What do you think?
Rate this book
Afterimage
Inspired by the photographs of Julia Margaret Cameron, Afterimage is a provocative, passionate, yet delicate Victorian novel. When the young Irish maid Annie Phelan arrives at the country home of Isobelle and Eldon Dashell, she is swept into a world of artistic ambitions and hidden passions. But she also discovers a marriage that has grown distant and two people who see her as a blank slate upon which to project their own desires and failed dreams. Jealousy, longing and sensuality intertwine in this mesmerizing novel of aesthetic obsession and unfulfilled dreams.
272 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2000
10 people are currently reading
1918 people want to read
About the author
Helen Humphreys
31 books418 followersHelen Humphreys is the author of five books of poetry, eleven novels, and three works of non-fiction. She was born in Kingston-on-Thames, England, and now lives in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Her first novel, Leaving Earth (1997), won the 1998 City of Toronto Book Award and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her second novel, Afterimage (2000), won the 2000 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, was nominated for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her third novel, The Lost Garden (2002), was a 2003 Canada Reads selection, a national bestseller, and was also a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Wild Dogs (2004) won the 2005 Lambda Prize for fiction, has been optioned for film, and was produced as a stage play at CanStage in Toronto in the fall of 2008. Coventry (2008) was a #1 national bestseller, was chosen as one of the top 100 books of the year by the Globe & Mail, and was chosen one of the top ten books of the year by both the Ottawa Citizen and NOW Magazine.
Humphreys's work of creative non-fiction, The Frozen Thames (2007), was a #1 national bestseller. Her collections of poetry include Gods and Other Mortals (1986); Nuns Looking Anxious, Listening to Radios (1990); and, The Perils of Geography (1995). Her latest collection, Anthem (1999), won the 2000 Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry.
Helen Humphreys's fiction is published in Canada by HarperCollins, and in the U.S. by W.W. Norton. The Frozen Thames was published by McClelland & Stewart in Canada, and by Bantam in the U.S. Her work has been translated into many languages.
Her first novel, Leaving Earth (1997), won the 1998 City of Toronto Book Award and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her second novel, Afterimage (2000), won the 2000 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, was nominated for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her third novel, The Lost Garden (2002), was a 2003 Canada Reads selection, a national bestseller, and was also a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Wild Dogs (2004) won the 2005 Lambda Prize for fiction, has been optioned for film, and was produced as a stage play at CanStage in Toronto in the fall of 2008. Coventry (2008) was a #1 national bestseller, was chosen as one of the top 100 books of the year by the Globe & Mail, and was chosen one of the top ten books of the year by both the Ottawa Citizen and NOW Magazine.
Humphreys's work of creative non-fiction, The Frozen Thames (2007), was a #1 national bestseller. Her collections of poetry include Gods and Other Mortals (1986); Nuns Looking Anxious, Listening to Radios (1990); and, The Perils of Geography (1995). Her latest collection, Anthem (1999), won the 2000 Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry.
Helen Humphreys's fiction is published in Canada by HarperCollins, and in the U.S. by W.W. Norton. The Frozen Thames was published by McClelland & Stewart in Canada, and by Bantam in the U.S. Her work has been translated into many languages.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 103 reviews
July 25, 2018
3.5 stars !...a Victorian bisexual love triangle....there were moments of profound beauty, passion and insight...however the book was soooo jarring in other sections that appeared rushed and overwhelmingly amateurish....this book had real potential to be a minor masterpiece with a few more edits and expansion of the story and fleshing out of the psychology of the three main protagonists....at some point I would like to read a more recent novel by this author as some of this book was absolutely brilliant.
July 15, 2020
I was somewhat disappointed in this work of historical fiction. In the middle of the book I wrote this in the notes I was taking, “This is boring.” I did not think the ending was very credible… So I give it 2.5 stars which is rounded up to 3.
The author said it took two years of research to write the book so that was impressive. It is loosely based on Julia Margaret Cameron, a British photographer who is considered one of the most important portraitists of the 19th century. She is known for her soft-focus close-ups of famous Victorian men and for illustrative images depicting characters from mythology, Christianity, and literature. She had a maid, Mary Hillier, that was in a series of her photographs, but she found only a little information about her (marital status number of children, age of death). So the main protagonist in this novel, Annie, is a made-up character.
