What do you think?
Rate this book
The Nature of Monsters
1666: The Great Fire of London sweeps through the streets and a heavily pregnant woman flees the flames. A few months later she gives birth to a child disfigured by a red birthmark.
1718: Sixteen-year-old Eliza Tally sees the gleaming dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral rising above a rebuilt city. She arrives as an apothecary’s maid, a position hastily arranged to shield the father of her unborn child from scandal. But why is the apothecary so eager to welcome her when he already has a maid, a half-wit named Mary? Why is Eliza never allowed to look her veiled master in the face or go into the study where he pursues his experiments? It is only on her visits to the Huguenot bookseller who supplies her master’s scientific tomes that she realizes the nature of his obsession. And she knows she has to act to save not just the child but Mary and herself.
With exquisite prose, dark humor, and a historian’s eye for detail, Clare Clark has created another transporting novel.
1718: Sixteen-year-old Eliza Tally sees the gleaming dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral rising above a rebuilt city. She arrives as an apothecary’s maid, a position hastily arranged to shield the father of her unborn child from scandal. But why is the apothecary so eager to welcome her when he already has a maid, a half-wit named Mary? Why is Eliza never allowed to look her veiled master in the face or go into the study where he pursues his experiments? It is only on her visits to the Huguenot bookseller who supplies her master’s scientific tomes that she realizes the nature of his obsession. And she knows she has to act to save not just the child but Mary and herself.
With exquisite prose, dark humor, and a historian’s eye for detail, Clare Clark has created another transporting novel.
382 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
65 people are currently reading
1456 people want to read
About the author
Clare Clark
14 books140 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Clare Clark (b.1967) is the author of The Great Stink, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year, and The Nature of Monsters.
Clark's novel Beautiful Lives (2012) was inspired by the lives of Gabriela and R.B. Cunninghame Graham.
Clare Clark (b.1967) is the author of The Great Stink, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year, and The Nature of Monsters.
Clark's novel Beautiful Lives (2012) was inspired by the lives of Gabriela and R.B. Cunninghame Graham.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 294 reviews
May 14, 2020
C is for Clark
3.5 stars
This book really really was a doozy. When I first began reading, I thought for sure it would be a 2 star, or possibly a low 3. I actually contemplated giving this one a 4, but the slow beginning made me round down. This is a fascinating, but at times very dry, piece of historical fiction that delves into the dark space that exists between medicine and science and mythology and superstition that existed in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Grayson Black is an apothecary who was born disfigured with an ugly red birthmark that has marked him as a "monster" and has caused severe psychological distress. His mother was a young woman who was pregnant with him during the Great Fire of London. She was almost killed as she became transfixed, almost enchanted, as she gazed into the burning flames. This act has led Grayson on an almost lifelong quest to pursue "scientific" answers to how "monsters" are created as he believes the fire his mother gazed upon burned the birthmark onto him, her unborn fetus.
Our narrator is sixteen year old Eliza Tally who comes to work for Grayson as a maid along with Mary, a young woman who is stricken with what I took to be Down's Syndrome (though in those times she was referred to as a "half-wit" or an "idiot"). Eliza is the unfortunate product of a mother who manipulated her marriage to a rich merchant for political and monetary means. Unfortunately, when Eliza becomes pregnant, her mother and husband abandon her. She comes to work for Grayson, his cold fish of a wife, and his drunken bastard of an apprentice. She goes about her duties, but as her meetings with Grayson become more frequent and increasingly more macabre, she begins to suspect that he has extremely dark and twisted plans for her, for Mary, and for her unborn baby.
My master was no apothecary. He was a fiend, a demon, the faceless agent of the Devil himself.
The premise of this book is fascinating and the writing could be quite beautiful at times. Unfortunately, at least for the first half, the style overtook the story, and not much happened. I also really didn't like Eliza or any of the other characters for that matter. In fact, I hated Eliza. I thought she was self-centered and petty and didn't respect anybody or anything. Her voice annoyed the hell out of me, and all I wanted to do was get finished.
However, something happened a little after the halfway point. Clare Clark wrote an INCREDIBLY moving scene between Eliza and a baby. The scene lasts maybe half a page but it is one that had a lasting impression on me and changed Eliza's character irrevocably. After that moment, I sensed Eliza's change of character and heart and began to become more invested in her story. She uncovers secrets surrounding Grayson and his experiments, and she tries harder and harder to get herself and Mary out of his clutches. From here on out, I loved this story and came to the end wishing that the first 200 pages were more compelling. I loved the gothic mystique of it, the blend of science and superstition, and the mythos of monsters living among us. There were some hints of some classics such as Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and even The Hunchback of Notre Dame within these pages, and while I was reading it reminded me so much of this other book I read that I need to mention it here. Mostly because that book was better and more obscure and I want to point more people in its direction.
With all that being said, I know that this book is not for everyone. I understand that not everyone who reads it will understand it, or will be forgiving of the dry first 200 pages. However, I highly recommend it for those of you are like a little something different, historical, and enjoy the subject matter of these so-called "monsters," the lonely, alienated and often misunderstood creatures that are born into a cruel and unforgiving world.
June 20, 2008
The exact words that came out of my mouth after reading this were “Well, that was a waste” as I put the book down, dismayed at what it was I just read. Believe me, the description on the back cover was a much better read then the actual book itself. It seemed at first that this could be an interesting concept, something intriguing. A young girl finds herself pregnant and later forced under the subjugation of a mad scientist during 18th century England. What’s not to like, right? Well, from the moment I read the first chapter and was faced with an absolutely unnecessary smut scene, I was tempted to just stop right there. It seemed that had unwittingly picked up one of those trashy romance novels. After that interesting beginning, it seemed to drag on and on. Yet, with a change of heart, I figured that some books simply start out slow; it had to get better right? Wrong. Not only did I find the book poorly written but NONE of the characters were at all engaging, in fact the secondary characters I found pointless and there was no effort with character development, and the plot itself was completely mind-numbing. The horrible scheme of the evil apothecary that began to unravel was plain absurd, laughable even. I couldn’t even truly hate any of the antagonists of the novel because none of them were compelling enough to feel anything towards. It’s never a good sign when I’m overcome with sheer indifference with character deaths, triumphs, and adversities. I can not recommend this book to anyone; I did get an ounce of pleasure when reading this book. It was utterly disappointing, and one should certainly stay clear of Nature of Monsters.
August 5, 2008
I am definitely guilty of wanting to read a book simply because I love the cover, though I do take into consideration the plot as well. But here we have a dark, gothic novel set in the early 1700s, more twisted and mad than Mr Rochester's crazy wife, complete with resourceful heroine and beastly experiments done in the name of science and medicine, set against the stinking refuse, pollution, grime and decay of London, as well as the political and religious freedoms, traditional superstitions and swaggering success (and plummeting fall) of the stock exchange.
Why wouldn't I want to read it? What's not to love?
Eliza Tally is the only child of a village midwife and herbalist, who knows she doesn't have long before the villagers openly declare her a witch, and so seeks to set her daughter up. She misjudges though when the young merchant's son claims they're not lawfully wed, and his father arranges for the pregnant Eliza to be sent off to London, to work as maid servant for an apothecary whom he is paying to keep her out of the way. Eliza goes willingly, expecting the apothecary, Grayson Black, to give her an illegal abortion.
Mr Black, however, has other uses for Eliza. Born with a disfiguring birthmark covering half his face, he is of that society of physicians and scientists looking for proof between the then-popular theory of maternal impressions and deformed babies. A pregnant woman who has a hare cross her path will give birth to a child with a harelip, things like that. It gets more and more grotesque, though, and by frightening Eliza with her fear of dogs Black expects her to give birth to a dog-like monster.
In his household is another maidservant, Mary, an idiot with a cleft palate, hairlip, little sense, and a childlike wonder for things, especially small animals. When his experiment with Eliza fails to bring the results he craves, and his addiction to opium becomes more and more pronounced, he turns to Mary, encouraging her love of monkeys.
It is not until Eliza looks at the pictures inside one of the books Mr Black has her return and collect from the bookseller, a French refugee with his own designs on the servant girl, that she realises what the nature of her master's work really is. A prisoner of his house, which is ruled over by his forbidding wife and the apothecary's assistant, Edgar, Eliza must find a way to rescue herself and Mary, before Mary's baby becomes a freakshow. (Even Eliza believes it will be a monster.)
The story is narrated by Eliza with all her lower-class frankness, nothing dressed up or masked or hidden but all the vulgarities on display, creating a very vivid portrait of the period, the people and her own predicament. Her chapters are separated by Grayson Black's journal entries and "scientific" notes, by letters to and from the apothecary or his wife, playbills for tonics and the like, giving us an added insight into what was going on in Grayson's mind, and what has happening beyond Eliza's knowledge at the time. They are brief but insightful, allowing the reader to piece things together and know more than Eliza, in some respects. (How she came by these documents is explained at the end.)
The prose is engrossing, and while there is little actual dialogue you don't even notice because Eliza relates all with no embellishment, her perspective at once ignorant and astute, her hopes gleaming through the cracks in her awful situation. The characters are morbid and, in their own way, grotesque - surely an irony they failed to see. The question of, who is the real monster? is an apt one - ethics, Clark says in her note at the back, weren't even considered while the emminent scientists of the day vivisected living dogs for study. There was no need for the story to visit a real freakshow; the house of Grayson Black is freakshow enough, simply by dint of its inhabitants being so grotesque. It is frightening what was considered medicine not so long ago, even though it is a foundation of sorts for modern medicine, but all the bleeding, cupping, leeching, and idiotic ideas regarding giving birth are terrifying.
As a historical novel, The Nature of Monsters is alive with detail and a great portrait of the time, albiet from a particular perspective and class of society. As a story, it's at once tense, chilling, gripping and absorbing, its natural morbidity softened by Eliza and Mary, and the hope of a happy ending. It's not a love story, more a story of survival, and the real fascination comes not from the medical freaks, but from those who study them and think to blame all the problems and defects of newborns on women and the theory of maternal impression.
Why wouldn't I want to read it? What's not to love?
Eliza Tally is the only child of a village midwife and herbalist, who knows she doesn't have long before the villagers openly declare her a witch, and so seeks to set her daughter up. She misjudges though when the young merchant's son claims they're not lawfully wed, and his father arranges for the pregnant Eliza to be sent off to London, to work as maid servant for an apothecary whom he is paying to keep her out of the way. Eliza goes willingly, expecting the apothecary, Grayson Black, to give her an illegal abortion.
Mr Black, however, has other uses for Eliza. Born with a disfiguring birthmark covering half his face, he is of that society of physicians and scientists looking for proof between the then-popular theory of maternal impressions and deformed babies. A pregnant woman who has a hare cross her path will give birth to a child with a harelip, things like that. It gets more and more grotesque, though, and by frightening Eliza with her fear of dogs Black expects her to give birth to a dog-like monster.
In his household is another maidservant, Mary, an idiot with a cleft palate, hairlip, little sense, and a childlike wonder for things, especially small animals. When his experiment with Eliza fails to bring the results he craves, and his addiction to opium becomes more and more pronounced, he turns to Mary, encouraging her love of monkeys.
It is not until Eliza looks at the pictures inside one of the books Mr Black has her return and collect from the bookseller, a French refugee with his own designs on the servant girl, that she realises what the nature of her master's work really is. A prisoner of his house, which is ruled over by his forbidding wife and the apothecary's assistant, Edgar, Eliza must find a way to rescue herself and Mary, before Mary's baby becomes a freakshow. (Even Eliza believes it will be a monster.)
The story is narrated by Eliza with all her lower-class frankness, nothing dressed up or masked or hidden but all the vulgarities on display, creating a very vivid portrait of the period, the people and her own predicament. Her chapters are separated by Grayson Black's journal entries and "scientific" notes, by letters to and from the apothecary or his wife, playbills for tonics and the like, giving us an added insight into what was going on in Grayson's mind, and what has happening beyond Eliza's knowledge at the time. They are brief but insightful, allowing the reader to piece things together and know more than Eliza, in some respects. (How she came by these documents is explained at the end.)
The prose is engrossing, and while there is little actual dialogue you don't even notice because Eliza relates all with no embellishment, her perspective at once ignorant and astute, her hopes gleaming through the cracks in her awful situation. The characters are morbid and, in their own way, grotesque - surely an irony they failed to see. The question of, who is the real monster? is an apt one - ethics, Clark says in her note at the back, weren't even considered while the emminent scientists of the day vivisected living dogs for study. There was no need for the story to visit a real freakshow; the house of Grayson Black is freakshow enough, simply by dint of its inhabitants being so grotesque. It is frightening what was considered medicine not so long ago, even though it is a foundation of sorts for modern medicine, but all the bleeding, cupping, leeching, and idiotic ideas regarding giving birth are terrifying.
As a historical novel, The Nature of Monsters is alive with detail and a great portrait of the time, albiet from a particular perspective and class of society. As a story, it's at once tense, chilling, gripping and absorbing, its natural morbidity softened by Eliza and Mary, and the hope of a happy ending. It's not a love story, more a story of survival, and the real fascination comes not from the medical freaks, but from those who study them and think to blame all the problems and defects of newborns on women and the theory of maternal impression.
November 29, 2007
This is what happens when you have a babysitter, and can browse your local book store without your wee one tugging at your skirts begging for the latest Sandra Boyton book.
Do not be fooled by the well written dust jacket description of this book, for it is a far better read than the book itself. It seemed so intriguing: a book set in early 18th century London. A girl finds herself pregnant, and at the mercy of a mad scientist. You would think, what a good read.
*sigh*
This is why you should never buy books after a few cocktails.
The book started off like a bad paperback romance novel. Really unnecessary, and frankly, was the first time I thought about putting the book down for good. It got worse from there. The main character, a girl named Lize begins as a hollow waste. She hates her mother, she hates her fetus, she hates the simple maid she's been stuck with, she just is not very fun.
The book is supposed to cover her change of heart, from this cold hateful girl into a caring woman. It certainly does this, but offers no context. One days she hates Mary--another victim of the mad scientist, and a chapter later, she's trying to save her life. There's some thread through the book about St. Paul's dome, but it never amounts to anything important.
I didn't get it. What was her motivation for changing? Was she ever really good? I really didn't care. Don't get me started with the bodily functions. Do I really care about how 18th century Londoners took a pee? Not really.
That all being said, I kept reading. I have no idea why. I think it was the "I want to see where this train wreck goes" attitude. In the end, the last dozen chapters or so are, even I can admit, good reads. I think in the end, if the entire first half of this book were cut, it would have gotten a a much better rating from me.
This is a short story gone horribly awry, and I really can't recommend it. It only got two stars because I read it the whole way through.
Do not be fooled by the well written dust jacket description of this book, for it is a far better read than the book itself. It seemed so intriguing: a book set in early 18th century London. A girl finds herself pregnant, and at the mercy of a mad scientist. You would think, what a good read.
*sigh*
This is why you should never buy books after a few cocktails.
The book started off like a bad paperback romance novel. Really unnecessary, and frankly, was the first time I thought about putting the book down for good. It got worse from there. The main character, a girl named Lize begins as a hollow waste. She hates her mother, she hates her fetus, she hates the simple maid she's been stuck with, she just is not very fun.
The book is supposed to cover her change of heart, from this cold hateful girl into a caring woman. It certainly does this, but offers no context. One days she hates Mary--another victim of the mad scientist, and a chapter later, she's trying to save her life. There's some thread through the book about St. Paul's dome, but it never amounts to anything important.
I didn't get it. What was her motivation for changing? Was she ever really good? I really didn't care. Don't get me started with the bodily functions. Do I really care about how 18th century Londoners took a pee? Not really.
That all being said, I kept reading. I have no idea why. I think it was the "I want to see where this train wreck goes" attitude. In the end, the last dozen chapters or so are, even I can admit, good reads. I think in the end, if the entire first half of this book were cut, it would have gotten a a much better rating from me.
This is a short story gone horribly awry, and I really can't recommend it. It only got two stars because I read it the whole way through.
September 12, 2008
In 1718 England, sixteen-year-old Eliza is recently married, but when she conceives her husband renounces her. She is sent to London to work for an apothecary, Mr. Black, that she believes will rid her of her burden--but Black has other plans. He is writing a treatise on the effect of female imagination on unborn children, and he intends pregnant Eliza to be his first case study. Taking place deep within the dark and dirty underbelly of 18th Century London, The Nature of Monsters is almost so gritty that it's unpleasant to read, and an excess of narration makes some of the plot developments predictable, but Eliza's slow character development are both skillful and realistic. While not particularly memorable, this is a well written, non-romanticized view of historical London. I moderately recommend it.
Midway through The Nature on Monsters, piled beneath misogyny and ill-conceived science, London's poverty and its stinking streets, and bitter characters who refuse to extend a helping hand to anyone, I stopped to wonder: just why was I continuing to read a book that was so gritty and realistic that it failed to be enjoyable? In its premise, the book appears to offer a dark insight into the worst of human nature--the sort of story which is intriguing primarily because it is so discomforting--but the story itself lacks intrigue. Eliza discovers things as she goes along, but her narration is interspersed with pages from Black's writing which reveal plot points to the reader long before Eliza realizes them, removing any sense of mystery. And there is nothing wickedly romantic about the darkness within the book. Historical, dry, and so deep within the underbelly of London that there is almost no beauty left, The Nature of Monsters quickly becomes unpleasant to read and maintains this level of disgust and dirt for the vast majority of the book.
I continued reading because I hate to leave a book unfinished, and in time the book redeems itself. Slowly, realistically, Eliza evolves to become a character that the reader likes and admires--and respects even because of the setting from which she rises. Such realistic character development is rare and it shows great skill. London herself is never quite redeemed in the same way (indeed, the only solution to its ills seems to be to escape them), but the dark setting nevertheless has a purpose: to act as background and foil for a very real character. Other characters are not quite so realistic, there are some loose ends remaining at the conclusion, but Clark's writing is well-researched and moves at a smooth, even pace.
In short, there is enough meaning in Eliza's character growth to make the book worthwhile if the reader has the patience (and stomach) for the dark and dirty content which proceeds it. The Nature of Monsters is not particularly memorable, and it pales in comparison to other examples of historical fiction that focuses on the underbelly of London (such as the films From Hell and The Libertine), but it is aptly written, well researched, and a strong example of meaningful and realistic character growth in the protagonist. I moderately recommend it.
Midway through The Nature on Monsters, piled beneath misogyny and ill-conceived science, London's poverty and its stinking streets, and bitter characters who refuse to extend a helping hand to anyone, I stopped to wonder: just why was I continuing to read a book that was so gritty and realistic that it failed to be enjoyable? In its premise, the book appears to offer a dark insight into the worst of human nature--the sort of story which is intriguing primarily because it is so discomforting--but the story itself lacks intrigue. Eliza discovers things as she goes along, but her narration is interspersed with pages from Black's writing which reveal plot points to the reader long before Eliza realizes them, removing any sense of mystery. And there is nothing wickedly romantic about the darkness within the book. Historical, dry, and so deep within the underbelly of London that there is almost no beauty left, The Nature of Monsters quickly becomes unpleasant to read and maintains this level of disgust and dirt for the vast majority of the book.
I continued reading because I hate to leave a book unfinished, and in time the book redeems itself. Slowly, realistically, Eliza evolves to become a character that the reader likes and admires--and respects even because of the setting from which she rises. Such realistic character development is rare and it shows great skill. London herself is never quite redeemed in the same way (indeed, the only solution to its ills seems to be to escape them), but the dark setting nevertheless has a purpose: to act as background and foil for a very real character. Other characters are not quite so realistic, there are some loose ends remaining at the conclusion, but Clark's writing is well-researched and moves at a smooth, even pace.
In short, there is enough meaning in Eliza's character growth to make the book worthwhile if the reader has the patience (and stomach) for the dark and dirty content which proceeds it. The Nature of Monsters is not particularly memorable, and it pales in comparison to other examples of historical fiction that focuses on the underbelly of London (such as the films From Hell and The Libertine), but it is aptly written, well researched, and a strong example of meaningful and realistic character growth in the protagonist. I moderately recommend it.
November 28, 2008
My rating actually falls somewhere between 3 and 4 stars:
Clare Clark manages to successfully evoke the claustrophobic world of 18th century London and its society in this novel, which explores the monsters in all of us and what they make us do. Clark's prose is highly polished and rich, and I could lose myself amongst the dark, narrow, filthy alleys (laughingly called "streets") of ancient London. She has a good ear for the telling detail or metaphor that creates a vivid image in the reader's mind.
Eliza Tally is the daughter of a "cunning woman" who is compromised by the son of a local gentry and is packed off to London to become maid to an apothecary, Grayson Black. Eliza assumes she's been sent to London to get an abortion but Black has plans of his own regarding the unborn child. He is Hell-bent on proving his theory that maternal experiences imprint themselves on the fetus - that is to say, if a woman is frightened by a dog, her child will be born with canine-like deformities; this and other, similar superstitions were quite common.
Black believes himself to be the victim of such a trauma (for which he blames his mother and, by transference, all women). His mother survived the Great Fire of 1666 but he was born with a disfiguring blemish across his face and neck.
Another victim of Black's "scientific" enquiries is the simple-minded Mary (nee Henrietta), the apothecary's other maid. She too becomes pregnant, and is given a monkey to care for in the expectation that her child will be born with simian traits.
The other characters in this drama are Black's wife, a bitter, frustrated woman who has wasted years keeping the apothecary's shop afloat and has invested everything in her husband proving himself to the Royal Society; Black's apprentice, Edgar, a vulgar and petty-minded little man with designs on Black's fortune and property (via the wife); Mr. Jewkes, one of Black's patrons and funder (he plays another role whose revelation would quite definitely be a spoiler); Etienne Honfleur, a Huguenot bookseller who, for a moment, appears to offer Eliza and Mary a way out of their peril; and Petey, a mountebank and the only character who appears to act humanely for no other reason than that it's the right thing to do.
The book is told from Eliza's point of view and it's primarily her "monsters" that are confronted and dealt with. She begins the novel a not-very-kind or sympathetic person but the horrors she and Mary suffer break down that sociopathy and she grows more empathic and sympathetic as the novel progresses. I've been more aware of the question of authorial voice vs. character voice since reading James Wood's How Fiction Works and I think Clark is remarkably successful in keeping Eliza's thoughts and observations Eliza's alone without injecting too much or too blatant an author's point of view. There are only occasions where I think Eliza writes or says something wholly out of character for an ill-educated girl from an English village.
The one quibble I have about the book is its ending. It's too stereotypically Dickensian - all things come together at the end so that Eliza can live "happily ever after." I exaggerate perhaps since she has lost her own child, a marriage prospect and Mary (whom she's come to love as a sister) but her life takes a remarkably fortuitous turn for the better in a remarkably short time by novel's end. It's not too outrageous or unbelievable but it's something of a non sequitur following 300+ pages building up the image of 18th century Britain as a country of extreme and viciously maintained social and economic classes, hypocritical morality, and little hope of sympathy or succor for those without connection or money.
Aside from that minor caveat, I would recommend this book. It can be read simply for the pleasure of the author' prose, characters and story; or one can read it for the pleasure of exploring the baser instincts of human beings and what they drive us to do.
PS - The following popped into my head as I was writing this brief review:
Another "character" that anchors the setting of the novel is St. Paul's Cathedral (which is the supposed source of the novel, Author's Note, p. 373). It looms large on the city's skyline and in the minds of Eliza and Mr. Black. Eliza sees it as a symbol of an all-powerful God rising above the petty concerns and lives of his worshippers; Black sees it as a symbol of fraud, papism and medieval superstition. (A throwaway observation as I'm not going to follow up on it in this essay but something to keep in mind while reading the book, if a reader of this review goes that far.)
Clare Clark manages to successfully evoke the claustrophobic world of 18th century London and its society in this novel, which explores the monsters in all of us and what they make us do. Clark's prose is highly polished and rich, and I could lose myself amongst the dark, narrow, filthy alleys (laughingly called "streets") of ancient London. She has a good ear for the telling detail or metaphor that creates a vivid image in the reader's mind.
Eliza Tally is the daughter of a "cunning woman" who is compromised by the son of a local gentry and is packed off to London to become maid to an apothecary, Grayson Black. Eliza assumes she's been sent to London to get an abortion but Black has plans of his own regarding the unborn child. He is Hell-bent on proving his theory that maternal experiences imprint themselves on the fetus - that is to say, if a woman is frightened by a dog, her child will be born with canine-like deformities; this and other, similar superstitions were quite common.
Black believes himself to be the victim of such a trauma (for which he blames his mother and, by transference, all women). His mother survived the Great Fire of 1666 but he was born with a disfiguring blemish across his face and neck.
Another victim of Black's "scientific" enquiries is the simple-minded Mary (nee Henrietta), the apothecary's other maid. She too becomes pregnant, and is given a monkey to care for in the expectation that her child will be born with simian traits.
The other characters in this drama are Black's wife, a bitter, frustrated woman who has wasted years keeping the apothecary's shop afloat and has invested everything in her husband proving himself to the Royal Society; Black's apprentice, Edgar, a vulgar and petty-minded little man with designs on Black's fortune and property (via the wife); Mr. Jewkes, one of Black's patrons and funder (he plays another role whose revelation would quite definitely be a spoiler); Etienne Honfleur, a Huguenot bookseller who, for a moment, appears to offer Eliza and Mary a way out of their peril; and Petey, a mountebank and the only character who appears to act humanely for no other reason than that it's the right thing to do.
The book is told from Eliza's point of view and it's primarily her "monsters" that are confronted and dealt with. She begins the novel a not-very-kind or sympathetic person but the horrors she and Mary suffer break down that sociopathy and she grows more empathic and sympathetic as the novel progresses. I've been more aware of the question of authorial voice vs. character voice since reading James Wood's How Fiction Works and I think Clark is remarkably successful in keeping Eliza's thoughts and observations Eliza's alone without injecting too much or too blatant an author's point of view. There are only occasions where I think Eliza writes or says something wholly out of character for an ill-educated girl from an English village.
The one quibble I have about the book is its ending. It's too stereotypically Dickensian - all things come together at the end so that Eliza can live "happily ever after." I exaggerate perhaps since she has lost her own child, a marriage prospect and Mary (whom she's come to love as a sister) but her life takes a remarkably fortuitous turn for the better in a remarkably short time by novel's end. It's not too outrageous or unbelievable but it's something of a non sequitur following 300+ pages building up the image of 18th century Britain as a country of extreme and viciously maintained social and economic classes, hypocritical morality, and little hope of sympathy or succor for those without connection or money.
Aside from that minor caveat, I would recommend this book. It can be read simply for the pleasure of the author' prose, characters and story; or one can read it for the pleasure of exploring the baser instincts of human beings and what they drive us to do.
PS - The following popped into my head as I was writing this brief review:
Another "character" that anchors the setting of the novel is St. Paul's Cathedral (which is the supposed source of the novel, Author's Note, p. 373). It looms large on the city's skyline and in the minds of Eliza and Mr. Black. Eliza sees it as a symbol of an all-powerful God rising above the petty concerns and lives of his worshippers; Black sees it as a symbol of fraud, papism and medieval superstition. (A throwaway observation as I'm not going to follow up on it in this essay but something to keep in mind while reading the book, if a reader of this review goes that far.)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 7, 2024
Not even sure if I should be disturbed or in awe that someone thought to write this
April 5, 2010
Book ring book for Bookcrossing.com . I had forgotten all about this one. Must read and send on before Apr 4.
Set in the 1700’s. The book starts out with a woman fleeing from a devastating fire. Then it jumps ahead 50 or so years and we meet Eliza who is a young woman all worked up over a sexy young man. The opening scene was something akin to an erotica novel but you won’t hear me complain. Eliza’s mother is the local midwife but fears being accused of witchcraft and wants to have her daughter safely wed to someone with lots of cash and property before it happens. Thus she encourages her daughter towards the wealthy and randy young fellow and performs a hand fasting ceremony. Pregnancy immediately follows and once the dupe realizes he isn’t legally wed he hightails it out of there and she’s left penniless, ruined and nauseous because of the “worm” in her belly. Ah, the best laid plans.
Eliza, worm still in the belly, then finds herself shipped off to London by her greedy mother to work with a mysterious apothecary. Doc Black believes strongly in the power of imprinting. But it’s not the Stephanie Meyer type of “you were meant for me” creepy imprinting. This imprinting is even more twisted. Doc Black believes that fears and events experienced by the mother can alter the unborn child in bizarre ways. For instance, if she fears a kitty and one crosses her path the kid may be born with whiskers and a purr. Or somesuch. It sounds nutty but supposedly there is documented proof that a certain sector of physicians actually believed this to be true way back when. In the author’s notes she even includes some freaky sketches of naked humans with animal heads, the result supposedly of material impressions and monstrous birth. Strangely enough they fascinate me and my eyes keep drifting to those last few pages when I should be reading the book . . .
Later: The premise of this book appealed to me and some of the plot twists were horrible but the book was too meandering and to be blunt, boring, for me to continue and I gave up about halfway through. The ideas were good but the writing style didn't work for me and unfortunately I was unable to find any sympathy for the main character who I found off putting and unlikable.
Set in the 1700’s. The book starts out with a woman fleeing from a devastating fire. Then it jumps ahead 50 or so years and we meet Eliza who is a young woman all worked up over a sexy young man. The opening scene was something akin to an erotica novel but you won’t hear me complain. Eliza’s mother is the local midwife but fears being accused of witchcraft and wants to have her daughter safely wed to someone with lots of cash and property before it happens. Thus she encourages her daughter towards the wealthy and randy young fellow and performs a hand fasting ceremony. Pregnancy immediately follows and once the dupe realizes he isn’t legally wed he hightails it out of there and she’s left penniless, ruined and nauseous because of the “worm” in her belly. Ah, the best laid plans.
Eliza, worm still in the belly, then finds herself shipped off to London by her greedy mother to work with a mysterious apothecary. Doc Black believes strongly in the power of imprinting. But it’s not the Stephanie Meyer type of “you were meant for me” creepy imprinting. This imprinting is even more twisted. Doc Black believes that fears and events experienced by the mother can alter the unborn child in bizarre ways. For instance, if she fears a kitty and one crosses her path the kid may be born with whiskers and a purr. Or somesuch. It sounds nutty but supposedly there is documented proof that a certain sector of physicians actually believed this to be true way back when. In the author’s notes she even includes some freaky sketches of naked humans with animal heads, the result supposedly of material impressions and monstrous birth. Strangely enough they fascinate me and my eyes keep drifting to those last few pages when I should be reading the book . . .
Later: The premise of this book appealed to me and some of the plot twists were horrible but the book was too meandering and to be blunt, boring, for me to continue and I gave up about halfway through. The ideas were good but the writing style didn't work for me and unfortunately I was unable to find any sympathy for the main character who I found off putting and unlikable.
November 16, 2021
Set in the year 1718, this book follows young Eliza Tally as she leaves her small hometown to work as a maid for a London apothecary. In return for her labor, it is agreed that he will help her abort her unborn child.
The book opens with a particularly lurid masturbation scene. It proceeds to drag us through a few chapters of sex scenes and descriptions of Eliza's quite healthy sexual appetite. I don't mind erotic themes in novels, but these came across as so off-putting due to the bizarrely grotesque way they were written (more on that coming up).
The book moves on when Eliza is sent away to London due to her out-of-wedlock pregnancy.
For awhile, the book became more interesting as Eliza described her awe of sprawling, untamed London, met the other members of her new household, and wondered who her secretive new master could be.
Unfortunately, these glimmers of interest ended up being few and far between, drowned out by how many things I really didn't like about the book.
All of the characters are distinctly unlikable, perhaps with the exception of Mary, a mentally handicapped maid, but really only because the reader must pity her sad life as the apothecary's living experiment.
The apothecary, Mr. Black, ceases to be mysterious after a chapter or two and then turns out to be just disgusting. Mrs. Black, his prickly wife, does little more in the book than yell shrilly at people. A mean-spirited apprentice, the bully and 'bad guy' of the story is a copy-and-paste cardboard villain.
Clark seems to be good at writing insufferable characters, and the main character Eliza is included in this. She came across as unlikable and dumb (despite being described by others as witty and clever), and I was put off by her fantasies of basically torturing and killing her unborn child, which she always refers to as her "worm." I know that she came to London for an abortion, but she certainly takes it a step further and there seems to be some sort of twisted relish to this.
Grasping for any likable character that I can think of, there was a feisty bookseller's daughter who seemed fascinating. I kept hoping that she would come to play a larger role in the story, but about halfway through we are notified that she has been married off, and is never seen again.
Clark also seems to equate a dark, Gothic story with description upon description of bad smells, human feces (don't forget consistency and color), urine, chamber pots, and any other grotesque flavor of 18th Century London she could imagine.
I'm all for historical accuracy, and I know that crowded, dirty London in 1718 didn't exactly smell of roses, but it got heavy-handed. Chambers pots and the emptying of them takes up paragraphs too many, and in one scene, Eliza tells us that she feels the need to empty her bladder (she is walking through the streets at this point) and then proceeds to piss while she walks, describing everything, right down to the hot liquid dripping down her leg. I'm sorry, what?! And that isn't even the first wetting-yourself scene!
As with letting other characters' nastiness rub off on Eliza, the dirty feel of this book translated into other matters such as sex, pregnancy, menstruation, childbirth, and breastfeeding. All are somehow twisted into gross, distasteful things. The sex scenes were repulsive, as Eliza describes her lover's buttocks as being like "sticky, white mounds of bread dough." You can only imagine what else she has to say about other parts of his body.
The ending was wrapped up too neatly, with a character who had previously hovered unnoticed in the fringes of the story suddenly swooping in to save the day, and everything tidily working out.
Also, I was shocked by the ending of the apothecary's hateful apprentice, who had in the course of the book attempted to murder the household by poison, extorted Eliza for money, threatened her, raped a helpless young girl, and numerous times hinted that he intended to rape Eliza herself. But, oh well, all is forgiven in the end. What!
Not recommended.
The book opens with a particularly lurid masturbation scene. It proceeds to drag us through a few chapters of sex scenes and descriptions of Eliza's quite healthy sexual appetite. I don't mind erotic themes in novels, but these came across as so off-putting due to the bizarrely grotesque way they were written (more on that coming up).
The book moves on when Eliza is sent away to London due to her out-of-wedlock pregnancy.
For awhile, the book became more interesting as Eliza described her awe of sprawling, untamed London, met the other members of her new household, and wondered who her secretive new master could be.
Unfortunately, these glimmers of interest ended up being few and far between, drowned out by how many things I really didn't like about the book.
All of the characters are distinctly unlikable, perhaps with the exception of Mary, a mentally handicapped maid, but really only because the reader must pity her sad life as the apothecary's living experiment.
The apothecary, Mr. Black, ceases to be mysterious after a chapter or two and then turns out to be just disgusting. Mrs. Black, his prickly wife, does little more in the book than yell shrilly at people. A mean-spirited apprentice, the bully and 'bad guy' of the story is a copy-and-paste cardboard villain.
Clark seems to be good at writing insufferable characters, and the main character Eliza is included in this. She came across as unlikable and dumb (despite being described by others as witty and clever), and I was put off by her fantasies of basically torturing and killing her unborn child, which she always refers to as her "worm." I know that she came to London for an abortion, but she certainly takes it a step further and there seems to be some sort of twisted relish to this.
Grasping for any likable character that I can think of, there was a feisty bookseller's daughter who seemed fascinating. I kept hoping that she would come to play a larger role in the story, but about halfway through we are notified that she has been married off, and is never seen again.
Clark also seems to equate a dark, Gothic story with description upon description of bad smells, human feces (don't forget consistency and color), urine, chamber pots, and any other grotesque flavor of 18th Century London she could imagine.
I'm all for historical accuracy, and I know that crowded, dirty London in 1718 didn't exactly smell of roses, but it got heavy-handed. Chambers pots and the emptying of them takes up paragraphs too many, and in one scene, Eliza tells us that she feels the need to empty her bladder (she is walking through the streets at this point) and then proceeds to piss while she walks, describing everything, right down to the hot liquid dripping down her leg. I'm sorry, what?! And that isn't even the first wetting-yourself scene!
As with letting other characters' nastiness rub off on Eliza, the dirty feel of this book translated into other matters such as sex, pregnancy, menstruation, childbirth, and breastfeeding. All are somehow twisted into gross, distasteful things. The sex scenes were repulsive, as Eliza describes her lover's buttocks as being like "sticky, white mounds of bread dough." You can only imagine what else she has to say about other parts of his body.
The ending was wrapped up too neatly, with a character who had previously hovered unnoticed in the fringes of the story suddenly swooping in to save the day, and everything tidily working out.
Also, I was shocked by the ending of the apothecary's hateful apprentice, who had in the course of the book attempted to murder the household by poison, extorted Eliza for money, threatened her, raped a helpless young girl, and numerous times hinted that he intended to rape Eliza herself. But, oh well, all is forgiven in the end. What!
Not recommended.
June 3, 2009
This novel presents the 18th century in it's full reality. London is a rough, dirty, dangerous town. The divide between rich and poor is well defined and unbreachable. Poverty is prevalent, vulgarity in all it's forms the norm. Clare Clarke doesn't hide behind graceful descriptions, the author gives us a real feel and chills in her writing, London once was a terrifying city to dwell in. It is surprising people survived to adult age, murders, disease and filth where everywhere.
This novel addresses "Maternal Impression". Throughout the 18th century the British Medical Society believed should a pregnant woman encounter a frightening sight, her child would certainly carry the impression of his/her mothers fright.
We meet Liza the protagonist, she just married a young man from an upper class family . Swiftly, the parents of the groom arrange to separate the newlyweds and arrange for a pregnant Liza to be send to a rooming house in London for the period of her confinement. The rooming house is run by Mr. Grayson Black an his wife. Mr. Grayson Black an apotecharian and scientist will take an exceptional interest in Liza. We also meet Mary, the house keeper, a poor young girl abandoned by her family. Misfortune is brought upon her in the form of a deformity. Born with a hare lip, which in those times is considered a form of retardation and monstrosity.
Clare Clarke obviously researched the subject of this novel thoroughly. I was in turns literally grossed out and surprised at how certain believes where even possible and practices by the London College of Physicians shocking. Only through research is it possible to make progress in the field of medicine., hopefully today some practices have been abolished.
I can remember when visiting small villages in France while pregnant with my first son finding this strange believe of "imprint", it remains an old wife's tale in more remote places. A believe which is well alive in other cultures as well even today.
Clare Clarke is the Author of "THE GREAT STINK" A book which I have not yet read, but will
This novel addresses "Maternal Impression". Throughout the 18th century the British Medical Society believed should a pregnant woman encounter a frightening sight, her child would certainly carry the impression of his/her mothers fright.
We meet Liza the protagonist, she just married a young man from an upper class family . Swiftly, the parents of the groom arrange to separate the newlyweds and arrange for a pregnant Liza to be send to a rooming house in London for the period of her confinement. The rooming house is run by Mr. Grayson Black an his wife. Mr. Grayson Black an apotecharian and scientist will take an exceptional interest in Liza. We also meet Mary, the house keeper, a poor young girl abandoned by her family. Misfortune is brought upon her in the form of a deformity. Born with a hare lip, which in those times is considered a form of retardation and monstrosity.
Clare Clarke obviously researched the subject of this novel thoroughly. I was in turns literally grossed out and surprised at how certain believes where even possible and practices by the London College of Physicians shocking. Only through research is it possible to make progress in the field of medicine., hopefully today some practices have been abolished.
I can remember when visiting small villages in France while pregnant with my first son finding this strange believe of "imprint", it remains an old wife's tale in more remote places. A believe which is well alive in other cultures as well even today.
Clare Clarke is the Author of "THE GREAT STINK" A book which I have not yet read, but will
November 14, 2011
Atmospheric and darkly suspenseful, Clare Clark’s The Nature of Monsters is a tale in the vein of gothic horror that is as unsettlingly cruel and captivatingly vivid. Essentially a straightforward, plot-driven historical novel wrapped in the macabre nuances of early English medical practices, Clark illustrates the monstrous acts of true evil and those who dwell in it. Her characters are strongly represented and despite her almost unbearable subject matter, where the lines between quackery and science often overlapped to the point of indistinction, her descriptions and language are distinct and expertly crafted.
Clark’s plot is horrifically dark but it's written tightly with intense and eloquent prose. The story moves quickly, and Clark does not let up on the suspense paring it well through the voice of her protagonist and a series of letters that attribute foreshadowing of the plot. It's a ghastly and twisted tale with sinister and psychological implications yet the novel’s captivating narrative makes the book worth the read. As gothic horror, "The Nature of Monsters" is a well-written sensational, rich with the dark and creepy elements of the genre, and thankfully, never becomes laughable or absurd.
