Fanny und Scylla: oder Die zweite Frau

Paget Family Saga #2

by Joan Aiken

Die frisch vermählte, sechzehnjährige Fanny wird von ihrem Gatten erniedrigt und mißhandelt. Viele tausend Meilen entfernt, in Nordindien, fliehen zwei junge Menschen um ihr Leben, verfolgt von den Kriegern eines rachsüchtigen Maharadschas. 1001 Abenteuer müssen die Zwillinge bestehen, bis sie endlich in England im Haus ihrer Cousine ankommen. Hier jedoch stehen finstere Ereignisse bevor...

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, German Literature, Ebooks, Regency, British Literature

694 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Joan Aiken was a much loved English writer who received the MBE for services to Children's Literature. She was known as a writer of wild fantasy, Gothic novels and short stories.

She was born in Rye, East Sussex, into a family of writers, including her father, Conrad Aiken (who won a Pulitzer Prize for his poetry), and her sister, Jane Aiken Hodge. She worked for the United Nations Information Office during the second world war, and then as an editor and freelance on Argosy magazine before she started writing full time, mainly children's books and thrillers. For her books she received the Guardian Award (1969) and the Edgar Allan Poe Award (1972).

Her most popular series, the "Wolves Chronicles" which began with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, was set in an elaborate alternate period of history in a Britain in which James II was never deposed in the Glorious Revolution,and so supporters of the House of Hanover continually plot to overthrow the Stuart Kings. These books also feature cockney urchin heroine Dido Twite and her adventures and travels all over the world.

Another series of children's books about Arabel and her raven Mortimer are illustrated by Quentin Blake, and have been shown on the BBC as Jackanory and drama series. Others including the much loved Necklace of Raindrops and award winning Kingdom Under the Sea are illustrated by Jan Pieńkowski.

Her many novels for adults include several that continue or complement novels by Jane Austen. These include Mansfield Revisited and Jane Fairfax.

Aiken was a lifelong fan of ghost stories. She set her adult supernatural novel The Haunting of Lamb House at Lamb House in Rye (now a National Trust property). This ghost story recounts in fictional form an alleged haunting experienced by two former residents of the house, Henry James and E. F. Benson, both of whom also wrote ghost stories. Aiken's father, Conrad Aiken, also authored a small number of notable ghost stories.

Reviews

[Diane Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really thought I would like this book more than I did. The book blurb does a good job of setting things up so I won't rehash it. I found the reading extremely slow. The journey from India was almost like a fairy tale and that is not what I was expecting.

[Mary · Rating 1 out of 5]

What? I thought this would be like the first book. This was horrid. HORRID. I skimmed chapters 10-18 and I still feel like I was robbed of time.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Far more Gothic than The Smile of the Stranger, this second in the Paget family series follows two distinct plot threads which come together explosively at the end. When 16-year-old Fanny marries 48-year-old Thomas Paget, they go to live at the Hermitage, while its owner, Thomas's cousin Juliana (from the previous book), is away in Europe. Fanny doesn't take long to realize the error she made in marrying the brutal Thomas, who controls her just as he controls his daughters, his mother, and even the ash tree outside their window, which he has tied down to prevent its growing up to seek the light. While Fanny is learning to deal with her new life, so are Thomas's cousins Cal and Scylla, who have grown up in India but must leave hurriedly and make a dangerous journey back to England.

I occasionally have trouble with books with parallel plot threads, ending up more interested in one than the other, but Aiken kept me interested in both and tied them together very nicely at the end (though the climax did feel a bit rushed). The Gothic atmosphere in this book is particularly effective; Fanny feels the pain of the imprisoned tree as her own pain, while Scylla and Cal dream of it along their own dangerous journey.

