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The Shape of Water: Imagined fragments from an elusive life: Sophia Degraves of Van Diemen's Land
Her husband was controversial. He was in the press, in the courts and in prison.
Her husband was charismatic, voluble and irrepressible. He survived shipwreck, ruin and slander.
Her husband was an entrepreneur, industrialist and pioneer. We continue to drink his beer; we still attend his theatre. His legacy is concrete. His place in history is secure.
But this is not his story.
Sophia Degraves survives only as a silent register of birth and death. Nothing is known of her beyond the children she bore and the death she died. This catalogue says nothing of the privations and aspirations of an invisible colonial woman who built in flesh and blood what the men around her built with water and stone.
This is her story, written by imagining what was real.
Runner up in the Erica Bell Foundation Literature Award 2015, this book focuses on the life of Sophia Degraves, wife of Peter Degraves, the founder of Cascade Brewery and one of Tasmania's most prominent early entrepreneurs.
"A work of historical fiction in the truest sense. Overall, the effect is of a historical verisimilitude that sweeps us along as if we were walking beside Sophia in the shadow of Mount Wellington. It is a thoroughly charming book that brings to life a woman and a period that are both fascinating." ~ Rohan Wilson, author and co-judge of the 2014 Erica Bell Literary Awards
Her husband was charismatic, voluble and irrepressible. He survived shipwreck, ruin and slander.
Her husband was an entrepreneur, industrialist and pioneer. We continue to drink his beer; we still attend his theatre. His legacy is concrete. His place in history is secure.
But this is not his story.
Sophia Degraves survives only as a silent register of birth and death. Nothing is known of her beyond the children she bore and the death she died. This catalogue says nothing of the privations and aspirations of an invisible colonial woman who built in flesh and blood what the men around her built with water and stone.
This is her story, written by imagining what was real.
Runner up in the Erica Bell Foundation Literature Award 2015, this book focuses on the life of Sophia Degraves, wife of Peter Degraves, the founder of Cascade Brewery and one of Tasmania's most prominent early entrepreneurs.
"A work of historical fiction in the truest sense. Overall, the effect is of a historical verisimilitude that sweeps us along as if we were walking beside Sophia in the shadow of Mount Wellington. It is a thoroughly charming book that brings to life a woman and a period that are both fascinating." ~ Rohan Wilson, author and co-judge of the 2014 Erica Bell Literary Awards
240 pages, Paperback
Published December 1, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 14, 2024
‘I wake and I know the hour is early.’
In this novel, Ms Blythe-Cooper sets out to imagine the life of Sophia Degraves, the wife of Peter Degraves, co-founder of the Cascade Brewery in Hobart and designer of Hobart’s Theatre Royal. While a lot is known about Peter Degraves, his various business interests and runs-in with the law, very little is known about his wife.
But Sophia Degraves, who died on 30 May 1842, is documented only in child bearing and death. What would her life have been like? How did she deal with frequent child-bearing, with the death of some of her children? How did she survive during Peter Degraves’s periods of imprisonment?
Ms Blythe-Cooper draws Sophia from the shadows. Her research may not have provided her with historical detail about Sophia Degraves, but it has certainly provided her with a wealth of information about the period in which she lived. And so, for me, an entirely plausible Sophia comes to life, especially in Hobarton from 1824 until her death.
In the earlier part of the novel, Ms Blythe-Cooper focusses on Sophia’s early life in London, on her marriage to Peter Degraves, on his optimism and opportunism. While I was less interested in this part of the novel, it’s important to the depiction of Sophia once the family travels to Van Diemen’s Land. She has chosen to stay with her husband (although, in reality she probably had no other choice) but it’s the imagined detail of how she lived her life that has me entranced.
As her daughter Deborah says to Peter after Sophia’s death:
‘Our mother was invisible to you unless she was useful.’
Such a sad comment. And yet, it feels accurate.
When I finished this novel, I felt that I had some sense of Sophia Degraves. It has me wondering about the other women who dwell in the shadows of history, as though they are simply some invisible adjunct to a better-known husband. The shape of water indeed.
I recommend this novel to anyone interested in well-written historical fiction crafted around life in the first half of the 19th century in Van Diemen’s Land.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
In this novel, Ms Blythe-Cooper sets out to imagine the life of Sophia Degraves, the wife of Peter Degraves, co-founder of the Cascade Brewery in Hobart and designer of Hobart’s Theatre Royal. While a lot is known about Peter Degraves, his various business interests and runs-in with the law, very little is known about his wife.
But Sophia Degraves, who died on 30 May 1842, is documented only in child bearing and death. What would her life have been like? How did she deal with frequent child-bearing, with the death of some of her children? How did she survive during Peter Degraves’s periods of imprisonment?
