The Mistressclass

by Michèle Roberts

Adam is a writer, struggling to come to terms with the death of his painter father, Robert, and his difficult marriage to Catherine. Before he married Catherine, he had been the lover of her sister, Vinny. The classic menage à trois seems about to repeat itself, when Adam discovers his wife's father was less innocent than he had thought.

Set mainly in contemporary London, partly in France, the action also harks back to the 1970s. The narrative evokes the style of the nineteenth century novelists and their themes: desire, guilt, pleasure. Pastoral landscapes alternate with those of the inner city and the past's interaction with the present is acted out by ghosts. The dead father haunts his son; in real life Vinny haunts her sister; and the whole novel is haunted by one of its great earliest exponents, Charlotte Bronte, and her passionate search for creative fulfilment.

Genres: Fiction

303 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 10, 2003

About the author

Michèle Brigitte Roberts is the author of fifteen novels, including Ignorance which was nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction and Daughters of the House which won the W.H. Smith Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Her memoir Paper Houses was BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week in June 2007. She has also published poetry and short stories, most recently collected in Mud: Stories of Sex and Love. Half-English and half-French, Roberts lives in London and in the Mayenne, France. She is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't like it at first, but grew to love it while reading - and could not stop thinking about the characters when I wasn't reading it. Metanarrative at times, and intertextual, the novel made me think not only of Charlotte Bronte, but also of Mrs Dalloway. The Bronte bits are well-researched and reflect the spirit of Bronte writing fantastically. I was blown away by Chapter 11. This book reminded me why I love Michele Roberts - although it starts slowly, it does seduce you with poetic, luscious language...

[Jackie Thurston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very unusual story of love which leads to you descending in a great deal of emotions with the characters

[Hannah Eiseman-Renyard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two Novels Shoved Together - One of them Crap

This is a bizarre book which I would not have usually chosen, but it was on my reading lists at uni. On the one hand it's a story of two modern day sisters and their complicated love triangle past. On the other, there is an (apparently linked, but not linked very well) story of Charlotte Bronte's love letters to Mr Heger, which quickly descends into S&M Bronte sisters.

As I studied this at the University of East Anglia, where Michele Roberts teaches, we then has the prospect of Ms Roberts explaining the piece to us... not very well. She didn't really have an explanation for why she'd made the Bronte sisters' relationship so sexual, or why they were necessary at all to the modern day plot - except to explain that there are literary ghosts in the modern world.... echoing through, but why echoing through these two? Except that they're all sisters and they all like books, and...no, I didn't get it.

This book gets two stars from me because the modern day story features a bohemian cliché character who I'm rather fond of - who does fun things like make her own blue plaques at sites of literary interest, and has furniture out of skips and gets stoned to read - but though the actual writing style is masterfully executed, and the (modern day) characters are fully-fledged, I think the plot is badly thought out and clumsily put together.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't actually finish this book. I had high hopes because of the implied parallels to the Bronte sisters. Depressing and after about 3/4 of the book, I didn't care about the plot or the characters. sorry for being so harsh.

[Laurie Hileman · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book jumps into the middle of lives and leaves you to figure it out. I kept waiting for it to develop, but it never did. Would not recommend it to anyone.

[Kara · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are a few good chapters, but not enough to balance out some of the really terrible ones.

[Cecilia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second Michele Roberts book I've read. It just didn't engage me as much as the first. She is a wonderful writer but the plot didn't excite me.