isle of White arty set. I have a particular interest in Julia Margaret Cameron, a main character and pioneer of portrait photography, as I’m distantly related to her. Here, she moons over Alfred Tennyson while compulsively giving everyone unwelcome gifts. Like every character in the novel, she is very self-involved and rather silly, while also having a certain pathos. The humour is composed of interpersonal awkwardness, wordplay, and slapstick, deployed with a distinctly modern tone. I found the whole thing a pleasant distraction on the train and laughed several times (quietly, as I was of course in the quiet carriage). Jessie the precocious phrenologist was perhaps my favourite character; she stole every scene she entered. I admit to sometimes being confused by the similarity of Ellen and Emily’s names. It was a little odd that the narrative implied Charles Dodgeson had paedophile tendencies with such a light-hearted tone, although the reader is then reassured that his interest in little girls is not inappropriate. Although I didn’t get much insight into the characters as historical personages, I enjoyed all the Alice in Wonderland references and absurd humour very much. A bit of froth can be rewarding; this book is like a nice cappuccino.

[Connor Mcintosh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let me start by saying that I found this novel in a hostel in Greece whilst sunning myself and generally having a splendid time. As such, my review should not be interpreted as coming from a cynical fun-void with no sense of humour. However...

How anyone can genuinely find humour within this "laugh a minute" tome is beyond me. Many readers have said that the book is "slow to get going." My own personal experience saw this book "get going" from glacial to static. What starts as a depressing look at period life on an island rapidly descends into a maelstrom of dry, witless gossiping between entirely beige characters.

If you lack any motivation or value your time less than or equal to not at all, then this book is for you. If, on the other hand, you are enlightened to the possibility that (please forgive the overused modern adage) you only live once, I implore you to steer well clear of the enjoyment-vacuum that is Tennyson's Gift.

[Tansy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Truly awful. I am in awe that I managed to finish it.

[Dorothy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a strange little volume and I haven't quite decided whether to persevere with it (I'm about a third of the way through).

It's written in a style that sounds like one of those wry, smart-mouthed female TV personalities like Kathy Lette or Sue Perkins. Many of her expressions are hilariously apt, but it does mean that you're very conscious of the personality of the author as you read - and since her voice is not at all Victorian, it jars a bit.

What's really distracting, for me, is that I'm constantly wondering, "Was this really part of [insert famous person's name here]'s personality? Did [insert incident here] really happen?" For instance, Lewis Carroll is passing a garden and sees people painting red roses white, which gives him the idea. It seems such a preposterous notion I can scarcely believe it happened - but did it? Was Tennyson really as dirty or as mad as he's portrayed? Did his wife really eat a review? And so on.

I suppose I should stop worrying about historical accuracy and just enjoy the joke - but that's the trouble with using famous people in a novel.

[Gill · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable romp, much on the lines of radio shows like The Gloomsberries, but using real names. The writer uses a group of real celebrities who lived on or visited the Isle of Wight in the mid-Victorian period, and concocts a mildly implausible but amusing story in which Julia Margaret Cameron ceaselessly tries to persuade Alfred, not-yet-Lord Tennyson to pose for her. Add in a family of phrenologists and a visiting Lewis Carroll, and you have an interesting mix.

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is rare for me to simply love 'an entire novel' and not want to stop reading midway through or give up altogether in frustration! You do not have to know all that much about Alfred Tennyson or any of the other literary cast of characters. All you need is an open mind and a sense of humor! This novel is pure fun to read and farce in the true sense of the word!

It seems that I am now mainly reading novels albeit fiction or nonfiction for research or analytical reasons that I rarely read just for the pureness of the mental escape. Novels like this one are ones that I linger over because I don't want them to end.

Author, Lynne Truss, is someone I am unfamiliar with so Tennyson's Gift was a wonderful foray into her wacky and witty world! If you find yourself smiling and bursting into throwing your head back with laughter while reading, I would say this is a good sign of things to come!

Does anyone remember the Disney movie Alice in Wonderland? Well, if you're of my generation you grew up watching the movie as a little girl then reading the book by Lewis Carroll whose real name was Reverend Charles Dodgson who was a mathematician as well.

Well, according to the author in this novel it is implied that Reverend Dodgson who while visiting his friends Alfred Tennyson and photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron found her staff outside her home, Dimbola Lodge, painting her red roses that were growing on the bushes white...Remember the scene in Alice in Wonderland where the queen's staff 'mistakenly' paint the red roses white and upon the discovery she shouts, "Off With Her Head"...Could Reverend Dodson have written that scene after Julia Margaret Cameron? Was Julia 'the queen' from Alice in Wonderland? Chapter One opens with...