The setting was the countryside of England, near London, in 1865. Protagonists were Annie Phelan, a maid who had been born in Ireland, the husband and wife, Eldon and Isabelle Dashell, who hired her, the rest of their hired help, Tess another maid, the cook Gertie, and a gardener, Wilks, and finally a neighbor who was an artist, Robert Hill. Isabelle takes up the art of photography, a relatively new field. Annie reminds Isabelle of a childhood friend, Ellen. Apparently Isabelle and Ellen had a sexual relationship although that was not entirely clear to me. Chapter names are those of characters that Isabelle wants Annie to adopt so she can take photographs of her….not as Annie but as other people she wants Annie to become in the photos, and Annie is quite adept at morphing into those characters apparently, including Guinevere (King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table) and even the mother of Jesus (the Madonna). Eldon is a wanna-be explorer of far distant lands (the Arctic) but is stuck drawing mundane maps (type and amount of minerals available in various parts of the world) in his house that is his wife’s. Theirs is an unhappy marriage for reasons that are elaborated upon in the book.
Annie prior to being employed by the Dashells was employed by a Mrs. Gilbey who plucked her from a workhouse I think at the age of nine. Mrs. Gilbey was very religious (prayer 3 times a day) and used to lock Annie up in her very small bedroom at night (Annie called it a closet). ☹ Annie ruminated that she would probably never get married or have children… Another maid in the house, Tess, was pregnant with the child of her former employer who raped her. Such was the lot of servants. So much for the cheery lives of servants at Downton Abbey. What a load of crap.
There was one passage that reminded me to be thankful I do not live in an area infested with mosquitos. Eldon was reading the field journal of a surveyor in the Canadian wilderness in the 1800s: “…they were so badly besieged by mosquitoes and blackflies that it was, as the surveyor had recorded, an agony of which leads men to madness. No matter how they smeared tar and paint on their bodies or swathed their heads in cloth, the insects crawled into their noses and ears, swarmed about their heads. It was impossible to breath without swallowing them and the faces of the men would have been constantly swollen beyond recognition.” That sounds like one of Dante’s inner circles of hell.
There was another passage I liked quite a bit because it was evocative. Eldon was reading about an Arctic expedition by British explorers that went awry, and two men who slowly dying of the frost and hunger. While dying in the wilderness with no hope of rescue, they were reading the Vicar of Wakefield to each other. “Around them all the comforts of an English parlour—silver service, a supply of tea that would outlast their lives here. Waiting to die or to be rescued. Were they able to do as the line in the Vicar of Wakefield said, the line that Annie stumbled over and then went back to again. ‘Read out anguish into patience.’ They fastened their dying breath to words. Jim: It was that last sentence that I liked a lot…these men are dying and they take comfort in their last moments on earth reading a novel.
Humphreys received the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize (2000) for Afterimage. It was her third novel. After reading this novel, I’d probably give her another shot because I know she is well-respected and some of her other novels have won prizes or been nominated for them, including “Leaving Earth” (1998; won the Toronto Book Award and was a New York Times Notable Book in 1998), “The Reinvention of Love” (2011;was longlisted for the Dublin IMPAC Literary Award and shortlisted for the Canadian Authors Association for Fiction), and The Evening Chorus (2015; longlisted for the 2017 International Dublin Literary Award).
Reviews:
This review was by a well-respected author Andrea Barrett (Ship Fever) for the New York Times (and she liked the book): http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/01/0...
https://quillandquire.com/review/afte...
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-... (Jim: This review comments on the photograph of the front cover saying that it should pull the reader into the novel, but the cover on the paperback issue had no such photograph (which was unfortunate): A hauntingly beautiful reproduction of a Cameron photo on the jacket should pull readers to this finely wrought novel.)
The author said it took two years of research to write the book so that was impressive. It is loosely based on Julia Margaret Cameron, a British photographer who is considered one of the most important portraitists of the 19th century. She is known for her soft-focus close-ups of famous Victorian men and for illustrative images depicting characters from mythology, Christianity, and literature. She had a maid, Mary Hillier, that was in a series of her photographs, but she found only a little information about her (marital status number of children, age of death). So the main protagonist in this novel, Annie, is a made-up character.
The setting was the countryside of England, near London, in 1865. Protagonists were Annie Phelan, a maid who had been born in Ireland, the husband and wife, Eldon and Isabelle Dashell, who hired her, the rest of their hired help, Tess another maid, the cook Gertie, and a gardener, Wilks, and finally a neighbor who was an artist, Robert Hill. Isabelle takes up the art of photography, a relatively new field. Annie reminds Isabelle of a childhood friend, Ellen. Apparently Isabelle and Ellen had a sexual relationship although that was not entirely clear to me. Chapter names are those of characters that Isabelle wants Annie to adopt so she can take photographs of her….not as Annie but as other people she wants Annie to become in the photos, and Annie is quite adept at morphing into those characters apparently, including Guinevere (King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table) and even the mother of Jesus (the Madonna). Eldon is a wanna-be explorer of far distant lands (the Arctic) but is stuck drawing mundane maps (type and amount of minerals available in various parts of the world) in his house that is his wife’s. Theirs is an unhappy marriage for reasons that are elaborated upon in the book.
Annie prior to being employed by the Dashells was employed by a Mrs. Gilbey who plucked her from a workhouse I think at the age of nine. Mrs. Gilbey was very religious (prayer 3 times a day) and used to lock Annie up in her very small bedroom at night (Annie called it a closet). ☹ Annie ruminated that she would probably never get married or have children… Another maid in the house, Tess, was pregnant with the child of her former employer who raped her. Such was the lot of servants. So much for the cheery lives of servants at Downton Abbey. What a load of crap.
There was one passage that reminded me to be thankful I do not live in an area infested with mosquitos. Eldon was reading the field journal of a surveyor in the Canadian wilderness in the 1800s: “…they were so badly besieged by mosquitoes and blackflies that it was, as the surveyor had recorded, an agony of which leads men to madness. No matter how they smeared tar and paint on their bodies or swathed their heads in cloth, the insects crawled into their noses and ears, swarmed about their heads. It was impossible to breath without swallowing them and the faces of the men would have been constantly swollen beyond recognition.” That sounds like one of Dante’s inner circles of hell.
There was another passage I liked quite a bit because it was evocative. Eldon was reading about an Arctic expedition by British explorers that went awry, and two men who slowly dying of the frost and hunger. While dying in the wilderness with no hope of rescue, they were reading the Vicar of Wakefield to each other. “Around them all the comforts of an English parlour—silver service, a supply of tea that would outlast their lives here. Waiting to die or to be rescued. Were they able to do as the line in the Vicar of Wakefield said, the line that Annie stumbled over and then went back to again. ‘Read out anguish into patience.’ They fastened their dying breath to words. Jim: It was that last sentence that I liked a lot…these men are dying and they take comfort in their last moments on earth reading a novel.
Humphreys received the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize (2000) for Afterimage. It was her third novel. After reading this novel, I’d probably give her another shot because I know she is well-respected and some of her other novels have won prizes or been nominated for them, including “Leaving Earth” (1998; won the Toronto Book Award and was a New York Times Notable Book in 1998), “The Reinvention of Love” (2011;was longlisted for the Dublin IMPAC Literary Award and shortlisted for the Canadian Authors Association for Fiction), and The Evening Chorus (2015; longlisted for the 2017 International Dublin Literary Award).
Reviews:
This review was by a well-respected author Andrea Barrett (Ship Fever) for the New York Times (and she liked the book): http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/01/0...
https://quillandquire.com/review/afte...
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-... (Jim: This review comments on the photograph of the front cover saying that it should pull the reader into the novel, but the cover on the paperback issue had no such photograph (which was unfortunate): A hauntingly beautiful reproduction of a Cameron photo on the jacket should pull readers to this finely wrought novel.)
November 12, 2013
I would be more comfortable giving this 4.5 stars, but it's too good to be just a 4 so I will settle for 5.
This is the third Humphreys novel I have read, and my favourite so far. It's an absolutely beautiful Victorian-era story of a young Irish maid named Annie and her relationship with both the lady of the house - a wilful and somewhat unladylike photographer struggling to be recognized - and the gentleman - a map maker with a yearning to explore the world and map the entire thing. Neither takes a particularly traditional approach to their servants, particularly Annie, who isn't a very typical servant herself.
I find the tone and style of Humphreys' writing suits me perfectly. It's beautiful without veering into poetry; descriptive without being verbose; emotional without being excessivly melancholy or dramatic; romantic without being sappy. I like that she used a hint of true history as her inspiration, but didn't just repurpose or retell anyone else's story. And I love the eras that she chooses to set her novels in, from the mid-19th to mid-20th Centuries. I also like the fact that she keeps them relatively short - at just under 250 pagesm it was easy enough to read this book in an afternoon and still have time to look out the window and mull it over afterwards.
This is the third Humphreys novel I have read, and my favourite so far. It's an absolutely beautiful Victorian-era story of a young Irish maid named Annie and her relationship with both the lady of the house - a wilful and somewhat unladylike photographer struggling to be recognized - and the gentleman - a map maker with a yearning to explore the world and map the entire thing. Neither takes a particularly traditional approach to their servants, particularly Annie, who isn't a very typical servant herself.