Ms Blythe-Cooper draws Sophia from the shadows. Her research may not have provided her with historical detail about Sophia Degraves, but it has certainly provided her with a wealth of information about the period in which she lived. And so, for me, an entirely plausible Sophia comes to life, especially in Hobarton from 1824 until her death.
In the earlier part of the novel, Ms Blythe-Cooper focusses on Sophia’s early life in London, on her marriage to Peter Degraves, on his optimism and opportunism. While I was less interested in this part of the novel, it’s important to the depiction of Sophia once the family travels to Van Diemen’s Land. She has chosen to stay with her husband (although, in reality she probably had no other choice) but it’s the imagined detail of how she lived her life that has me entranced.
As her daughter Deborah says to Peter after Sophia’s death:
‘Our mother was invisible to you unless she was useful.’
Such a sad comment. And yet, it feels accurate.
When I finished this novel, I felt that I had some sense of Sophia Degraves. It has me wondering about the other women who dwell in the shadows of history, as though they are simply some invisible adjunct to a better-known husband. The shape of water indeed.
I recommend this novel to anyone interested in well-written historical fiction crafted around life in the first half of the 19th century in Van Diemen’s Land.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
October 31, 2018
For anyone interested in Tasmanian history this book should be put on their must read list. Fiction, but obviously meticulously researched, within these pages you are transported back to Hobart in the 18320's-30's in a particularly convincing way. This book gives a voice to a woman who accompanied her husband to the Colony but of her life absolutely nothing is known, as is the case with most women of that era. For a researcher, building a picture of a woman from colonial times is very difficult and takes a lot of research. Anne Blythe-Cooper, not only paints a portrait of such a woman, but dresses her, places her in her home, gives her completely appropriate dialogue and an equally appropriate emotional and inner life. I couldn't put the book down. PS-the scene where Sophia goes into the Female Factory had me totally in there too!!
April 8, 2017
The character of Sophia Degraves is brought to life in this beautifully written historical fiction. The author captures her resilience and independence, contained and limited by her loyalty to a dominant and flawed husband. We mainly see Peter Degraves through his wife's admiring eyes, and yet we soon become aware of the flaws and disloyalty which she chooses not to acknowledge. Pictures of historical Hobart are painted with honesty and accuracy. It is obvious that a great deal of research has been poured into these pages. An engrossing and moving story, eloquently told.
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April 12, 2017This felt shapeless. The historical voice is well done and i was reminded of colonial diaries that I've read. But, there was no narrative drive because it was unclear what Sophia actually wanted out of life... And there were very few dramatic scenes, and much skipping of what might have been more interesting, like an arduous journey to visit a friend living quite a distance away is described in detail but then we learn absolutely nothing of the visit itself. All build up no payoff.
October 26, 2023
A revealing colonial portrait
I enjoyed this historical reimagining of Sophia's family life and journey to Van Diemen's Land.
Whilst I found the style of prose a bit challenging and stilted to begin with, I was hooked by the third chapter and didn't want to put this book down. Sophia meets the challenges of an intractable husband, a journey across the oceans, and a new life with stoicism and admirable dedication.
Much of the drama in this book is delivered with brusque clarity and subtle emotion, which I found particularly effective. Sophia's quiet, underplayed devestation at her losses gave the story a grim realism, while her relationship with her husband Peter is complex, dynamic and at times quite saucy. I thought the romantic aspects of their relationship and, particularly, Sophia's unwavering dedication to her often frustrating husband, were very deftly handled.
I also loved the insights into some of Hobart's most well-known buildings and Peter's efforts to develop the colony. Sophia's bush walking and explorations of the kunanyi foothills made me feel connected to her through a shared sense of place, something I also loved.
The lives of Tasmania's colonial women were undoubtedly difficult. Sophia's enterprising resilience and her relationships with her children, family, and society made this an engaging story and an entertaining window into the past.
I enjoyed this historical reimagining of Sophia's family life and journey to Van Diemen's Land.
Whilst I found the style of prose a bit challenging and stilted to begin with, I was hooked by the third chapter and didn't want to put this book down. Sophia meets the challenges of an intractable husband, a journey across the oceans, and a new life with stoicism and admirable dedication.
Much of the drama in this book is delivered with brusque clarity and subtle emotion, which I found particularly effective. Sophia's quiet, underplayed devestation at her losses gave the story a grim realism, while her relationship with her husband Peter is complex, dynamic and at times quite saucy. I thought the romantic aspects of their relationship and, particularly, Sophia's unwavering dedication to her often frustrating husband, were very deftly handled.
I also loved the insights into some of Hobart's most well-known buildings and Peter's efforts to develop the colony. Sophia's bush walking and explorations of the kunanyi foothills made me feel connected to her through a shared sense of place, something I also loved.