" A blazing dusty July afternoon at Freshwater Bay; and up at Dimbola Lodge, with a glorious loud to-do, the household of Mrs. Julia Margaret Cameron is mostly out of doors, applying paint to the roses. They run around the garden in the sunshine, holding up skirts and aprons, and jostle on the paths. For reasons they dare not inquire, the red roses must be painted white. If anyone asked them to guess, they would probably say, 'Because it's Wednesday?'

'You're splashing me!'
'Look out!'
'We'll never get it done in time!'
'What if she comes and we're not finished?'
'It will be off with our heads!'

He pauses, tilts his head, and listens tot he commotion with a faraway, satisfied smile. If you knew him better, you would recognize this unattractive expression. It is the smirk of a clever dysfunctional thirty-two year old, middle aged before his time, whose own singular insights and private jokes are his constant reliable source of intellectual delight.

'O-O-Off with our heads? he muses, and opens a small notebook produced with a parlour magician's flourish from an inside pocket.
'Off with our h---heads?' He makes a neat note with a tiny pencil.
'H-H-H---Extraordinary.'


Have you ever wondered how to keep your poet laureate husband happy?
Here's what Emily Tennyson might have done...

At Farringford, Emily Tennyson sorted her husband's post. Thin and beady-eyed in her shiny black dress, she had the look of a blackbird picking through worms. She spotted immediately the handwriting of Tennyson's most insistent anonymous detractor and swiftly tucked it into her pocket.
Alfred was absurdly sensitive to criticism, and she had discovered that the secret of the quiet life was to let him believe what he wanted to believe -viz, that the world adored him without the faintest reservation or quibble. To this comfortable illusion of her husband's, in fact, she was steadily sacrificing her life. Emily had a large drawer of unopened letters in her bureau upstairs. She would never let Alfred know of their existence not while there was breath in her body, anyway.

She was pleased to reflect that she was well prepared for Alfred. As a matter of routine, he would ask three questions as he whirled dramatically through the door in his black cloak and sombrero, to which his wife's dutiful answers must always be the same.

'Did you check the boys for signs of madness, Emily?'
'Yes dear, I did.'
'Is there an apple pie baked for my dinner?'
'Yes. Cook has seen to it.'
'Is anyone after my head?'
'No, dear, nobody. As I have told you before, Alfred, that's all in your imagination.'

Lastly, one funny situation was a discussion between husband and wife G.F. Watts, painter (aged 47) and wife, actress Ellen Terry (aged 16)...that's right...During a dinner scene a conversation between the pair turned into a full blown argument. Watts, keeping calm, addresses Terry in a very direct tone saying, 'Stop being so dramatic'. Dramatic actress, Ellen Terry, loudly bellowing replies quoting Shakespeare's Twelfth Night to which Watts never losing a beat calmly tells her, 'My dear, if you continue with this, I shall have a headache'. I can just picture Watts sitting around his dinner table shoving food in his mouth while Ellen Terry does a scene from Shakespeare, exasperated by his calmness in full blown actress mode, standing before him draped in a lovely gown, too upset to eat! I just found it so funny and very realistic to human nature!

I find myself growing quite fond of Alfred Tennyson. Having read his works and his son's memoir and correspondence it paints a picture of a lovely, quiet, introspective, genius of a man who wants a simple life by the bay with his family. In closing is my favorite scene from Tennyson's Gift. It is Ellen Terry's view of the man after having a discussion with him while walking along the downs...

Tennyson leaned into the wind. The thing about this man, she realized as she watched his cloak furl and crack behind him like a flag, was that he was rather like a cliff himself. His large white face looked down and shaped by centuries of rain and landslip; and all his life (even when it was quite unnecessary) he seemed to defy a gale, staunch on his stocky Lincolnshire legs, with his chest puffed out. Here was a man who would never discover a sheltered place in the world and then relax in it. Tennyson was a walking personification of the verb 'to buffet'. When Watts was cut up by a review, Ellen had observed that he would mend again by teatime. But Tennyson went all to tatters, and displayed his wounds perpetually, even to people who strenuously desired not to see them. Perhaps his Approbativeness needs looking at, thought Ellen. Tennyson's must be the size of a baby gnat.

[Hilary · Rating 1 out of 5]

I often like to read novels set in places I visit, so chose this for a recent trip to the Isle of Wight. I wish I hadn’t. I gave up after three chapters. I think it was supposed to be funny - but I hated the caricatures of eminent Victorians and I didn’t understand the point of including allusions to Alice in Wonderland. Maybe it was supposed to create a fantasy feel to the novel, but I just found it irritating.

[Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up in the library because we loved one of Truss's other books, "Eats Shoots and Leaves" which I would recommend highly.