[Judi Easley · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Review:
Fanny is another intrepid heroine, especially given her time. She is thrown in with a bunch of people who are rather extraordinary, though. So I can't say what might have happened to her if she had been on her own. If she hadn't fallen in with neighbors down the tunnel, she really wouldn't have come through this whole ordeal in quite the same shape. Yes, I said, "down the tunnel", over the wall, and around the corner. This book is chock full of crazy little twists and turns. They really add to the tenor of the book and allow for some of the unique happenings in the book. I think of the three books in the Paget family series, this is the one with the most outlandish happenings. I just don't think some of these things would have been gotten away with, even by aristocrats. Some things I just don't think you can hush up. But it all made for a really great book and probably the best of the three.

I received this eARC from Sourcebooks Casablanca and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I am not being compensated in any way. All opinions are fully my own.
~ Judi E. Easley

[Ynis Ainu · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all-time favourites, totally hooking me for the author when I read it first as a teenager. Not an easy read, but truly rewarding if you let yourself be taken along for the ride, and dealing with some uncomfortable topics which were all too common in the period, but are mostly hushed up particularly in fiction and romance.

[Tony Peck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous. A real adventure, fantastic writing, great characters and splendid complex story line. Highly recommended. I’m off to read the third of the Paget family saga.

[gardienne_du_feu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fanny, die Jüngste von zahlreichen Pfarrerstöchtern, schließt Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts eine Vernunftehe mit dem viel älteren Thomas Paget, einem Unsympathen sondergleichen, der an der englischen Küste die Presspatrouille befehligt, die Männer zum Militärdienst zwingt, um der Schmugglerproblematik Herr zu werden. Aus Thomas' erster Ehe gibt es drei ziemlich unausstehliche Töchter, von denen zwei älter sind als die sechzehnjährige Braut, die schnell spürt, dass sie in der Hermitage, dem abgelegenen Landhaus einer Paget-Cousine, in das sie einstweilen eingezogen sind, nicht wirklich willkommen ist.

Auch Thomas gibt sich seiner jungen Frau gegenüber kalt und herrisch und verbietet ihr alles, was ihr Leben etwas versüßen könnte, wie etwa das Verlassen des Grundstücks oder Kontakt zu den Nachbarn wie etwa dem fortschrittlich-freigeistigen Lord Egremont.

Etwas Spannung bringt dann eines Tages ein Brief in Fannys karges Leben. Die Zwillinge Cal und Scylla, entfernte Verwandte von Thomas, die im fernen Indien leben, kündigen ihre Rückkehr nach England an.

Die beiden sind mehr oder weniger am Hof eines Maharadschas groß geworden, doch nach dem Tod des Herrschers kommt es zu Erbstreitigkeiten und keiner kann seines Lebens sicher sein. Gemeinsam mit dem weit gereisten Colonel Cameron und der resoluten Miss Musson, die nach dem Tod ihres Bruders dessen Krankenhaus weitergeführt hat, machen sich Cal und Scylla auf eine gefahrvolle und langwierige Reise gen Westen.

Ein herrlicher Schmöker, der Gesellschaftsroman und Abenteuergeschichte in einem ist. Die Hauptpersonen wachsen einem schnell ans Herz, sowohl die schüchterne, verängstigte Fanny, die ganz allmählich mit zaghaften kleinen Schrittchen aus dem Käfig ihrer grässlichen Ehe auszubrechen wagt, als auch die Zwillinge, der verträumte Dichter Cal und die praktisch veranlagte Scylla, die sich in Charakter und Aussehen so unähnlich sind und doch eine ganz besondere Verbindung zueinander haben. Auch die Nebenfiguren sind wunderbar gezeichnet, insbesondere die manchmal schrullige, aber gescheite und unerschrockene Miss Musson, der oft grummelige Cameron, der eine Bürde aus der Vergangenheit mit sich herumschleppt, Fannys nette, lebenslustige Nachbarn oder der sympathische junge Gärtner der Hermitage. Nur Thomas Paget ist durch und durch widerlich und vielleicht ein wenig überzeichnet, was dem Lesevergnügen insgesamt aber überhaupt keinen Abbruch tut.