I find the tone and style of Humphreys' writing suits me perfectly. It's beautiful without veering into poetry; descriptive without being verbose; emotional without being excessivly melancholy or dramatic; romantic without being sappy. I like that she used a hint of true history as her inspiration, but didn't just repurpose or retell anyone else's story. And I love the eras that she chooses to set her novels in, from the mid-19th to mid-20th Centuries. I also like the fact that she keeps them relatively short - at just under 250 pagesm it was easy enough to read this book in an afternoon and still have time to look out the window and mull it over afterwards.
July 20, 2014
Inspired not so much by real events (if one was to look up Cameron's bio), but at the very least by real photographs, this book is a work of art in itself. There is such beauty to the writing, the cadence of narrative, the astute characterizations. In a wake of Downton Abbey's popularity, this can be described as an upstairs downstairs story, only the household is small and the lines quickly blur for the new servant Annie Phelan. She becomes alternatively a muse, a model, a friend, a confidante, and most of all an escape from loneliness that defines the marriage of the master and mistress of the house. It isn't quite a love triangle nor should it be marginalize as a lesbian fiction. Just like photography itself it is a matter of perception, an emotionally intelligent study of how our perceptions control our reality and vice versa. Do we see a person as they are or as we want them to be...as our thoughts, desires and dreams inform our visions what might we miss really seeing. Very moving thought provoking novel. Recommended.
February 9, 2014
I found this book to be rather strange. While it had an intriguing dreamy narration, the story itself failed to impress me. There was no overarching plotline or climax; I felt as if I was reading a collection of short stories with the same characters in each one. For example, in one section of the book Isabelle would take pictures of Annie, and in the next, Isabelle’s husband would talk to Annie about how he wanted to be an explorer in his youth. Both events happen in the same setting in a short time frame, but they do not connect or build off of the characterization that happened. It felt as though, in each section of the book, characters were being revealed to me over and over again, but they were never being developed past that initial revelation. Furthermore, there was no goal or tension that built-up to a climax. I debated about giving this book three stars, because two seemed a little harsh, but then I realized that I actually did not like reading Afterimage at all.
January 19, 2015
This is a story about an intelligent, quietly spirited young Annie Phelan, survivor of the potato famine who comes to an unusual household as a maid. She quickly becomes a model for her mistress, Isabelle, a photographer struggling against the trivialization of women as artists and against the artistic dogma of the day (photography is not real art). That Isabelle has lost three children at childbirth has strained her marriage to Eldon. Eldon finds Annie a most agreeable companion and he gives her books to read, shares his dreams of actually traveling to the Arctic rather than simply making maps. Humphreys weaves together threads of early photography, Arctic expeditions, cartography, the role of women, the famine, class structure, attraction. The writing is deep without being showy.
October 31, 2012
Im curious as to what Ive missed from reading this book. All the reviews seem to paint a different portrait than what I was presented with upon delving in to the world of the hoousehold of the Dashells. I found it a bit boring, actually. I will agree with the other reviews when they say that it was an easy read, perfectly easy to read in one sitting. The only problem was the perpetual boredom with which I was taken by throughout the entire book. Some spots were interesting. Most were not. Reading through the mapping bits and some of the stale descriptions, I would find myself fantasizing about other victorian pieces Ive read. To me, the characters were very flat. You couldnt tell the voices apart from one another. They were all written by the same author, and the reader could feel that. Not a book for me.
July 22, 2016
If you are simply reading this novel based on the progtagonist character of Annie Phelan (both Mary's Hillier and Ryan) then it is a highly enjoyable story. However, for myself, I really struggled to enjoy the storyline based upon the characters of Mr. and Mrs. Dashell. Although, loosely based upon Mr. and Mrs. Charles Hay Cameron, the author purposefully wrote such stark differences in their life story, changing their life events so drastically that I honestly found the characters non-sympathetic. I understand full well changing the plot and storyline to suit the novel as the writing progresses, but what the author has done was fixate upon the married couple having them grow apart as a couple based upon facts that happend to Julia Margaret Cameron having her character make decisions that she herself did not make in real life affecting both her photography theme and subject matter.
Afterimage is beautifully written and perhaps if I had read it knowing nothing about the life of Julia Margaret Cameron, I would have loved it hands down.
Afterimage is beautifully written and perhaps if I had read it knowing nothing about the life of Julia Margaret Cameron, I would have loved it hands down.
January 26, 2016
Lyrical and original. I've re-read this one several times, each time getting swept into the dreamy atmosphere Humphreys creates.
December 15, 2022
19. Yüsyılın en iyi kadın fotoğrafçısı, bu sanatın öncüsü Julia Margaret Cameron'dan esinlenilerek kurgulanmış bir roman. Niyet iyi ama anlatım yeterince iyi değil, sevemedim...
January 16, 2015
It's not frequently that I think "this book should have been longer", but this is the case with Afterimage.
Too much plot for the pages; too much ground to cover that was whipped through and effect was lost as a result. There were a lot of moments that this novel clearly wanted to be emotional and moving. There was the budding of some beautiful symbolism, but 250 pages was not enough to develop it into something that gave it its full impact. The surface was skimmed, and what was underneath looked promising, but plunging the depths isn't one of the strengths of this book.
The characters show signs of wanting to be developed, but instead of this, each has their 'thing' about them and that's pretty much it. Tess is grumpy. Isabelle likes photography. Eldon likes maps. Annie is an Irish orphan. All of the characters had the potential for further fleshing out. The 'thing' about them could have been incorporated into wider development, and they could have been believable and interesting. As it was, I came away from the book understanding what Humphreys wanted to say with them, but not feeling that she fully succeeded in doing so on the page.
Still, Afterimage is worth a quick read. The historical backdrop and some of the writing is a bit shaky, but overall there were some unexpectedly poignant parts and potential that's enjoyable even when not fully utilized.
Too much plot for the pages; too much ground to cover that was whipped through and effect was lost as a result. There were a lot of moments that this novel clearly wanted to be emotional and moving. There was the budding of some beautiful symbolism, but 250 pages was not enough to develop it into something that gave it its full impact. The surface was skimmed, and what was underneath looked promising, but plunging the depths isn't one of the strengths of this book.
The characters show signs of wanting to be developed, but instead of this, each has their 'thing' about them and that's pretty much it. Tess is grumpy. Isabelle likes photography. Eldon likes maps. Annie is an Irish orphan. All of the characters had the potential for further fleshing out. The 'thing' about them could have been incorporated into wider development, and they could have been believable and interesting. As it was, I came away from the book understanding what Humphreys wanted to say with them, but not feeling that she fully succeeded in doing so on the page.
Still, Afterimage is worth a quick read. The historical backdrop and some of the writing is a bit shaky, but overall there were some unexpectedly poignant parts and potential that's enjoyable even when not fully utilized.
November 4, 2017
One more five star novel read in the last two years. I would rate it as more enjoyable than "Middlesex", as strong as some classics, as powerful as a John Irving novel and as deep as the best of Sebastian Faulkes. The imagery and near poetic resonance was much like Michael Ondaatje in the "English Patient" and I was as riveted as when I read "The Dovekeeper"; however this was historical fiction with an extraordinarily unique twist of interpolating the research of history with the contemporary humanity of individuals adapting to life circumstances that tend to hide often and reveal seldom their true nature. Ironically, as with most of us, our nature albeit hidden is the true self we would want to be seen by others. When do we find this out? And does it matter our station in life or what stage of a life cycle it can be presented as observable. This is a novel of which I could write a novel describing/reviewing it. I just want to ruminate and talk about it. Wow…!
And Helen Humphreys is Canadian.
Spoiler alert:
>
>
>
>
If you have viewed the recent CBC tv mini-series: "Saving Grace". (Also a novel, of which I have not yet read). Both are set in Kingston ON; both revolve in part around a servant, orphaned as a result of the 'potato famine' in Ireland.
<
<
<
There are also several similarities, but if you loved the mini-series; you will also want to read this.
And Helen Humphreys is Canadian.
Spoiler alert:
>
>
>
>
If you have viewed the recent CBC tv mini-series: "Saving Grace". (Also a novel, of which I have not yet read). Both are set in Kingston ON; both revolve in part around a servant, orphaned as a result of the 'potato famine' in Ireland.
<
<
<
There are also several similarities, but if you loved the mini-series; you will also want to read this.
May 28, 2017
This is terrible. I wish I hadn't wasted my money buying it. I was attracted by the setting and the time period...but any potential this had failed to be realised.
The story is utterly pointless and dull. It only really gets going at the end. The only relationship that came across in the book is the friendship between Annie and Eldon but apart from that all the characters are really dreary and 2D. Minor characters have absolutely nothing about them, they just exist. The most interesting events of the plot are never explored or developed. This is such a disappointment.
My main complaint with this though is the style of writing. The use of the present tense is really confusing and distracting. Rather than having a chapter or section from each character's point of view it just shows us what everyone is thinking all the time. It was so hard to keep track of. You would flit between anyone and everyone's thoughts within one paragraph - I often had to re-read bits to figure out who was supposed to having that thought or feeling.
I will be taking this to the charity shop on Monday morning. :/
The story is utterly pointless and dull. It only really gets going at the end. The only relationship that came across in the book is the friendship between Annie and Eldon but apart from that all the characters are really dreary and 2D. Minor characters have absolutely nothing about them, they just exist. The most interesting events of the plot are never explored or developed. This is such a disappointment.
My main complaint with this though is the style of writing. The use of the present tense is really confusing and distracting. Rather than having a chapter or section from each character's point of view it just shows us what everyone is thinking all the time. It was so hard to keep track of. You would flit between anyone and everyone's thoughts within one paragraph - I often had to re-read bits to figure out who was supposed to having that thought or feeling.
I will be taking this to the charity shop on Monday morning. :/
April 3, 2013
An accurate, artistic, lyrical story of Victorian caste system and the hyprocrisy therein. Set in 1865, Annie Phelan, is a young, poor Irish immigrant hired as a maid by an upper class English couple. As the loveless marriage twirls downward, Anne becomes a muse to both husband and wife. The wife, Isabelle, perceives herself as an artist/photographer and uses Anne as her subject matter. The husband, Eldon, uses Anne as his confessor/confidant.
After reading two of Helen Humphrey's books, which were among my favorite reads thus far in 2009, I was very disappointed in this book. It simply did not hold my interest compared to Wild Dogs and The Frozen Thames.
After reading two of Helen Humphrey's books, which were among my favorite reads thus far in 2009, I was very disappointed in this book. It simply did not hold my interest compared to Wild Dogs and The Frozen Thames.
July 27, 2016
Fucking bleak. I don't think a book has made me feel so nihilistic since Ethan Frome, although at least Ethan Frome was so well done that I had the power of art to make me want to live. This book just makes me feel like life is meaningless and random and small and ultimately none of us will end up having mattered for having existed. Didn't love its structure but I can still recognize that it was executed well enough for what it was.
June 16, 2015
I love Humphreys' poetic writing. In this novel one character an orphan of the Irish famine serves as a maid and model, another is an English lady who attempts to create art using the tools of early day photography while her husband creates maps and longs for the real world of exploration. All kinds of images of being seen, being invisible, being discovered and the idea of being something beyond the class or category the world ascribesyou to.
Read
February 2, 2013Can't rate it as gave up halfway through
February 25, 2016
I enjoyed this, nothing outstanding to report, just a good book.
May 19, 2022
I've read and enjoyed other Humphreys' novels -and- as a fan of the early women photographers (Cameron, White, Lange) how did I not know of this book's existence? In addition to the fictionalized account of Cameron's relationship with her maid / model and learning about the glass-plate-process of capturing a photography in the late 1800's, there are stories about map-making, Franklin's expedition, and I even learned about a cattle disease called Rinderfest. So you don't have to know of Julia Margaret Cameron to enjoy this book; it would probably help but there is lots of other interesting aspects .... and lots about Anna's relationship with both the lady and master of the house that -on the surface- seems complimentary but neither Anna or the reader is ever sure of how clearly these two privileged, lonely people ever really see her. They each seem to have imposed their own need upon Anna, and it creates a curious dynamic between the three of them.
Humphreys' writing is as lovely as ever. "A garden in winter is a state of oblivion". And this line about French Jesuits who -in 1671- mapped the Canadian shoreline of Lake Superior using the paddle stroke of the canoe as the measurement. "miles became a turn of the back, the ache of a forearm".
Humphreys' writing is as lovely as ever. "A garden in winter is a state of oblivion". And this line about French Jesuits who -in 1671- mapped the Canadian shoreline of Lake Superior using the paddle stroke of the canoe as the measurement. "miles became a turn of the back, the ache of a forearm".
June 3, 2022
This is very different from the other Helen Humphreys novels I have read and loved. This is a short book that feels twice as long when you read it, full of the ethereal lyricism & poetry and turns me off. the characters, the situation, the longings...they all conspired to keep me tethered to the story, determined to discover the final fate of these characters. Very frustrating.
September 12, 2017
Eine feine Beobachtung, ganz nah an den Figuren, und atmosphärisch, und ich musste daran denken, dass ich die Filme "Das Piano" und "Bright Star" wieder einmal sehen möchte.
July 4, 2020
This book had potential - it has lots of talk of early photography and a woman photographer staging shots based on myths and classical characters. But something fell flat in the telling of the story. The characters didn't have enough depth, in my opinion.
I wanted to know Annie, the maid's story in more detail - there was talk of her family in Ireland and what happened to them and I found myself caring more about them than the main characters!
I wanted to know Annie, the maid's story in more detail - there was talk of her family in Ireland and what happened to them and I found myself caring more about them than the main characters!
December 7, 2015
Review initially published on my blog, Writing by Numbers, here.
This quiet novel features three Victorian-era introverts. Isabel Dashell, modeled after British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, is an irascible workaholic in pursuit of beauty. Eldon, Isabel’s husband, is a bookish mapmaker whose poor health has kept him from a life of Arctic exploration. Annie Phelan, whose character is based on Cameron’s frequent model Mary Hillier, completes the cast.
Annie works as the Dashells’ maid, and finds that the eccentric pair are less concerned with household upkeep than with their own pursuits. Isabel practically lives in her darkroom, covered in collodion and silver nitrate, and co-opting anyone she can find into sitting for photos. Her servants fit in their chores around hours spent motionless in the cramped studio. Meanwhile, Eldon retreats into his own flights of fancy as he and Isabel grow further estranged. Posing for Isabel and reading Eldon’s books, Annie starts to explore her own identity, mourn family lost in the Irish famine, and reshape her faith.
Although we glimpse broader themes like art world sexism and social class, the book mainly explores the relationships between the trio. Much like Cameron does in portraits, Humphreys keeps a soft focus and an intimate frame. She carefully places her subjects in aesthetically pleasing configurations. It’s a little slow at times, but meditative, purposeful, and dreamy.
The 214 in 2014 series chronicles every book I read in 2014. Each review contains exactly 214 words. For more, visit http://www.ararebit.wordpress.com.
This quiet novel features three Victorian-era introverts. Isabel Dashell, modeled after British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, is an irascible workaholic in pursuit of beauty. Eldon, Isabel’s husband, is a bookish mapmaker whose poor health has kept him from a life of Arctic exploration. Annie Phelan, whose character is based on Cameron’s frequent model Mary Hillier, completes the cast.
Annie works as the Dashells’ maid, and finds that the eccentric pair are less concerned with household upkeep than with their own pursuits. Isabel practically lives in her darkroom, covered in collodion and silver nitrate, and co-opting anyone she can find into sitting for photos. Her servants fit in their chores around hours spent motionless in the cramped studio. Meanwhile, Eldon retreats into his own flights of fancy as he and Isabel grow further estranged. Posing for Isabel and reading Eldon’s books, Annie starts to explore her own identity, mourn family lost in the Irish famine, and reshape her faith.
Although we glimpse broader themes like art world sexism and social class, the book mainly explores the relationships between the trio. Much like Cameron does in portraits, Humphreys keeps a soft focus and an intimate frame. She carefully places her subjects in aesthetically pleasing configurations. It’s a little slow at times, but meditative, purposeful, and dreamy.
The 214 in 2014 series chronicles every book I read in 2014. Each review contains exactly 214 words. For more, visit http://www.ararebit.wordpress.com.
March 20, 2018
Although names and places have been changed, the principal characters in this novel are obviously and deliberately based on photographer Julia Margaret Cameron*, her husband, and Mary Hillier, one of her ‘milkmaid Madonna’ servants.
In the novel, Cameron becomes Isabella Dashell, a complicated well-born woman whose greatest friendship was the one she had as a child with a working-class girl with whom she was later forbidden to associate. Hillier is re-imagined as Annie Phelan, a quiet and devout girl plucked from an English workhouse to be a domestic servant, who remains haunted by dreams (not quite memories) of her family, victims of the Irish famine.
Isabelle and her husband, Eldon, are benevolent employers who treat Annie almost as a friend. Almost, but not quite. They each have a particular vision of who and what Annie is, both of them using their imagination to remake her in their heads. The real Annie evades both of them.
The power of this novel lies not in its plot, but in the tone, the atmosphere, the poetry of the writing. It is indeed like a series of photographs, sometimes blurred, often leaving the important things unsaid (but implied), but often with the direct gaze of a particularly intimate portrait.
Although the prose is beautiful and poetic, and often moving, it is also very much grounded in reality, in real, everyday things that are slightly skewed (rather like Cameron’s photographs). This is not a pretentious novel, but one that deals in a deceptively simple way with profound emotions and themes.
* Cameron began her photographic career at the age of 48, in 1864, when she was given a camera as a present.
In the novel, Cameron becomes Isabella Dashell, a complicated well-born woman whose greatest friendship was the one she had as a child with a working-class girl with whom she was later forbidden to associate. Hillier is re-imagined as Annie Phelan, a quiet and devout girl plucked from an English workhouse to be a domestic servant, who remains haunted by dreams (not quite memories) of her family, victims of the Irish famine.
Isabelle and her husband, Eldon, are benevolent employers who treat Annie almost as a friend. Almost, but not quite. They each have a particular vision of who and what Annie is, both of them using their imagination to remake her in their heads. The real Annie evades both of them.
The power of this novel lies not in its plot, but in the tone, the atmosphere, the poetry of the writing. It is indeed like a series of photographs, sometimes blurred, often leaving the important things unsaid (but implied), but often with the direct gaze of a particularly intimate portrait.
Although the prose is beautiful and poetic, and often moving, it is also very much grounded in reality, in real, everyday things that are slightly skewed (rather like Cameron’s photographs). This is not a pretentious novel, but one that deals in a deceptively simple way with profound emotions and themes.
* Cameron began her photographic career at the age of 48, in 1864, when she was given a camera as a present.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 13, 2017
I really enjoy Helen Humphreys books and this one didn't disappoint me.
February 16, 2012
02/15/2012
Upon re-reading, I think Afterimage is a trifle schematic for my tastes - but I wonder if I'd think that if I read it a third time (every reading is different!). Also, it's not a very long novel, and it benefits from a sustained mood achieved by reading over a Saturday afternoon or a Sunday morning, which is not how I read it this time. It has a quality I really appreciate in art (especially literature), which is that everything it achieves is on-purpose: Humphreys knows what she is doing, and so the work is controlled without being manipulative. It's an interesting book, and deserves more attention than it gets (although my library has it, so I guess a fair number of people read it?). I'd forgotten the literary allusions, and rediscovering them was really nice.
Upon re-reading, I think Afterimage is a trifle schematic for my tastes - but I wonder if I'd think that if I read it a third time (every reading is different!). Also, it's not a very long novel, and it benefits from a sustained mood achieved by reading over a Saturday afternoon or a Sunday morning, which is not how I read it this time. It has a quality I really appreciate in art (especially literature), which is that everything it achieves is on-purpose: Humphreys knows what she is doing, and so the work is controlled without being manipulative. It's an interesting book, and deserves more attention than it gets (although my library has it, so I guess a fair number of people read it?). I'd forgotten the literary allusions, and rediscovering them was really nice.
April 29, 2015
This was an interesting book. It's not terribly much in the way of plot, rather, it's in introspective look into the lives of people who have been beset by tragedy and are trying to deal with the lot they have been given by life by escaping into fantasy worlds: Isabelle loses herself in her photography, Eldon in his maps and books, and Annie in believing she has become their equal.
This book never spends much time being overly dramatic and pretentious, which I enjoyed. There's certainly a lot that's left unsaid and the story requires a lot of reading between the lines, but I think that helped with the atmosphere Humphreys was trying to convey.
One thing I particularly liked was Annie's relationships with Isabelle and Eldon.
This book never spends much time being overly dramatic and pretentious, which I enjoyed. There's certainly a lot that's left unsaid and the story requires a lot of reading between the lines, but I think that helped with the atmosphere Humphreys was trying to convey.
One thing I particularly liked was Annie's relationships with Isabelle and Eldon.
October 1, 2023
When Annie’s strict employer dies in London she travels to the Dashell’s country residence to be their maid. She finds her new employer completely opposite from her London position. The Dashells are not fussy about the state of the house. They don’t set traps for her like her last employer. And they are not religious expecting her to pray daily.
Instead, she fines herself drawn away from the work she is employed to do into Isabelle Dashell’s obsession with photography becoming her model while Eldon Dashell is fixated over maps. Annie’s love of books draws her into Eldon’s world of exploration in his packed library while Isabelle’s selfish demands pull her into a situation she wants to escape. Will she be strong enough to break away?
For more of my 5 out of 5 reviews visit https://readandwrite.blog/malleestanley/
Instead, she fines herself drawn away from the work she is employed to do into Isabelle Dashell’s obsession with photography becoming her model while Eldon Dashell is fixated over maps. Annie’s love of books draws her into Eldon’s world of exploration in his packed library while Isabelle’s selfish demands pull her into a situation she wants to escape. Will she be strong enough to break away?
For more of my 5 out of 5 reviews visit https://readandwrite.blog/malleestanley/
Displaying 1 - 30 of 103 reviews