Red Staircase

by Gwendoline Butler

Set in St. Petersburg, Russia, this novel won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award (1981) by the Romantic Novelists' Association.

St Petersburg, 1912. Rose Gowrie is a Scottish girl with a mysterious gift for healing who is hired into the aristocratic household of Dolly Denisov, supposedly as a companion for the youthful Ariadne Denisov. But Rose gets more than she bargains for when she is called upon to cure the aged Princess who lives at the top of the Red Staircase, and the frail young Tsarevitch…

Genres: Russia, Historical Fiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Gwendoline Williams Butler (aka Jennie Melville)

Gwendoline Williams was born on 19th August 1922 in South London, England, UK, daughter of Alice (Lee) and Alfred Edward Williams, her younger twin brothers are also authors. Educated at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she read History, and later lectured there. On 16th October 1949, she married Dr Lionel Harry Butler (1923-1981), a professor of medieval history at University of St. Andrews and historian, Fellow of All Souls and Principal of Royal Holloway College. The marriage had a daughter, Lucilla Butler.

In 1956, she started to published John Coffin novels under her married name, Gwendoline Butler. In 1962, she decided used her grandmother's name, Jennie Melville as pseudonym to sign her Charmian Daniels novels. She was credited for inventing the "woman's police procedural". In addition to her mystery series, she also wrote romantic novels. In 1981, her novel The Red Staircase won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association.

Reviews

[Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

For this month’s theme – recommended read – I chose the 1981 Romantic Novel of the Year by Gwendoline Butler. I believe the author is mostly known for her Crime Fiction and reissues of this book label it as crime fiction. Though there is crime (the mysterious death of a French governess: was it murder or suicide? and an anarchist plot to murder the Tsar’s family), this is still primarily historical mystery with some romantic suspense and a gothic vibe. The setting is primarily St. Petersburg, Russia in 1912.

Disappointed in love when her fiancé broke their engagement and transferred to a regiment in India, Rose takes a position as a companion to a wealthy Russian family where she’s been given hope that she can use her medical training to help the peasants. Rose aspired to become a doctor and studied in Edinburgh for a time until she could no longer afford it. She has a mysterious healing touch, which is really more of an empathic ability to absorb pain than actual healing. She travels to Russia with Edward Lacey who is a family friend of the Denisovs, the family that Rose will be staying with. Dolly Denisov is a widow with a daughter, Ariadne, who is a little younger than Rose. Dolly’s brother Peter develops a romantic interest in Rose and their Great Aunt who lives at the top of the red staircase in a section of their great house is interested in using Rose to prolong her already long life. Rose, who never got over her love for her fiancé, eventually meets him again in Russia under mysterious circumstances. She also meets the young Tsarevitch and the mad monk, gets caught up in a Typhoid epidemic, inherits a munitions factory from a godfather, and becomes unwittingly involved with anarchists plotting to destroy the Tsar’s family. The story is written in first person. I never warmed up to Rose. Seeing everything from her point of view limits the development of the other characters. Her thought process and behaviors drove me batty at times, which is probably why I was underwhelmed.

[Liz · Rating 1 out of 5]

I knew I wouldn’t like this book from the first paragraph. I found it too heavy on historical fact and there were so many characters introduced that I became confused. When the heroine moved to Russia, where most of the story took place, the main characters were introduced but I couldn’t warm to them.
The scenes I did like were those few involving the Tsarevich,to whom the heroine was introduced as she had been given some mild healing powers as well as some medical knowledge. I don’t know how accurate they were but The author described him and his restricted life with compassion.

[David Welch · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty terrible. This book was far too long, the heroine implausibly naive and it used the very annoying technique of having everyone give the heroine cryptic hints which she never queries or follows up.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story, young Scottish lass, with ties to Scottish Royal Family, is jilted a week before her wedding. Her bridegroom has also disgraced himself with the British Army in India and she is left to pine-away. Or is she? She has a talent, her gift is a healer, though she tries to suppress her gift, it comes when needed.

She has Aunties who live in Russia and out of the blue she is offered a job in Russia as a Governess to the daughter of a very rich and influential Russian Family. Believing it is her only hope to get over her unhappiness, Rose travels to Russia with a Major, who is to present her to the family in Russia. His sister is also married to a wealth Russian with influential ties.

However, Rose has been brought to Russia under false pretenses. The Tzar's son is ill, and she is suppose to lay hands on the child and make him well.

The story is wraped in intrigue and mystery, with lies and false pretense, and as Rose is pulled into the underground that wants to overthrow the Government, her life is constantly in danger. Who is constantly singing my "Love is Like a Red,Red Rose"? The song she and her fiance use to call their own. The mystery thickens.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a surprise! I downloaded this book because I enjoyed Ms Butler's Inspector Coffin books but this was one of the few ebooks by her in the library. ... Of course, I knew it was not from the Coffin series but didn't pay much more attention than that at the time.

.. I so enjoyed the Russian world between the wars...how often do you get that in a novel; and I loved Rose. And I was completely satisfied to find the 'mystery' hiding in all of this. Quite quite satisfying!