The lives of Tasmania's colonial women were undoubtedly difficult. Sophia's enterprising resilience and her relationships with her children, family, and society made this an engaging story and an entertaining window into the past.
January 29, 2019
Even though this was a work of historical fiction, it appeared well enough researched to depict life in England and in the very earliest years of the Hobart settlement quite vividly.I also enjoyed how the narrative followed the whole of Sophie's life. It shows just how disenfranchised women of the 19th century were. Life could be very hard for these early settlers, especially so for the women. The horrendous conditions of the convicts seem unimaginable.
March 30, 2024
This is a *very* well-written book. It gives a remarkably clear view of exactly what the author's states goal is, to showcase the silent women whom history passed over, their everyday struggles, and the part they play in the lives of better-documented husbands.
Very well done indeed.
Very well done indeed.
June 14, 2021
While fiction based around real events it does bring to life the women of an age when it was the men who were seen to be shaping history. An interesting perspective on history.
January 19, 2022
A littl slow at times but it's always cool reading something that's set where you travel!
July 2, 2017
In The Shape of Water, Anne Blythe-Cooper explores the imagined life of Sophia Degraves. Sophia was the wife of a prominent and controversial man who made his mark in Van Diemen’s Land (colonial Tasmania), but history remembers Sophia as merely a wife and mother.
It’s an worthy endeavour, to take a woman who has been lost to history, or long-overshadowed, and bring them to the fore and let them speak. It’s a function of historical fiction that I’ve always loved: the ability to fill in the gaps. In a way, it’s one of the purest forms of historical fiction. And, for the most part, Blythe-Cooper succeeds. Sophia is warmly and richly captured, her personality comes alive on the page.
The Shape of Water is also beautifully written, a novel that sails smoothly from one page to the next, and painstakingly researched. I enjoyed reading this, for not only the intention behind it, but also for Blythe-Cooper’s writing skill. However, there were some downsides.
Sophia is given complexity and I enjoyed that Blythe-Cooper allowed Sophia to challenge – directly and indirectly – her husband and his exploits. However, I didn’t get much understanding of Sophia’s relationships. Towards the end of the book, it’s asserted that Sophia deeply loved her husband, but I never really sensed that she did. She tolerated him, chose him as the best match for her, but loved? Additionally, there’s not much sense of closeness between Sophia and her children. This isn’t to say that Blythe-Cooper had to go all-out and make things lovey-dovey, but I would’ve liked just a bit of more depth there.
There are a few loose plot-threads. At one stage, Sophia comes across some papers in her husband’s files that seem to reveal information that would drastically change their relationship, but these are then forgotten within a few pages. Additionally, the novel itself feels a bit directionless, Sophia swept along by her husband’s whims and fancies. Sure, this may have been how her life really was, but I felt the narrative would have worked better if Sophia had been more active, if she had wanted something and sought it, where her husband’s troubles were real barriers to her getting what she wanted.
But, although that is a bit ranty, the novel was so good despite it, so dreamlike that I didn’t really mind.
It’s an worthy endeavour, to take a woman who has been lost to history, or long-overshadowed, and bring them to the fore and let them speak. It’s a function of historical fiction that I’ve always loved: the ability to fill in the gaps. In a way, it’s one of the purest forms of historical fiction. And, for the most part, Blythe-Cooper succeeds. Sophia is warmly and richly captured, her personality comes alive on the page.
The Shape of Water is also beautifully written, a novel that sails smoothly from one page to the next, and painstakingly researched. I enjoyed reading this, for not only the intention behind it, but also for Blythe-Cooper’s writing skill. However, there were some downsides.
Sophia is given complexity and I enjoyed that Blythe-Cooper allowed Sophia to challenge – directly and indirectly – her husband and his exploits. However, I didn’t get much understanding of Sophia’s relationships. Towards the end of the book, it’s asserted that Sophia deeply loved her husband, but I never really sensed that she did. She tolerated him, chose him as the best match for her, but loved? Additionally, there’s not much sense of closeness between Sophia and her children. This isn’t to say that Blythe-Cooper had to go all-out and make things lovey-dovey, but I would’ve liked just a bit of more depth there.
There are a few loose plot-threads. At one stage, Sophia comes across some papers in her husband’s files that seem to reveal information that would drastically change their relationship, but these are then forgotten within a few pages. Additionally, the novel itself feels a bit directionless, Sophia swept along by her husband’s whims and fancies. Sure, this may have been how her life really was, but I felt the narrative would have worked better if Sophia had been more active, if she had wanted something and sought it, where her husband’s troubles were real barriers to her getting what she wanted.
But, although that is a bit ranty, the novel was so good despite it, so dreamlike that I didn’t really mind.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews