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Conceit
It is the Great Fire of 1666. The imposing edifice of St. Paul's Cathedral, a landmark of London since the twelfth century, is being reduced to rubble by the flames that engulf the City.
In the holocaust, Pegge and a small group of men struggle to save the effigy of her father, John Donne, famous love poet and the great Dean of St. Paul's. Making their way through the heat and confusion of the streets, they arrive at Paul's wharf. Pegge's husband, William Bowles, anxiously scans the wretched scene, suddenly realizing why Pegge has asked him to meet her at this desperate spot.
The story behind this dramatic rescue begins forty years before the fire. Pegge Donne is still a rebellious girl, already too clever for a world that values learning only in men, when her father begins arranging marriages for his five daughters, including Pegge. Pegge, however, is desperate to taste the all-consuming desire that led to her parents' clandestine marriage, notorious throughout England for shattering social convention and for inspiring some of the most erotic and profound poetry ever written. She sets out to win the love of Izaak Walton, a man infatuated with her older sister.
Stung by Walton's rejection and jealous of her physically mature sisters, the boyish Pegge becomes convinced that it is her own father who knows the secret of love. She collects his poems, hoping to piece together her parents' history, searching for some connection to the mother she barely knew.
Intertwined with Pegge's compelling voice are those of Ann More and John Donne, telling us of the courtship that inspired some of the world's greatest poetry of love and physical longing. Donne's seduction leads Ann to abandon social convention, risk her father's certain wrath, and elope with Donne. It is the undoing of his career and the two are left to struggle in a marriage that leads to her death in her twelfth childbirth at age thirty-three.
In Donne's final days, Pegge tries, in ways that push the boundaries of daughterly behaviour, to discover the key to unlock her own sexuality. After his death, Pegge still struggles to free herself from an obsession that threatens to drive her beyond the bounds of reason. Even after she marries, she cannot suppress her independence or her desire to experience extraordinary love.
Conceit brings to life the teeming, bawdy streets of London, the intrigue-ridden court, and the lushness of the seventeenth-century English countryside. It is a story of many kinds of love — erotic, familial, unrequited, and obsessive — and the unpredictable workings of the human heart. With characters plucked from the pages of history, Mary Novik's debut novel is an elegant, fully-imagined story of lives you will find hard to leave behind.
In the holocaust, Pegge and a small group of men struggle to save the effigy of her father, John Donne, famous love poet and the great Dean of St. Paul's. Making their way through the heat and confusion of the streets, they arrive at Paul's wharf. Pegge's husband, William Bowles, anxiously scans the wretched scene, suddenly realizing why Pegge has asked him to meet her at this desperate spot.
The story behind this dramatic rescue begins forty years before the fire. Pegge Donne is still a rebellious girl, already too clever for a world that values learning only in men, when her father begins arranging marriages for his five daughters, including Pegge. Pegge, however, is desperate to taste the all-consuming desire that led to her parents' clandestine marriage, notorious throughout England for shattering social convention and for inspiring some of the most erotic and profound poetry ever written. She sets out to win the love of Izaak Walton, a man infatuated with her older sister.
Stung by Walton's rejection and jealous of her physically mature sisters, the boyish Pegge becomes convinced that it is her own father who knows the secret of love. She collects his poems, hoping to piece together her parents' history, searching for some connection to the mother she barely knew.
Intertwined with Pegge's compelling voice are those of Ann More and John Donne, telling us of the courtship that inspired some of the world's greatest poetry of love and physical longing. Donne's seduction leads Ann to abandon social convention, risk her father's certain wrath, and elope with Donne. It is the undoing of his career and the two are left to struggle in a marriage that leads to her death in her twelfth childbirth at age thirty-three.
In Donne's final days, Pegge tries, in ways that push the boundaries of daughterly behaviour, to discover the key to unlock her own sexuality. After his death, Pegge still struggles to free herself from an obsession that threatens to drive her beyond the bounds of reason. Even after she marries, she cannot suppress her independence or her desire to experience extraordinary love.
Conceit brings to life the teeming, bawdy streets of London, the intrigue-ridden court, and the lushness of the seventeenth-century English countryside. It is a story of many kinds of love — erotic, familial, unrequited, and obsessive — and the unpredictable workings of the human heart. With characters plucked from the pages of history, Mary Novik's debut novel is an elegant, fully-imagined story of lives you will find hard to leave behind.
402 pages, Hardcover
First published August 28, 2007
7 people are currently reading
905 people want to read
About the author
Mary Novik
7 books92 followersHi Everybody,
My new novel Muse is set in 14th-century Avignon. Everyone on Goodreads has been so wonderfully supportive, I feel very blessed. I am especially happy to see that the group, The Imprinted Life, discussed Muse here https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...
Muse is the first person story of Solange Le Blanc, who became entangled in a love triangle with Francesco Petrarch and Laura, and later caught the eye of Pope Clement VI in 14th century Avignon, when the popes lived there. Muse is available in Italian as L'amante del papa. Check out the prize-winning booktrailer, which I've uploaded to my Goodreads page. Muse is also available in French from Editions Hurtubise (February 2015).
My website is http://www.marynovik.com and contains an excerpt from Muse, highlights from reviews, and many backstories for the novel.
I've also posted lots about my first novel Conceit, which is the story of Pegge, the daughter of the English poet John Donne, a contemporary of Shakespeare. I was inspired to write Conceit when I visited St. Paul's Cathedral in London and discovered that John Donne's effigy was the only one that survived the Great Fire of 1666. Conceit was named one of The Top 40 Essential Canadian Novels of the Decade by Canada Reads. It was also longlisted for the Giller prize and won the Ethel Wilson Prize.
The Goodreads group, The Imprinted Life discussed Conceit at http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_... What made this so amazing is that Asma, the moderator, did wonderful summaries of each chapter! The Book Haven group also read Conceit and that discussion is available, http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5....
My new novel Muse is set in 14th-century Avignon. Everyone on Goodreads has been so wonderfully supportive, I feel very blessed. I am especially happy to see that the group, The Imprinted Life, discussed Muse here https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...
Muse is the first person story of Solange Le Blanc, who became entangled in a love triangle with Francesco Petrarch and Laura, and later caught the eye of Pope Clement VI in 14th century Avignon, when the popes lived there. Muse is available in Italian as L'amante del papa. Check out the prize-winning booktrailer, which I've uploaded to my Goodreads page. Muse is also available in French from Editions Hurtubise (February 2015).
My website is http://www.marynovik.com and contains an excerpt from Muse, highlights from reviews, and many backstories for the novel.
I've also posted lots about my first novel Conceit, which is the story of Pegge, the daughter of the English poet John Donne, a contemporary of Shakespeare. I was inspired to write Conceit when I visited St. Paul's Cathedral in London and discovered that John Donne's effigy was the only one that survived the Great Fire of 1666. Conceit was named one of The Top 40 Essential Canadian Novels of the Decade by Canada Reads. It was also longlisted for the Giller prize and won the Ethel Wilson Prize.
The Goodreads group, The Imprinted Life discussed Conceit at http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_... What made this so amazing is that Asma, the moderator, did wonderful summaries of each chapter! The Book Haven group also read Conceit and that discussion is available, http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5....
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
August 15, 2016
Updated review: Rereading this novel, I thoroughly enjoyed it, finding even more about the story. This time, I carefully attended to the background of politics and religion. William Bowles, Pegge's husband, the king's royal tailor, is concerned about their trajectory. His family's safety is of importance. He himself takes to the countryside, residing at his estate, Clewer. Besides writing over Donne's sermons and elegies, Pegge is a natural gardener. The wonderful descriptions include winter plums and other plants. She makes fishing flies from feathers, horsehair, and other natural bits, impressing Izaac Walton whose The Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative Man's Recreation is still read. She prefers the country to the city, but, going to London, preserves John Donne's marble effigy for posterity, takes down his unburnt mummy from a scaffold, and traverses the city at will. She thinks that dancing lessons and self-consciousness are frivolous. Her brothers and sisters do not resemble her in personality. She and Walton prove good literary executors of Donne's writings, although Walton created a too favorable portrait of Donne in "Life of Donne", according to her, and she adds her own thoughts to Donne's papers. There are the theme's of love, childbirth, marriage, death, and living throughout this novel.
Previous Review dated 2010: Mary Novik has written a seventeenth-century historical fiction, at the heart of which is Pegge Donne, one of the poet John Donne's daughters. Significant characters are her poet-priest father, her mother Ann More Donne, her siblings and children, some contemporary luminaries and other persons, and her husband Sir William Bowles. The gist is two generations of the Donnes' domestic lives-- courtship, marriage, childbirth, and dying--amid the backdrop of contemporary English events. Novik's style is sensuous with description yet also raises longing, love, and letters to a spiritual plane. The transition between above and below ground, between this life and the next, is celebrated rather than shunned: Ann Donne opines from under the paved stones of St. Clements; bones and effigies are returned to the life cycle, memories and remnants haunt present generations. Passages, sometimes resemble a prose poem. Highly recommended for literary and history buffs, this book differs in style and theme from Edward Docx's modern fiction THE CALLIGRAPHER, an adaptation of Donne's thirty SONGS AND SONNETS.
Previous Review dated 2010: Mary Novik has written a seventeenth-century historical fiction, at the heart of which is Pegge Donne, one of the poet John Donne's daughters. Significant characters are her poet-priest father, her mother Ann More Donne, her siblings and children, some contemporary luminaries and other persons, and her husband Sir William Bowles. The gist is two generations of the Donnes' domestic lives-- courtship, marriage, childbirth, and dying--amid the backdrop of contemporary English events. Novik's style is sensuous with description yet also raises longing, love, and letters to a spiritual plane. The transition between above and below ground, between this life and the next, is celebrated rather than shunned: Ann Donne opines from under the paved stones of St. Clements; bones and effigies are returned to the life cycle, memories and remnants haunt present generations. Passages, sometimes resemble a prose poem. Highly recommended for literary and history buffs, this book differs in style and theme from Edward Docx's modern fiction THE CALLIGRAPHER, an adaptation of Donne's thirty SONGS AND SONNETS.
April 4, 2009
17th-century England was no easy time for anyone, including Pegge, second-youngest daughter of the infamous poet and preacher John Donne. A strange girl with a slightly obsessive fascination for her father and a yearning for the kind of love he had with her mother, Ann, before her death several years before, Pegge has fixed her sights on Izaak Walton, a young fisherman the same age as her oldest sister Constance - whom Izaak loves despite Con's dismissive attitude and ambition.
From 1622 until after the London fire of 1666 that burned down John Donne's St. Paul's Cathedral where his body rested - and not in his wife's grave as he had always promised - Conceit follows Pegge's journey through life from a young girl to a mature married woman, as well as retelling the story of John and Ann. In fact, Ann tells her side of the story from her grave, with the novel switching several times from third to second person as she speaks her mind directly to her husband, who in several ways betrayed her.
The characters are very much alive, and while I know next to nothing about John Donne or Izaak Walton or Samuel Pepys (who has a small role), or anyone else in the novel, and although the author acknowledges that she "invented joyfully and freely" (you would have to employ creative licence when retelling the intimate lives of people long, long gone), the depth of detail and the quality of the prose render it authentic.
It's hard to describe the quality of the prose, and the tone and feel it conveys - it has the ability to make the story come alive, and yet seem dream-like all at once. There's a great deal of imagery and recurring themes, which hold the novel together more tightly than the actual plot does. Speaking of plot, there isn't really one. It's very character-driven, rather meandering, but lives and breathes through its artful prose. The switch in perspective and voice isn't as strange as it sounds, and it's never hard to follow. Time does jump forward quite suddenly, and I had to plot it by noting how many children Pegge had had and how old they were.
Pegge herself is a very interesting character, quite eccentric and outside the norm, which you really only become aware of when seeing her through her husband William's eyes. He loves her but she's so wrapped up in the story of her parent's all-consuming love (until Ann had too many children and miscarriages and died), that she sometimes seems to think she is Ann.
Like The Nature of Monsters, which was set after the fire, Conceit captures the morbid fascination of a people mesmerised by life and death and all the gruesome, unflattering things that are hidden behind clothes and closed doors. Donne's poetry verged on vulgar, and his sermons were preoccupied with festering flesh and sexual sins. Depravity and innocence are juxtaposed with perfect balance here, neither one tipping the scales. The characters are stripped bare, their foibles, hypocrisies, vanities and conceits laid bare, and it's sometimes hard to find a sympathetic character, especially when their motives remain obscure. Yet that in itself only adds to the vibrancy of the novel, the honesty and voyeuristic perspective.
Conceit is a remarkable novel in its achievement, in its ability to capture the greys of its characters and utilise that Dickensian quality Frye talked about, of creating and writing characters who are so far from reality that they read as more real than if they'd been written less fantastically. The prose is organic, mystical almost, and while it's no conventional book aiming to please, it's worth reading for the historical depth of detail, the exploration of one of England's most famous poets, and for a walk down a new and unfamiliar path if you're willing to let Pegge lead the way.
From 1622 until after the London fire of 1666 that burned down John Donne's St. Paul's Cathedral where his body rested - and not in his wife's grave as he had always promised - Conceit follows Pegge's journey through life from a young girl to a mature married woman, as well as retelling the story of John and Ann. In fact, Ann tells her side of the story from her grave, with the novel switching several times from third to second person as she speaks her mind directly to her husband, who in several ways betrayed her.
The characters are very much alive, and while I know next to nothing about John Donne or Izaak Walton or Samuel Pepys (who has a small role), or anyone else in the novel, and although the author acknowledges that she "invented joyfully and freely" (you would have to employ creative licence when retelling the intimate lives of people long, long gone), the depth of detail and the quality of the prose render it authentic.
It's hard to describe the quality of the prose, and the tone and feel it conveys - it has the ability to make the story come alive, and yet seem dream-like all at once. There's a great deal of imagery and recurring themes, which hold the novel together more tightly than the actual plot does. Speaking of plot, there isn't really one. It's very character-driven, rather meandering, but lives and breathes through its artful prose. The switch in perspective and voice isn't as strange as it sounds, and it's never hard to follow. Time does jump forward quite suddenly, and I had to plot it by noting how many children Pegge had had and how old they were.
Pegge herself is a very interesting character, quite eccentric and outside the norm, which you really only become aware of when seeing her through her husband William's eyes. He loves her but she's so wrapped up in the story of her parent's all-consuming love (until Ann had too many children and miscarriages and died), that she sometimes seems to think she is Ann.
Like The Nature of Monsters, which was set after the fire, Conceit captures the morbid fascination of a people mesmerised by life and death and all the gruesome, unflattering things that are hidden behind clothes and closed doors. Donne's poetry verged on vulgar, and his sermons were preoccupied with festering flesh and sexual sins. Depravity and innocence are juxtaposed with perfect balance here, neither one tipping the scales. The characters are stripped bare, their foibles, hypocrisies, vanities and conceits laid bare, and it's sometimes hard to find a sympathetic character, especially when their motives remain obscure. Yet that in itself only adds to the vibrancy of the novel, the honesty and voyeuristic perspective.
Conceit is a remarkable novel in its achievement, in its ability to capture the greys of its characters and utilise that Dickensian quality Frye talked about, of creating and writing characters who are so far from reality that they read as more real than if they'd been written less fantastically. The prose is organic, mystical almost, and while it's no conventional book aiming to please, it's worth reading for the historical depth of detail, the exploration of one of England's most famous poets, and for a walk down a new and unfamiliar path if you're willing to let Pegge lead the way.
January 23, 2009
I am so very happy that Mary was long-listed for the Giller, and that she won the Ethel Wilson for this book. Well-deserved!
I have not read many historical fiction novels, but this didn't really "read" like a typical historical fiction. I read it not only once, but twice -- before it really "came out", and afterwards.
The first time I read it more for the story (although I couldn't not notice the excellent prose), and I read quickly. (Yes, I found it was a page-turner.) The second time I read as slowly as I could, so that I could savour the the language, the story as it unfolded. (I missed many things during the first read.)
An interest in John Donne is not a prerequisite for reading this novel! (Although your interest in the man may well be piqued after reading Conceit.)
I highly recommend this book.
I have not read many historical fiction novels, but this didn't really "read" like a typical historical fiction. I read it not only once, but twice -- before it really "came out", and afterwards.
The first time I read it more for the story (although I couldn't not notice the excellent prose), and I read quickly. (Yes, I found it was a page-turner.) The second time I read as slowly as I could, so that I could savour the the language, the story as it unfolded. (I missed many things during the first read.)
An interest in John Donne is not a prerequisite for reading this novel! (Although your interest in the man may well be piqued after reading Conceit.)
I highly recommend this book.
August 13, 2008
This is a beautifully-written historical novel, told mainly from the pov of John Donne's daughter. This is the type of historical fiction I delight in, with flawlessly crafted prose, delightful details, wit, and interesting family dynamics. I highly recommend it.
June 7, 2009
A great read. This is a book you tell your friends about and they tell their friends about.
March 13, 2008
Awesome. If you love historical fiction--or just love a good read--this is for you.
August 10, 2009
Loved this book. The main characters are so eccentric and passionate. The historical context is really informative and so well written. I loved how the author develops the intricacies of the relationship between John and his daughter Pegge, and how their relationship impacts on her relationship with her husband and life long love. The prose is wonderful - I had a hard time putting it down. Happy to read yet another smart, well writen book by a Canadian author.
April 19, 2022
Transporting
December 26, 2014
Read my review of
Conceit
June 3, 2010
There is a certain eternalness about the characters who are carved so sharply, so beautifully from the words that flow together as poetry. This was a beautiful book - it is a classic. And I am entirely enamored by the world created by Novik. The story of Pegge, who might have been Cinderella in some other story, who dreams and wants as feverishly as her genius father. Her genius has no audience, and her desires are largely unspoken. However, at the end of it all, she finds fulfillment. And love.
August 1, 2011
Mary Novik breathes new life into the dust that lies beneath "Old St. Paul's".
Like Izaak Walton and Dr. Samuel Johnson before her, she explores the life - and death - of John Donne, that curious clergyman whose effigy still stands wrapped in his shroud, even though the church that once contained it was long ago made ashes.
Her book joins the ranks of those select few authors - Peter Ackroyd, for one - whose books convey an abiding love of London, and what lies beneath.
Like Izaak Walton and Dr. Samuel Johnson before her, she explores the life - and death - of John Donne, that curious clergyman whose effigy still stands wrapped in his shroud, even though the church that once contained it was long ago made ashes.
Her book joins the ranks of those select few authors - Peter Ackroyd, for one - whose books convey an abiding love of London, and what lies beneath.
December 22, 2010
What is it they say? Well-behaved women are rarely remembered? While Pegge Donne, John and Ann's daughter, is the main character of this wonderful novel, she is her parents' child both literally and figuratively. There are moments of hilarity here, as when Pegge's husband consoles himself that he's protected her from something she shouldn't see - when in fact Pegge is the one who's removed her father's skeleton from its perch among the ruins of St. Paul's after London's Great Fire, bone by bone. Pegge writes, Pegge antagonizes her cook by inhabiting her own kitchen, Pegge shows up in London in her gardening clothes and goes barefoot whenever possible. This is a lovely testament to the joys of being a feisty woman who refuses to be too tightly bound by convention.
Read
July 16, 2013My novel Conceit, which is set in 17th-century London, is about the daughter of the English poet John Donne. There have been many reviews on Goodreads, and group discussions can be read at
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5... and
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_... For more information, please visit http://www.marynovik.com
Cheers, Mary Mary Novik
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5... and
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_... For more information, please visit http://www.marynovik.com
Cheers, Mary Mary Novik
March 21, 2009
Mary Novik's 17th century novel, Conceit is a beautifully written story about the daughter of the famed poet, John Donne.
Almost tragic in her obsession with her parent's legendary love-affair, the protagonist, Pegge Donne, explores the depths of passion, betrayal, sexuality and her own attempt to navigate a confusing and perilous era in England, not only politically, but socially.
Novik's handling of the subject matter is with a cool authorial voice, almost clinical, a striking, sometimes disturbing, counterpoint to the very gritty, sweaty subject matter with which she deals.
I'll be thinking about this novel for some days to come.
Almost tragic in her obsession with her parent's legendary love-affair, the protagonist, Pegge Donne, explores the depths of passion, betrayal, sexuality and her own attempt to navigate a confusing and perilous era in England, not only politically, but socially.
Novik's handling of the subject matter is with a cool authorial voice, almost clinical, a striking, sometimes disturbing, counterpoint to the very gritty, sweaty subject matter with which she deals.
I'll be thinking about this novel for some days to come.
March 18, 2011
Very interesting novel and a revealing portrait of London domestic and political life in the seventeenth century.
August 20, 2011
This is a captivating read. The author's historical research coupled with her amazing imagination made this reading experience a most special one.
July 16, 2013
This review and others can be found on Cozy Up With A Good Read
This book was on a list of recommended books from Random House of Canada and I will have to say that this is one of the books that took me the longest to get through, but it was really interesting. The book is long and very detailed but not in a way that distracts from the story. Every little thing adds to the story and I found that Mary Novik's writing made it easy to imagine the setting and the characters. She gives readers every little detail so that you can really see the characters for who they are.
The writing style of this book is very dark and gritty. I felt that it matched the story perfectly, making me feel like I was going through the same problems as Pegge. I was intrigued by Pegge's character throughout the entire book, she tried her hardest to make those around her happy and yet at the same time only wanted one thing for herself and that was to choose the person she would marry.
What was very interesting was how Novik inserts the voices of John Donne and Ann More into the story as well, telling the readers their courtship story. This added story really shows why Pegge is so interested in making her own life instead of having someone chosen for her. I did feel a little confused at one point of whose story I was following, but I eventually got used to the different voices.
As much as I loved Pegge, I found that at other times her character annoyed me, she would find things to complain about when she was given so much, she was still very much child-like even when she did grow up. I can see why she was so young at heart though, never really learning how to take care of a household because her sister always managed everything. Pegge's relationship with her father was the best part of the story for me, even after John Donne has passed away, Pegge just wants to preserve the love story between her parents and make it known, even though everyone else sees something else.
I really liked learning a little more about John Donne and his poetry in this book, Mary Novik really brings Donne to life and shows off the reactions to his poetry well. Especially how people saw him after his death, it was very interesting to say the least. This is definitely a historical fiction book that is very literary and you won't want to leave these characters.
This book was on a list of recommended books from Random House of Canada and I will have to say that this is one of the books that took me the longest to get through, but it was really interesting. The book is long and very detailed but not in a way that distracts from the story. Every little thing adds to the story and I found that Mary Novik's writing made it easy to imagine the setting and the characters. She gives readers every little detail so that you can really see the characters for who they are.
The writing style of this book is very dark and gritty. I felt that it matched the story perfectly, making me feel like I was going through the same problems as Pegge. I was intrigued by Pegge's character throughout the entire book, she tried her hardest to make those around her happy and yet at the same time only wanted one thing for herself and that was to choose the person she would marry.
What was very interesting was how Novik inserts the voices of John Donne and Ann More into the story as well, telling the readers their courtship story. This added story really shows why Pegge is so interested in making her own life instead of having someone chosen for her. I did feel a little confused at one point of whose story I was following, but I eventually got used to the different voices.
As much as I loved Pegge, I found that at other times her character annoyed me, she would find things to complain about when she was given so much, she was still very much child-like even when she did grow up. I can see why she was so young at heart though, never really learning how to take care of a household because her sister always managed everything. Pegge's relationship with her father was the best part of the story for me, even after John Donne has passed away, Pegge just wants to preserve the love story between her parents and make it known, even though everyone else sees something else.
I really liked learning a little more about John Donne and his poetry in this book, Mary Novik really brings Donne to life and shows off the reactions to his poetry well. Especially how people saw him after his death, it was very interesting to say the least. This is definitely a historical fiction book that is very literary and you won't want to leave these characters.
May 15, 2013
Almost exactly six years ago, I was lucky enough to have Quill and Quire ask me to review Mary Novik's debut novel Conceit. I was blown away by it, as the following review which I've just rescued from my old files, attests. Now I hear that her novel about Francesco Petrach will be out in August, and I'm really looking forward to reading it.
In the meantime, here's my review of Conceit:
How to write a review in 350 words that does justice to Mary Novik’s extraordinary novel Conceit?
Nearly impossible, which is probably why the publicist’s bumph veers toward purple prose, making it sound like an overheated historical bodice-ripper. Yes, Novik plunges us into the London of the Great Fire of 1666 as the book opens. Yes, she makes us smell the smoke and feel the heat, just as she shows us, a little later on, the longing that Pegge Donne feels for her first love, Isaak Walton.
The book, in its baldest outline, is pretty simple, too: a family drama with passionate overtones. Dashing young courtier-poet John Donne falls madly in love with Anne Moore, has 12 children with her, and vows to be buried next to her.
But when he becomes dean of St. Paul’s, he decides to be buried there. Pegge resents this decision, yet nevertheless when London burns, Pegge—by now the mother of 12 children herself—rescues Donne’s statue from the cathedral (photo at right.) The book ends with a kind of reconciliation between Pegge and her long-dead father, and between her and her very-much-alive husband. .
But this is far too sketchy Not only does Novik present us with Pegge’s thinking, she also gives us John Donne rationalizing why he won’t spend eternity with Anne, and Anne, who died at 29 after 12 pregnancies, wailing “I know I did not die a natural death. I was slain by love, at far too young an age.” This shifting of point of view can be at times confusing, but the richness of the book makes up for it.
Novik’s descriptions are often startling but very apt: for example, she says that during their father’s long sermons, the Donne children “lounged about in their minds.” In preparing to tell her story Novik obviously has read major texts from the period, from Samuel Pepys’ diary to Donne’s own poems and sermons. But the book is about “my seventeenth century,” she says, adding that she has “invented joyfully and freely.”
The result is as delightful as Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and as erudite and readable as A.S. Byatt’s Possession.
In the meantime, here's my review of Conceit:
How to write a review in 350 words that does justice to Mary Novik’s extraordinary novel Conceit?
Nearly impossible, which is probably why the publicist’s bumph veers toward purple prose, making it sound like an overheated historical bodice-ripper. Yes, Novik plunges us into the London of the Great Fire of 1666 as the book opens. Yes, she makes us smell the smoke and feel the heat, just as she shows us, a little later on, the longing that Pegge Donne feels for her first love, Isaak Walton.
The book, in its baldest outline, is pretty simple, too: a family drama with passionate overtones. Dashing young courtier-poet John Donne falls madly in love with Anne Moore, has 12 children with her, and vows to be buried next to her.
But when he becomes dean of St. Paul’s, he decides to be buried there. Pegge resents this decision, yet nevertheless when London burns, Pegge—by now the mother of 12 children herself—rescues Donne’s statue from the cathedral (photo at right.) The book ends with a kind of reconciliation between Pegge and her long-dead father, and between her and her very-much-alive husband. .
But this is far too sketchy Not only does Novik present us with Pegge’s thinking, she also gives us John Donne rationalizing why he won’t spend eternity with Anne, and Anne, who died at 29 after 12 pregnancies, wailing “I know I did not die a natural death. I was slain by love, at far too young an age.” This shifting of point of view can be at times confusing, but the richness of the book makes up for it.
Novik’s descriptions are often startling but very apt: for example, she says that during their father’s long sermons, the Donne children “lounged about in their minds.” In preparing to tell her story Novik obviously has read major texts from the period, from Samuel Pepys’ diary to Donne’s own poems and sermons. But the book is about “my seventeenth century,” she says, adding that she has “invented joyfully and freely.”
The result is as delightful as Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and as erudite and readable as A.S. Byatt’s Possession.
August 28, 2011
I was drawn into this book immediately as the first chapter is set during the Great Fire of London in 1666. Mary Novik paints a clear picture of the panic and confusion and uses it to introduce her main character, Pegge Dunne as she struggles to rescue the statue of her father, the great John Donne, from St Paul's Cathedral as it burns to the ground.
While Pegge is the main character in the book, the story is is dominated by her flamboyant father who in his early life was a poet best known for his erotica, but later became a clergyman and Dean of St Paul's and tried to hide his earlier work. Historically, not much is known about John Donne's family and it is here that the author has put her imagination to work, and the picture we are given of Pegge is that of a headstrong girl and woman and the child most like her famous father. Through her imaginings, we piece together the love story of John and his wife Anne, and we hear Anne's voice from the grave as she vows to return to the passion they shared when she was alive. We are also introduced to the character of Izaak Walton. He is best known to us today as the author of The Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative Man's Recreation, but he also wrote a biography of John Donne and Novik invents a love interest here as a way of explaining his association with the Donne family.
In reading this book, I was reminded of Restoration by Rose Tremain. It has the same flavour and the way in which it is written does much to impart the prevailing culture of the age in which it is set.
While Pegge is the main character in the book, the story is is dominated by her flamboyant father who in his early life was a poet best known for his erotica, but later became a clergyman and Dean of St Paul's and tried to hide his earlier work. Historically, not much is known about John Donne's family and it is here that the author has put her imagination to work, and the picture we are given of Pegge is that of a headstrong girl and woman and the child most like her famous father. Through her imaginings, we piece together the love story of John and his wife Anne, and we hear Anne's voice from the grave as she vows to return to the passion they shared when she was alive. We are also introduced to the character of Izaak Walton. He is best known to us today as the author of The Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative Man's Recreation, but he also wrote a biography of John Donne and Novik invents a love interest here as a way of explaining his association with the Donne family.
In reading this book, I was reminded of Restoration by Rose Tremain. It has the same flavour and the way in which it is written does much to impart the prevailing culture of the age in which it is set.
February 12, 2009
Writing the novel must have been a very challenging and rewarding process for Mary Novik. She has successfully presented a rich old fashion story, centered on the life of Pegge Donne, daughter of love poet John Donne. The principal players: John Donne, his wife Anne More and their daughter Pegge relate alternately their life experiences.
Opening with a spectacular scene in London during the fury of the Great fire, you are immediately plunged into the world of passion, but not ordinary passion, one of erotic love, familial love and platonic love. "Conceit" is actually an ensemble of love stories set in the seventeenth century.
In those days, marriages were arranged; custom dictated that fathers find a husband for their daughters. Pegge went against the currant and wanted a romantic kind of love, the type her parents had and her father wrote about in his love poetry.
She is definitely not portrayed as the typical woman of the time; she is far too clever and complex. She pushes the boundaries of her behaviour and seeks the secret of love from various people, including her own father. Although the novel is primarily a fictional account in the life of Pegge and her parents we also have a glimpse into the love-relationship of other marriages such as Izaak Walton and Samuel Pepys, important people of the time.
Having limited knowledge and not a big fan of poetry, I may seem bias in my assessment. I found it dragged and I had a problem focusing and adjusting especially when Ms Novik shifted the narrative back and forth between characters, loosing me at times affecting momentum and my interest in the story.
I was nevertheless glad to have read and been introduced into a world I normally would not have visited. Would I recommend it, positively without any doubt? Through her poetic and luscious prose Ms Novick delivered a gem of a novel, any lover of poetry I am sure would favour.
Opening with a spectacular scene in London during the fury of the Great fire, you are immediately plunged into the world of passion, but not ordinary passion, one of erotic love, familial love and platonic love. "Conceit" is actually an ensemble of love stories set in the seventeenth century.
In those days, marriages were arranged; custom dictated that fathers find a husband for their daughters. Pegge went against the currant and wanted a romantic kind of love, the type her parents had and her father wrote about in his love poetry.
She is definitely not portrayed as the typical woman of the time; she is far too clever and complex. She pushes the boundaries of her behaviour and seeks the secret of love from various people, including her own father. Although the novel is primarily a fictional account in the life of Pegge and her parents we also have a glimpse into the love-relationship of other marriages such as Izaak Walton and Samuel Pepys, important people of the time.
Having limited knowledge and not a big fan of poetry, I may seem bias in my assessment. I found it dragged and I had a problem focusing and adjusting especially when Ms Novik shifted the narrative back and forth between characters, loosing me at times affecting momentum and my interest in the story.
I was nevertheless glad to have read and been introduced into a world I normally would not have visited. Would I recommend it, positively without any doubt? Through her poetic and luscious prose Ms Novick delivered a gem of a novel, any lover of poetry I am sure would favour.
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September 5, 201317th century social brutality, especially for women, but the men suffer losses too, sometimes stupidly. The novel makes me glad I came along later, but I was riveted to the "present" of the past. Vivid portrayals of historic ones like Jonne Donne, his daughter, his wife, Samuel Pepys- from inside their skulls. "Skull/s" is a key word in this book, but the book's beauty is in the (unexpected for me) passions of flowers, fish and fabric. Then the London fire of 1666 and its effect as a pair of bookends. (framing device). There and other places, the book trades beauty for the sublime, and for the yearnings and struggles of its principal character, which are both ugly and beautiful in their own compelling ways. The right choice (author's)when the chips are so far down. More than historical friction.
December 10, 2014
I was blown away by Mary Novik's prose. I'm not surprised that she won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and was long listed for the Giller Prize. Conceit starts with London on fire in the 17th century, a time when John Donne's poetry is flourishing. Her details about his daughters, his wife, and his conceit are riveting. I can't believe the kind of research that Mary Novik must've been done to bring this time and story to life. Highly recommend this book. Not only a look back at a time when the world was smaller in so many ways, but also at a time when love was as raw and layered as it is today. This is a book I wouldn't mind re-reading and that is an unusual thing for me to say.
June 4, 2013
I picked this book up at my local library and was very pleasantly surprised by the story, the characters and the skill of the writing! I had to keep reading and was a bit disappointed when I hit the end. Fascinating characters, an intriguing bit of history with a perfect title.
February 9, 2013
Portrait of John Donne through the eyes of his daughter, Pegge Donne. Interesting view of life in seventeenth-century London.
May 31, 2020
This was a great historical fiction centred on Pegge Donne, the daughter of poet John Donne and his wife Ann More. A great portrait of life in 17th century London, which is shown at times from the point of view of Pegge, of her mother Ann More who elopes with Donne, and of Donne himself. Cameo appearances from Samuel Pepys, Isaak Walton, Christopher Wren, and the great fire of London (which destroyed most of the city including the original St Paul's Cathedral) make this an engrossing read which paints a very realistic portrait of life at the time. Love, death, poetry, fishing, farming, court intrigue are all woven into this compelling tale of an unusual young woman who longs for more than life appears to offer.
May 23, 2014
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I begun.
Pegge Donne spends her whole life pursuing love. And as the daughter of esteemed poet-turned-priest, John Donne, she has formed strong opinions about what "love" is. For didn't john Donne forsake everything to marry his own true love, Ann More. Didn't he write her love poems that still today are revered and held as examples of great poetry. And when Ann More died after giving birth to her twelfth child, didn't John Donne inscribe his grief onto her tombstone, having promised to lay with her in eternity. Pegge was just 3 when her mother died, but she grew up immersed in the legend of John Donne's passionate poetry and in the reality of his equally passionate pulpit.
Pegge is more like Donne than any of his other children, poetic, philosophical, scholarly, but because she is a woman, she cannot be her true self. Conceit is the story of Pegge's life, from a young teen to a grandmother. She relentlessly seeks the passionate love described by John Donne in his poetry, forgetting that Donne himself was creating a fiction of that love. By the end of the novel she learns to accept love in whatever form it is offered.
While it is Pegge's story, it is told in more than Pegge's voice, as there are chapters narrated by John Donne, by Ann More, and by Pegge's husband William Bowles.
Set in the political tumult that was 17th century England, Conceit is a love story -- but far more than just a love story. Within its fictional events, It is a social commentary of the times and a tantalizing primer on the writings of John Donne. A story that begins in the midst of the Great Fire of London (1666) Conceit is a reminder that fire, both literally and metaphorically, consumes without prejudice.
And makes me end where I begun.
Pegge Donne spends her whole life pursuing love. And as the daughter of esteemed poet-turned-priest, John Donne, she has formed strong opinions about what "love" is. For didn't john Donne forsake everything to marry his own true love, Ann More. Didn't he write her love poems that still today are revered and held as examples of great poetry. And when Ann More died after giving birth to her twelfth child, didn't John Donne inscribe his grief onto her tombstone, having promised to lay with her in eternity. Pegge was just 3 when her mother died, but she grew up immersed in the legend of John Donne's passionate poetry and in the reality of his equally passionate pulpit.
Pegge is more like Donne than any of his other children, poetic, philosophical, scholarly, but because she is a woman, she cannot be her true self. Conceit is the story of Pegge's life, from a young teen to a grandmother. She relentlessly seeks the passionate love described by John Donne in his poetry, forgetting that Donne himself was creating a fiction of that love. By the end of the novel she learns to accept love in whatever form it is offered.
While it is Pegge's story, it is told in more than Pegge's voice, as there are chapters narrated by John Donne, by Ann More, and by Pegge's husband William Bowles.
Set in the political tumult that was 17th century England, Conceit is a love story -- but far more than just a love story. Within its fictional events, It is a social commentary of the times and a tantalizing primer on the writings of John Donne. A story that begins in the midst of the Great Fire of London (1666) Conceit is a reminder that fire, both literally and metaphorically, consumes without prejudice.
February 22, 2011
Very rarely have I endeavoured to finish a book this painful. The entire style was distracting. There was perhaps 75 pages towards the end that I actually didn't hate, but overall, not a book I enjoyed at all.
August 25, 2011
I loved this book. Now that I'm done, I'm going to check back on the discussion in Book Haven to see what everybody's saying about it. http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5...
September 1, 2011
The detail and lovely writing in this book are amazing. I am going to read John Donne's writings now that Mary Novik has intrigued me so much. And Izak Walton's too now. It was intense and I read it over my 2 wks camping at the lake - a fabulous place to read this senuous book!
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February 5, 2009I know Mary from the UBC Booming Ground program. Conceit was long-listed for the Giller Prize. Congrats Mary!
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