Clark’s plot is horrifically dark but it's written tightly with intense and eloquent prose. The story moves quickly, and Clark does not let up on the suspense paring it well through the voice of her protagonist and a series of letters that attribute foreshadowing of the plot. It's a ghastly and twisted tale with sinister and psychological implications yet the novel’s captivating narrative makes the book worth the read. As gothic horror, "The Nature of Monsters" is a well-written sensational, rich with the dark and creepy elements of the genre, and thankfully, never becomes laughable or absurd.
October 30, 2011
It's a fast read, but the prose gets tedious quite fast too. I understand that the author is a history expert of some sort, and that the early 18th century setting of the story calls for a style of writing that matches the time. But it seems unbelievable that a book written from the point of view of a midwife's daughter should contain ample servings of similes, metaphors, and an extensive vocabulary! The author goes overboard with her descriptions and prose, perhaps because of a deep love for that period in London's history. I can understand that. So I soldiered on until halfway through when I got to this sentence: "I swallowed a blade of dread so sharp that it seemed to pierce my gullet." That was all I could take. These midwives' daughters, they really should learn the meaning of restraint.
Other problems with this book: unlikeable characters (the annoying heroine feels sorry enough for herself so we don't have to), overwrought descriptions, and a few more I might find if I ever bother to read the second half of the book (fat chance!)
Read on if you like overdone 18th century English prose, otherwise, save yourselves.
Other problems with this book: unlikeable characters (the annoying heroine feels sorry enough for herself so we don't have to), overwrought descriptions, and a few more I might find if I ever bother to read the second half of the book (fat chance!)
Read on if you like overdone 18th century English prose, otherwise, save yourselves.
August 1, 2008
I honestly can't say much about this book except that when I reached the end, I was very disappointed. I'm not sure if it was that I never really felt empathy for the main character, or that the villain was as dangerous as an ice cream sundae, or that the story just wound up falling short of being interesting. I will say that the synopsis on the dust jacket wound me up for a much better story than what was actually written.
May 4, 2017
Ho visto molte recensioni in cui ci si lamenta della crudezza del romanzo. Devo dire che la cosa non mi ha turbato particolarmente, anzi! Anche se è vero che viene posto questo focus sulle funzioni corporali, e che queste sono molto grafiche: quanto defecano e urinano i personaggi, di che consistenza sono le feci ecc.
Le premesse sono interessanti: il signor Black, uno speziale, vuole provare la sua teoria secondo cui la madre può imprimere al feto una certa forma quando è in preda a forti emozioni. Eliza, una giovane ragazza che va a lavorare presso i Black per nascondere una gravidanza, non sospetta che lo speziale vuole usarla per i propri malati esperimenti. Al loro servizio i Black hanno Edgar, un apprendista senza scrupoli, e Mary, una ragazza ritardata che presto diventa amica di Eliza.
Con queste premesse da romanzo dell'orrore non potevo non essere interessata; eppure è incredibile come una sinossi così avvincente riesca a diventare un romanzo storico noioso e senza colpi di scena. Il tutto avviene in una Londra descritta con disgusto, tanto che non si capisce se la Clark la ami o la detesti. Londra è quasi personificata, una grassa, lurida signora che puzza di pesce, feci e altri graziosi aromi.
Anche la cupola di St. Paul, anche se di sfondo alle riflessioni della protagonista, viene personificata più volte: prima paragonata a una donna incita con la cupola protesa come un pancione, in seguito assume quasi il ruolo di giudice divino, pronta a giudicare gli atti di Eliza quando deve compiere una decisione.
E tutta via non basta a far sì che questo romanzo prenda. Lo stile è semplice e descrittivo, scurrile in molte parti poichè narrato dal punto di vista di Eliza, che non brilla per cultura o educazione. Sicuramente compie un'evoluzione da personaggio negativo a positivo, ma tutto ciò risulta quasi forzato, poichè tutto il resto dei personaggi attorno a lei è -per usare un francesismo- una merda. E siccome gli unici personaggi positivi erano giusto Mary, che essendo ritardata non può essere granchè come personaggio, e due comparse, bisognava rimediare sacrificando l'antieroina.
Alla fine della lettura, ho potuto dividere il romanzo in due parti: la prima, in cui Eliza vuole abortire a tutti i costi, e la seconda, in cui Eliza vuole salvare Mary. Questi erano i grandi obiettivi attorno a cui ruotavano i pensieri della protagonista, e purtroppo non erano abbastanza.
La delusione che questo libro si sia rivelato solo la banale, triste storia di una "puttana" che cerca di salvare un'"idiota" mi porta a dare una stella.
Le premesse sono interessanti: il signor Black, uno speziale, vuole provare la sua teoria secondo cui la madre può imprimere al feto una certa forma quando è in preda a forti emozioni. Eliza, una giovane ragazza che va a lavorare presso i Black per nascondere una gravidanza, non sospetta che lo speziale vuole usarla per i propri malati esperimenti. Al loro servizio i Black hanno Edgar, un apprendista senza scrupoli, e Mary, una ragazza ritardata che presto diventa amica di Eliza.
Con queste premesse da romanzo dell'orrore non potevo non essere interessata; eppure è incredibile come una sinossi così avvincente riesca a diventare un romanzo storico noioso e senza colpi di scena. Il tutto avviene in una Londra descritta con disgusto, tanto che non si capisce se la Clark la ami o la detesti. Londra è quasi personificata, una grassa, lurida signora che puzza di pesce, feci e altri graziosi aromi.
Anche la cupola di St. Paul, anche se di sfondo alle riflessioni della protagonista, viene personificata più volte: prima paragonata a una donna incita con la cupola protesa come un pancione, in seguito assume quasi il ruolo di giudice divino, pronta a giudicare gli atti di Eliza quando deve compiere una decisione.
E tutta via non basta a far sì che questo romanzo prenda. Lo stile è semplice e descrittivo, scurrile in molte parti poichè narrato dal punto di vista di Eliza, che non brilla per cultura o educazione. Sicuramente compie un'evoluzione da personaggio negativo a positivo, ma tutto ciò risulta quasi forzato, poichè tutto il resto dei personaggi attorno a lei è -per usare un francesismo- una merda. E siccome gli unici personaggi positivi erano giusto Mary, che essendo ritardata non può essere granchè come personaggio, e due comparse, bisognava rimediare sacrificando l'antieroina.
Alla fine della lettura, ho potuto dividere il romanzo in due parti: la prima, in cui Eliza vuole abortire a tutti i costi, e la seconda, in cui Eliza vuole salvare Mary. Questi erano i grandi obiettivi attorno a cui ruotavano i pensieri della protagonista, e purtroppo non erano abbastanza.
La delusione che questo libro si sia rivelato solo la banale, triste storia di una "puttana" che cerca di salvare un'"idiota" mi porta a dare una stella.
August 11, 2020
I was pulled in by the description of this book on its back cover, "stunning new gothic novel, driven by mystery and drenched in menace." Sounds great, doesn't it? I mean, who could resist a book description like this? Well, it was all lies, there is no mystery and there's nothing gothic about it. It was filled with horrible, despicable characters, all of whom I wanted to give a good smack. The book is mostly narrative and description, it's very dense reading. Some of the writing is good, there's a lovely passage about books. But the couple of good paragraphs don't make up for slogging through 372 pages.
The description was so inviting, I was excited to read the book, but I was left very disappointed.
The description was so inviting, I was excited to read the book, but I was left very disappointed.
Read
November 21, 2024The nature of monsters seems to be rooted in human exploitation. Just about everybody in this book is in some way awful. Even the relatively admirable characters of Mary and Liza are problem-plagued. Everyone else these two young women encounter is a kind of monster, motivated by selfishness of one sort of another. Even most of the female characters are disgusting, and I can't remember a redeeming male character in the entire text. It is one of the most unrelievedly dark books I have ever read. Not recommended for the queasy stomach. The narrative is redeemed somewhat by the final chapters, but it takes an awful lot of effort and goodwill to get to that redemption.
April 30, 2021
I couldn't finish this one. I didn't like the main character or the mean way she thought about her unwanted baby as a "worm." She could have had some compassion for it, even if she didn't want to have it or keep it, but she has no remorse and seems to blame the child for its own existence. In other ways that are hard to explain, she comes off as petty and unlikeable, so even if the apothecary who is her employer/captor begins to sound more and more like a monster, I find that I don't care.