A bit slow getting started and from most of the text in the first chapter or two I was afraid that it would end up being the sort of book that seems to be all in vogue right now, purported biographies where the author fills in great gaps in what is known about the subject with their own flights of fancy: "We don't know what Lear and his man-servant talked about but here is what I imagine they might have said." or "No one can know what he was thinking but here is what it might have been".

But it built up speed after a while and it turned out to be more fiction loosely based on the historical events and setting without any pretense that it is trying to be historically accurate.

A fun romp through late Victorian society on the Isle of Wight with her view of what Julia Cameron, Lewis Carroll, Tennyson and and other eccentric/artistic persons of that time might be like.

On the whole I liked it and would recommend it for a nice light summer read. Not the most amazing book I have ever read, but nice and enjoyable.

[Nadine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humorous Historical Fiction.

Silliness... If you like Lewis Carrol,Alfred Tennyson,Julia Camernon: early photographers and Victorian literati, and quirky British humor the first few paragraphs have not failed me. It reminds me of watching Posh Nosh for the first time: fascinating, foreign and oddly funny. It's very... English (use English accent when saying 'English' for full effect).

Don't let the bad choice of cover art turn you away from this book.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining read. I loved the comic portrayal of such eminent Victorians. I also read this on the Isle of Wight and visited the Dimbola House Museum - JMC's photographs are very arresting and were influential in Hollywood. Well worth seeing and re-living the setting of the novel.

[Pascale · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perfectly paced and riotous caper, underpinned by a scholarly knowledge of "Tennyson and his cycle", to whom Truss devoted a wonderful little pamphlet for the National Portrait Gallery. In the course of a few days on the Isle of Wight in the Summer of 1864, the ill-conceived marriage between the elderly painter George Frederic Watts and the seventeen-year old actress Ellen Terry unravels while they are house-guests of photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, who is obsessed with her pursuit of her neighbor and idol Tennyson, a miser and curmudgeon unwilling to part with any "gift", even that of his likeness. (While Tennyson's fear of wanting and misanthropy is well-recorded, in real life he did sit for Cameron on many occasions). Another strand of the plot has to do with Lewis Carroll, still quite unknown, trying to ingratiate himself with the Poet Laureate while getting rather too close to eight-year old Daisy, who conceives the mad plan of eloping with him, thereby setting in motion of wild nocturnal chase for her. Finally, the book also introduces a father-daughter pair of dedicated phrenologists who interact with all the other characters. Like the others, Lorenzo Fowler and his wife Lydia are real people, and it is one of the joys of this comic historical novel to make you want to find out more about its protagonists. In spite of its ebullient mood, Truss also touches on serious themes, chiefly that of gratefulness, which is referenced obliquely in the title. I don't know enough about poetic forms to vouch for this, but it was my impression that Truss rotates her characters and her themes in a highly patterned way, a bit as if she was applying the principle of the sestina to a prose narrative. Although this book is great fun to read, there is much more to it than that.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

"‘I’ll set the dog on you,’ quipped Elizabeth Barrett Browning." -- Tennyson’s Gift

My first encounter with Lynne Truss was Eats, Shoots & Leaves, since I’m in North America. After 2004, she kind of winked out of existence on this side of the Atlantic until the Constable Twitten series, which I adore. When I spotted a copy of this book bundled with Going Loco in an audio version, I grabbed it and ran. I was not disappointed.

This book is an utter delight. Her portrayal of Alfred Tennyson as perhaps the most useless and thoughtless man who ever lived (aside from the whole poetic genius thing) is masterful. Poor Charles Dodgson does not fare much better. Truss’s characters all have human failings… some of them have so many failings that it’s a wonder they can struggle out of bed in the morning carrying all of them. And yet, there was no one in the book for whom I did not feel sympathy. (Okay, maybe not for Lionel Tennyson, but everyone else, I swear.)

That might make it sound like this was a sad book. There are sad moments, to be sure, but no one who has read Truss before will be surprised to hear that this novel is laugh-out-loud funny. The last few chapters are a beautiful tapestry of the many carefully woven plot threads. The earnest-- dare I say grim?-- demeanor of the Victorian characters made the dash of slapstick all the more hilarious.

Because Truss does not waste words, I ended up having to pull out a print copy after I finished listening to fill the holes. Most books do not suffer much if a listener’s attention wanders for the space of a 6 word sentence, but in this case, you have likely missed crucial information. Or at the very least, a cracking good sentence.