Die beiden Handlungsstränge in England und auf der Flucht aus Indien laufen lange Zeit nebeneinander her und verschlingen sich erst spät zu einem dramatischen Höhepunkt - irgendwann konnte ich das Buch kaum mehr aus der Hand legen. Allerbeste Urlaubslektüre!

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was sold a romance and what I got was a loosely connected family saga, a gothic, historical novel taking place on two continents. Set in a time period where men make the rules and women are virtual prisoners - the property of either their fathers or their husbands. I got a 16-yr-old girl married to a 48-year-old tyrant of a man. 200+ pages in I still couldn't tell who the supposed love interests were supposed to be. The book jacket claims Fanny and Andrew, but Andrew is barely in 10 pages of the entire book. And half the book centers on Scylla, Cal, Miss Musson, and Col. Cameron - only two of whom (the cousins) are given the barest mention on the book jacket.

It was enough of an adventure that I found myself immersed it in anyway, but with much confusion seeing as how I was sold a romance and given something very different.

I'm not really sure about my 3-star rating. A lot of the book stuck with me because it is much more involved than your typical easy romance read, but it was more devastating than I imagined based on the historical romance premise I was sold. It was incredibly well-written. The vocabulary was so historically accurate that I had to google much of it. It really set a realistic tone. Don't go in expecting Johanna Lindsey, though, this is much more Sarah Waters inspired by Jane Austen. If you like gothic fiction and adventure novels then you may want to pick this one up. I was surprised to find out it is part of a series. It is very much a stand-alone novel.

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really rather dark, with some marital rape and a weird incest scene. The scenes in India and travelling over the subcontinent were interesting but overall a low point for this beloved author.

ETA: the third book wasn’t great either and as I recall even more separate from the first, (which I did marginally enjoy). Almost zero relationship or mention of the events or people in the first two books. Why are they even called a series, really?

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a hard book to review. I really enjoyed reading it, but I'm not sure if I could recommend it to anyone. The book feels more like a series of events, as Aiken tries her hand at the Gothic style (including Gothic Orientalism). The central story exists, but seems like an afterthought, to the point where the connections to the weeping ash are actually given very little importance in the mind of the reader compared to the other, more exciting and intriguing events.

What was the actual connection of the weeping ash to Ned Wilshire? Was there any? Is the spirit of the tree supposed to be connected, or was it just an ill omen that so many bad things would happen to occur near it?

The book went back and forth between horrendous domestic abuse and a travel log through India and the Middle East. It wrapped everything up pretty abruptly, given how long it meandered through other parts of the book that didn't matter to the central plot. As I'm writing this review, I'm really surprised how much I enjoyed reading it, but I did! I think maybe it's just that Aiken's writing is so readable and enjoyable, I stuck with it. I often will interleave long books with other shorter works, but in this case, I mostly just devoted my time to this one.

[Anna-Louise Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Densely interwoven plot lines!

Aiken really manages to create an utterly convincing plot in this novel which weaves together historical fact, realistic characters, a true account of place and the underlying mystery of existence.
Suspense is maintained at all times and there are multiple dénouements _ some deeply tragic while others are blissful. Some questions are left unanswered but one feels conscious of possible answers.
A very satisfying read.

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Started this one because the first in the series was interesting and fun, but wow. This is very dark, and already I can see that the author isn't equipped to deal with it properly (as I've seen to a lesser degree in a few of her other books).

I don't need more stories of injustices wrongly dealt with. I'm giving up while I'm ahead.

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the most confused books I've ever read.

[Patricia · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was too Gothic for me. I didn’t finish. I made it only 7% into the book.

[Vae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good grief Joan Aiken treats her women characters harshly.

cw: sexual assault, marital rape, domestic abuse

[Pia Parzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

der Anfang war etwas langwierig und nicht spannend, doch dem Ende entgegen spielten sich unvorhersehbare Ereignisse ab. Besonders schön fand ich die Geschichte von Scylla und ihrer langen Reise.

[Stevie Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Previously reviewed on The Good, The Bad, and The Unread:

Having read and enjoyed the first book in this reissued trilogy, I was greatly looking forward to the next instalment of the Paget family’s adventures. Fortunately, I didn’t have long to wait, and this time we got to meet a multitude of heroes and heroines, both at home in Sussex and abroad as far as India. There were almost enough adventures going on to form two books, but I’m glad the most obvious splits weren’t made, since the two main stories complement each other perfectly and their joining together at the end leads to a mostly satisfactory conclusion.

We meet our first heroine in England. Fanny, the youngest of eight sisters, with only a very small dowry, is betrothed to a much older widower, the cousin of the first book’s heroine. Having come into a great deal of wealth, that lady is keen to see that her various relatives are also provided for, and so offers her house for the use of Thomas Paget – Fanny’s new husband – while she herself is abroad with her own new husband. The main condition she makes is that, should her other missing cousins be found, they should be made welcome at the house, if they ever decide to visit Sussex.

From the very start, Fanny’s marriage is far from happy. Her new husband is a tyrant, her stepdaughters are spoiled and resentful, and she finds herself trapped a long way from home with few chances to make friends with any of her neighbours. Although the young gardener offers his support, and the inhabitants of Petworth House visit and invite Fanny to join in their activities, Thomas thwarts every attempt others make at relieving the burdens he places on Fanny. Much of Thomas’ outright cruelty and abuse, meanwhile, made for difficult reading. However relief came (mostly) in the form of the chapters dealing with the other members of the Paget family.

Scylla and Cal are twins, illegitimate children of an Englishman who settled in India with a local mixed-race woman. Following the deaths of both their parents, they have been cared for by an older brother and sister pair of missionaries, and have become regular visitors at the Maharajah’s palace. All this changes, however, when the old Maharaja dies and the British inhabitants of their town are forced to flee the ensuing unrest. The twins, accompanied by one of their guardians and an unlikely pair of rescuers, trek across Asia to Europe and onwards to England, where they have heard they have relatives able to welcome them.

After many adventures, Cal and Scylla reach Sussex, where Fanny’s situation has grown yet more dire than at the outset of her unhappy marriage. Things get still worse for all concerned before that mostly happy resolution I mentioned earlier. While not all loose ends are tied up in what modern readers would consider to be a satisfactory manner, I did appreciate the way in which our two main heroines are given opportunities to overcome their personal obstacles.

All in all, this was a welcome follow-up to the first story that stands well by itself also. I’m now waiting to find out which Pagets we get to meet in the third and final book.

[Xenia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, was für eine Geschichte. Aiken nimmt sich viel Zeit, sie zu erzählen, aber das braucht es auch, denn die Geschichte ist wirklich opulent und steckt voller Wendungen und Gimmicks. Von Manchem musste man den Staub abklopfen und die Naivität Fannys war für mich oft genug kaum zu ertragen, aber insgesamt hat mich das Roman sehr gut unterhalten und als Herbstlektüre für lange, dunkle Abende eignet sich das Buch perfekt.

[Booklady · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in the mid-nineteenth century, another great read. This one set in the countryside of England and exotic locations such as India. I was reminded a little of The Mill on the Floss and The Far Pavillions as I read. One who lives in England, Fanny, has a very horrendous life with her mean and vicious husband. The other two owmen live with one's twin brother in India. Romance and high adventure flow at a rapid pace in a well-written story.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

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[Rebekah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just could not get into this book, which was disappointing based on the blurb on the back of the book.

[Leslie Crockett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Over all if you a slow read with nothing truly special about any one character. Than for the most part this book is for you. I understand that the people are true to form in that day a lot of young girls were married off to older gentlemen, but I want to read a romantic mystery as I was believe from the description. It was a bit unromantic if I must say.