August 24, 2024
1/5✨
The best way to describe this book is “it only gets worse” if you’re into book that has no hope for the characters, it might be for you 🤷
That being said, the characters are so unlikeable that I couldn’t care less about them. (Besides 1 or 2)
The best way to describe this book is “it only gets worse” if you’re into book that has no hope for the characters, it might be for you 🤷
That being said, the characters are so unlikeable that I couldn’t care less about them. (Besides 1 or 2)
April 8, 2023
Waste of time. Very dull and lackluster writing.
March 19, 2021
There be monsters! One of them is a mad scientist (another his assistant/wife) in 1720 London who is trying to prove, in his completely insane/sensational way, that environment can impact a baby before birth. (But he's right: today we call it epigenetics, and there are environmental forces at work even in the womb.) A young girl is given a position at an apothecary and there is madness upstairs, so yes this is classic goth. There is a tad of romance, but this one leans more toward horror. A birth is an absolute scream fest, a grand guignol scene if there ever was one. I'd give this 4 stars, but the narration by Julia Barrie, no doubt pitch perfect, was sometimes difficult to understand. (I had to replay several discs to 'get' some scenes, thus a 5-week listen.) An oddity for sure. Oh, that birth scene, perfect to play at a Halloween party...or for trick-or-treaters.
March 3, 2016
Eliza Tally is young and as is most often the case, she thinks she is in love. But when the man she is supposedly married to dismisses their marriage as only a country ritual, her mother knows what will happen to a pregnant young girl and quickly works out a transaction with the man, sending Eliza to London to work for an apothecary. Since Eliza's mother is a cunning woman, she has seen the results of her mother's craft and assumes that the apothecary will expel the thing growing inside her and she will then be able to return to a normal life.
Upon arriving at the apothecary's residence, she discovers another young woman there also. Mary is considered an idiot since she was born with a harelip and seems to have only a child's understanding of the world around her. But Mary manages to squirm her way into Lize's life and soon Eliza finds herself looking out for Mary.
Still not understanding what is taking the apothecary so long in disposing of her 'secret', Eliza starts being sent to a local bookseller to exchange books for her master. Although she can not read very well, she is in awe of the vast amount of books and lingers each visit, starting a friendship with the bookseller. Then one day, she happens to look through a book that she is taking to the apothecary and the frightening figures that she discovers between the pages makes her understand exactly what evil experiment her master is attempting to create for his beloved Royal Society and his quest to discover the link between maternal impressions and the monster's that expel from women.
I did have some misgivings at the beginning of the book due to the descriptive writing but once I settled in, I was totally transported to London in 1718. The vast amount of people, the filth, the stinking river, the bitter cold in winter and unrelenting heat in summer. I was surprised to see that this book had received so many 1 and 2 star ratings since I loved it, but I guess that goes to show the varying different between each person's taste.
Upon arriving at the apothecary's residence, she discovers another young woman there also. Mary is considered an idiot since she was born with a harelip and seems to have only a child's understanding of the world around her. But Mary manages to squirm her way into Lize's life and soon Eliza finds herself looking out for Mary.
Still not understanding what is taking the apothecary so long in disposing of her 'secret', Eliza starts being sent to a local bookseller to exchange books for her master. Although she can not read very well, she is in awe of the vast amount of books and lingers each visit, starting a friendship with the bookseller. Then one day, she happens to look through a book that she is taking to the apothecary and the frightening figures that she discovers between the pages makes her understand exactly what evil experiment her master is attempting to create for his beloved Royal Society and his quest to discover the link between maternal impressions and the monster's that expel from women.
I did have some misgivings at the beginning of the book due to the descriptive writing but once I settled in, I was totally transported to London in 1718. The vast amount of people, the filth, the stinking river, the bitter cold in winter and unrelenting heat in summer. I was surprised to see that this book had received so many 1 and 2 star ratings since I loved it, but I guess that goes to show the varying different between each person's taste.
July 28, 2009
When I started this book, I almost put it down on page one! It started out with a very graphic description; not salacious, but coarse and rough. I just couldn't imagine reading an entire book with this type of language, but I pressed on, skimming some of the coarser descriptions. I'm glad I did.
The Nature of Monsters is told by Eliza Tally, a coarse (hence the language), headstrong young woman living in England in the early 1700's. The question you consider throughout the book is what really makes a monster? Is it a child born deformed mentally or physically? Is it a mother's self-serving actions to promote herself at her child's expense? Is it a young woman's bad choices that brand her a harlot? It it a man's quest to do evil in the name of God? Is it standing by while someone is hurt and you do nothing?
So many things to think about in the story. In some ways it reminded me of The Scarlet Letter vis a vis those who are often branded sinful and wicked are the kindest, while those who hold themselves up as pious are as dark as night inside.
The story is compelling; I couldn't put it down, reading well into the night to see how it would resolve itself. I felt a great appreciation for being born in a time and a place where a young woman has choices in life, as Eliza struggles with the limitations of 18th Century society.
Overall the story is somewhat heavy and dark, but has a very satisfactory ending. Not a wrapped-up-with-a-bow-happily-ever-after type ending, but a realistic, pleasing ending nonetheless.
Coarse language is probably the only drawback I can see for your enjoyment of the book, but I will say it is not gratuitous or for mere shock value. Given the world Eliza lives in, I'm quite sure this is quite "cleaned up." But the moral questions you are left pondering more than overshadow the language.
The Nature of Monsters is told by Eliza Tally, a coarse (hence the language), headstrong young woman living in England in the early 1700's. The question you consider throughout the book is what really makes a monster? Is it a child born deformed mentally or physically? Is it a mother's self-serving actions to promote herself at her child's expense? Is it a young woman's bad choices that brand her a harlot? It it a man's quest to do evil in the name of God? Is it standing by while someone is hurt and you do nothing?
So many things to think about in the story. In some ways it reminded me of The Scarlet Letter vis a vis those who are often branded sinful and wicked are the kindest, while those who hold themselves up as pious are as dark as night inside.
The story is compelling; I couldn't put it down, reading well into the night to see how it would resolve itself. I felt a great appreciation for being born in a time and a place where a young woman has choices in life, as Eliza struggles with the limitations of 18th Century society.
Overall the story is somewhat heavy and dark, but has a very satisfactory ending. Not a wrapped-up-with-a-bow-happily-ever-after type ending, but a realistic, pleasing ending nonetheless.
Coarse language is probably the only drawback I can see for your enjoyment of the book, but I will say it is not gratuitous or for mere shock value. Given the world Eliza lives in, I'm quite sure this is quite "cleaned up." But the moral questions you are left pondering more than overshadow the language.
February 2, 2011
I wish that we could give half stars, because I would rather give this one 4.5 stars instead of 5 because I could have done without all of the references to body fluids. Is it really necessary to know how the main characters urinate, defecate, vomit or bleed? The story would have been just as good without all of that. Which is why I would say this book is not for everybody. It is certainly not for the faint of heart.
In the early 1700 and young woman finds herself pregnant by a man she believed to be her husband only to find that her marriage isn't recognized by the law and he no longer wishes her. She is shipped off to London and found herself a servant and prisoner of an apothecary that is interested in research concerning birth defects. What she comes to find here is horendous. The apotecary, who is addicted to opium, is trying to create a monster and is using a young woman with mental defects to perform his experiments on by getting her pregnant by himself. Not to Eliza and Mary are both being kept as prisoners, considered property of the apothecary. He succeeded in creating a monster however, himself and his wife. The birth defects do not make a person a monster. Mary, considered an idiot, was a kind and gentle person and the treatment she rec'd at the hands of the real monsters was horendous.
This was an excellent book for all of the atrocities it contained. The characters were so real I could feel the pain they were going thru and I certainly hoped for a happy ending. The ending was not a perfect one but fitting for the story. It became a hard book to put down and I hope there is more to this story.
In the early 1700 and young woman finds herself pregnant by a man she believed to be her husband only to find that her marriage isn't recognized by the law and he no longer wishes her. She is shipped off to London and found herself a servant and prisoner of an apothecary that is interested in research concerning birth defects. What she comes to find here is horendous. The apotecary, who is addicted to opium, is trying to create a monster and is using a young woman with mental defects to perform his experiments on by getting her pregnant by himself. Not to Eliza and Mary are both being kept as prisoners, considered property of the apothecary. He succeeded in creating a monster however, himself and his wife. The birth defects do not make a person a monster. Mary, considered an idiot, was a kind and gentle person and the treatment she rec'd at the hands of the real monsters was horendous.
This was an excellent book for all of the atrocities it contained. The characters were so real I could feel the pain they were going thru and I certainly hoped for a happy ending. The ending was not a perfect one but fitting for the story. It became a hard book to put down and I hope there is more to this story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 19, 2012
I think Clark intended this book to have a creepiness permeating it as she centered her story around a time when medicine was still as much about superstition as it was about scientific investigation. Instead, I found it mostly dull. I wasn't able to connect much with any of the characters, finding they tried my patience more than stirred my sympathies or my horror. I also didn't care much for her story telling format. The majority of the plot was from the first person perspective of the main character, Eliza, except for the end of each chapter, which was usually the insane written ramblings of her apothecary master. I felt these endings pushed the book into the area of melodrama. I hardly needed them to come to realize the extent of the apothecary's obsession, and I think he would have been more interesting with a little more mystery. As for the epilogue (technically the last chapter, but epilogue it was), it was one of the more bizarrely disjointed ones I've read, suddenly bringing in new elements instead of wrapping up the old. I should have stopped listening somewhere in the middle, but I kept hoping it would improve.
A note on the reader - different voices can be useful for an audio recording, especially if the text doesn't include many clues about who is speaking. When subtly done, they can also enhance the atmosphere. Barrie's voices were too much of a distraction for me. I am not trying to listen to a movie, I am trying to listen to a book, and that should be remembered when an reader tries to develop strong speaking styles for their characters.
A note on the reader - different voices can be useful for an audio recording, especially if the text doesn't include many clues about who is speaking. When subtly done, they can also enhance the atmosphere. Barrie's voices were too much of a distraction for me. I am not trying to listen to a movie, I am trying to listen to a book, and that should be remembered when an reader tries to develop strong speaking styles for their characters.
November 17, 2008
The story opened with a pregnant woman escaping the great fire of London. The piece was well-written and interesting both in story and characterization. But then the book switches to fifty years later, where we are immersed in the explicit lustings of a sixteen year old farm girl for a gentleman who her mother is trying to ‘capture’ via pregnancy (it works). The problem is that it was too explicit for me and once past all that, not all that interesting.
So I started skimming. And I kept skimming. (Oddly enough, the only overwhelmingly sexual scenes were in the opening.)
The story is of Eliza Tally – young pregnant girl who is bundled off to an apothecaries’ shop in London to protect the father of her baby. But the apothecary is using pregnant girls for experiments to prove that it is the mother’s imaginations (intelligence, personality, experiences while pregnant) that create disfigured / disabled babies. Eliza must save herself and another girl from the situation.
I read most of the first hundred and fifty pages. Whenever things got too boring, I’d skip a couple of pages. The second half of the book I skipped entirely, just to get to the ending. And since the ending made sense and tied things up, I don’t think I missed much.
This book had a huge amount of promise. I liked the premise, but I never bonded with the heroine and overall it didn't hold my attention.
However, it did make me incredible grateful for the feminist movement.
So I started skimming. And I kept skimming. (Oddly enough, the only overwhelmingly sexual scenes were in the opening.)
The story is of Eliza Tally – young pregnant girl who is bundled off to an apothecaries’ shop in London to protect the father of her baby. But the apothecary is using pregnant girls for experiments to prove that it is the mother’s imaginations (intelligence, personality, experiences while pregnant) that create disfigured / disabled babies. Eliza must save herself and another girl from the situation.
I read most of the first hundred and fifty pages. Whenever things got too boring, I’d skip a couple of pages. The second half of the book I skipped entirely, just to get to the ending. And since the ending made sense and tied things up, I don’t think I missed much.
This book had a huge amount of promise. I liked the premise, but I never bonded with the heroine and overall it didn't hold my attention.
However, it did make me incredible grateful for the feminist movement.
September 29, 2012
I read the comments of other Goodreads followers only after I had got about halfway through the book, some I agree with, others, I can see their point of view as I don't enjoy everything that I read either! This book fell into the very enjoyable category which surprised me as it is totally out if my normal reading genre.
London during the rebuilding after the great fire must have been a dreadful place to live if one was of lower class. In this story, servants are treated as belongings and women, poor women especially, as nothing better than slaves. Men of education (in the medical field) could do almost anything they wanted, including performing experiments on their servants. The premise of the experiments that Apothacary Black performs are vile, wanting to produce "monstrous" babies by way of mental torment to pregnant women, just shows how little men of medicine actually knew in the 1700's.
The descriptions of London streets, the vendors, smells, lights, poverty existing with the majesty of the newly built dome of St Paul's etc are wonderful to read about. What a long way the beautiful city of London has come.
A very enjoyable read, I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to step outside their reading "box", read with an open mind. Fiction after all is a "made up' story for our entertainment!
August 1, 2015
I think a lot of the current reviews are unnecessarily harsh.
This book doesn't make for the easiest of reading, but this coupled with the short chapters, broken up nicely with correspondence to and from the other characters, balance out nicely.
I enjoyed the book in its entirety. on some occasions I admit I skipped a line or two when the descriptions were 'a bit much', but other than that I enjoyed it!
I liked the main character Eliza, at last a heroine that doesn't devote her entire existence to finding a man to love her. although this was refreshing- I did feel slightly bereft of a happy ever after. I like loose ends to be tied up, so what happened after? and where did Petey go?!
On the whole, the author does a brilliant job of bringing London of old to life. The sites and sounds were described perfectly. I know I have read a good book when it takes a while to readjust to reality.
I would definitely recommend the book to anyone with an interest in real history and more specifically those with an interest in the history of medicine and society.
This book doesn't make for the easiest of reading, but this coupled with the short chapters, broken up nicely with correspondence to and from the other characters, balance out nicely.
I enjoyed the book in its entirety. on some occasions I admit I skipped a line or two when the descriptions were 'a bit much', but other than that I enjoyed it!
I liked the main character Eliza, at last a heroine that doesn't devote her entire existence to finding a man to love her. although this was refreshing- I did feel slightly bereft of a happy ever after. I like loose ends to be tied up, so what happened after? and where did Petey go?!
On the whole, the author does a brilliant job of bringing London of old to life. The sites and sounds were described perfectly. I know I have read a good book when it takes a while to readjust to reality.
I would definitely recommend the book to anyone with an interest in real history and more specifically those with an interest in the history of medicine and society.
March 6, 2010
This is one of those books where the synopsis on the sleeve turns out to be better than the story. I wanted to like this book; I actually thought it started out pretty strong but by the middle I was beyond depressed and bored-- strange combination, and not one that goes hand in hand with a good read.
What was flawed... where do I start? The main character was a prisoner in this story despite being described and plucky and brazen... if she had any pluck, she would have fled much sooner and the book would have been better for it...
All I can say is whoever reviewed it and called it a Dickensian gothic made me chuckle-- if these were Dickens characters they would have slit their throats and wrists to get out of the increasingly depressing and going nowhere fast story line.
What was flawed... where do I start? The main character was a prisoner in this story despite being described and plucky and brazen... if she had any pluck, she would have fled much sooner and the book would have been better for it...
All I can say is whoever reviewed it and called it a Dickensian gothic made me chuckle-- if these were Dickens characters they would have slit their throats and wrists to get out of the increasingly depressing and going nowhere fast story line.
October 26, 2007
Loved the imagery in this book set in the 1700s. I grew to really like Eliza, the narrator of the book, who goes from being a naive young girl and a pawn in her mother's schemes to a woman who pushed her way to freedom in a time when women did not have as many options. The story underlying this journey was interesting and suspenseful despite the monotony of her life in the apothecary's home, and I kept turning the pages despite myself (and the time of day). :o)
August 3, 2008
Dark and mysterious, and very Dickensian - which makes it weird that I liked it because I really loathe Dickens.
Does an excellent job of absorbing the reader in London in the early 1700's. I felt absorbed in the world - the writing was incredibly evocative. Think I will pick up Clark's first novel since I enjoyed this one so much.
Does an excellent job of absorbing the reader in London in the early 1700's. I felt absorbed in the world - the writing was incredibly evocative. Think I will pick up Clark's first novel since I enjoyed this one so much.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 294 reviews