[Chasquis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Real characters and places, made up characters in real places, clifftop jeopardy and interesting smells, class, early photography and an exhibition currently running at the National Portrait Gallery (as of April 2018) commensurate with the life and work of Lewis Carroll, Julia Margaret Cameron, Alfred Lord Tennyson and all. What a package. Should be made into a film! There is so much to enjoy here, Lynne Truss is a wordsmith par excellence and she mines this rich seam of Victorian life down to the core.
I feel a little uncomfortable about Lewis Carroll's portrayal as an early modern paedophile though, the notes to the above mentioned exhibition exonerate him on those charges. Perhaps we are looking back in anger through the telescope of the internet age we live in rather than looking at the Reverend Dodson (for it is he) and his photographs for what they are with the same eye that we look at Julia Margaret Cameron's. Five stars for sheer entertainment. George Watts gets traduced quite badly by the way, but there is no one to speak up for him now, he did not reproduce, unlike JMC.

[Lana. · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting take and some fun inventions on a real event (as indicated in Truss's forward). I don't know much about the historical figures involved, but the way they are characterised here (though no doubt exaggerated / extrapolated for comic effect) manages to hit something tender... some humanity and truth.

[Jo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Self-conscious humorous depiction of some Victorian artists and authors. Not as funny as the author thinks and made me want to read a more in depth account of the life of Julia Cameron who surely as a pioneer photographer deserves better than this. Replays some of the never proven insinuations about Lewis Carroll.

[Béatrice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peut-être aurais-je plus apprécié ce roman parodique en anglais. En tout cas, j'ai fait un effort pour le lire jusqu'au bout. Tous les personnages sont un peu outranciers et les références littéraires nombreuses, en particulier à Alice aux pays des merveilles, ne m'ont pas convaincue.

[Pam Gough · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very clever and funny

[Cooper Renner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting characters and setting, but doesn’t quite gel.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining. Reminiscent of Sue Limb's Gloomsbury and Wordsmiths of Gorsmere, Radio 4 comic serials.

[Kendra · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok, just not for me, too whimsical

[Rosalind · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great fun, especially if you've read serious biographies of Emily Tennyson and Ellen Terry.

[James Traxler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh how I love to read about the over-privileged and self-important.
Not.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Random but fun. I saw this book on a bookshelf in someone's house when I was sort of sneaking around looking at what they read, and wondered what it was. From the woman who brought you 'Talk to the Hand' and 'Eats, Shoots & Leaves', this is a fictitious story about lots of heroes of Victorian England's artistic world all getting together in a coincidence of drama and mayhem. Lewis Carroll is there, Julia Margaret Cameron, and of course Tennyson, Poet Laureate. It's such an odd little story that it can't help but being fun to read. Good for a train, plane, or beach read possibly, and even better if you like Victorian England, poetry, photography, Alice in Wonderland or stories of social awkwardness, i.e., the lives of the British.

[JackieB · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was very funny and was a kind of "Alice in Wonderland" set in the Isle of Wight in Victorian times. Although I enjoyed it I didn't really understand what it was about. Just as I thought it was exploring fame in Victorian times it seemed to shoot off and start to examine talent or something else. Of course it could have just been for fun but it read as though there was a more serious point to the story lurking under the funny stuff. Unfortunately if there was it was buried too deep for me to find it.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Knockabout fun playing fast and loose with a little bit of Victoriana. Not one for the serious literature shelf (as I'm sure Ms Truss would be happy to concede) but a most enjoyable and chucklesome jaunt. She reminds me of the late Linda Smith. Further proof in the current (well, last year's) debate over whether clever women can be funny; that they most certainly can be. It's like her Radio 4 series, Acropolis Now; an enjoyable half hour if you catch it; not all the world if you miss. That she went on to write better stuff shouldn't put the reader off this one.

[Rebecca E. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. While there was nothing specifically wrong with it, I didn't enjoy it and actually abandoned about two thirds through. It felt a bit too "clever" like she was trying just too hard to be witty and literary, leaving me both cold and trying to get past the literariness to the story. Which I still haven't done - two thirds through and I still don't know what the point is!

Just a personal thing but not my cup of tea.

[Mark Gallagher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lytton Strachey had first crack at putting together an all-star line-up of eminent Victorians but failed to recognize the comic potential in the cast of characters assembled by the extraordinarily droll Ms Truss. Beautifully paced and plotted, Tennyson's Gift is a true delight. I think Oscar Wilde would approve.

[Sarah]

Hope this gets better as I'm really not enjoying it yet - humour seems overly worked and calculated.

Gave up after 3 chps - too many other good books to read to waste time on one that irritates me so much.

[Dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book, the author imagines a quirky summer vacation of several Victorian authors and artists. The writing style takes on the flavor of Victorian comic satire, even when the story's events turn emotional. I enjoyed the story as an entertaining diversion between larger books.