by Elizabeth Hand
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| List Price: | $24.95 |
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| Lowest New Price: | $8.20 |
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Product Description
In the Victorian Age, a mysterious and irresistible woman becomes entwined in the lives of several artists, both as a muse and as the object of all-consuming obsession. Radborne Comstock, one of the early twentieth century's most brilliant young painters, is helpless under her dangerous spell. In modern-day London, journalist Daniel Rowlands meets a beguiling woman who holds the secret to invaluable -- and lost -- Pre-Raphaelite paintings, while wealthy dilettante-actor Valentine Comstock is consumed by enigmatic visions. Swirling between eras and continents, Mortal Love is the intense tale of unforgettable characters caught in a whirlwind of art, love, and intrigue that will take your breath away.
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Average Customer Review:
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Interesting, flawed. , 2008-08-03
This is the first book that I have read by Elizabeth Hand. I would be interested to hear in the comments which of her novels you would recommend as a second.
There are some authors who I like enough as writers that they get added to my favorites list despite finding many flaws with their novels. Charles Stross is like this for me. I often have nits to pick with his work, and sometimes I downright don't like a novel (Glasshouse, for instance). But still, I always keep reading, and think that he is one of the best speculative fiction authors out there.
I have a feeling that I may end up with a similar reaction to Elizabeth Hand. I read this book pretty compulsively. I loved her diction and her style and the way that she mixed art and fantasy and fairy. It was not until the very end of the book that I kind of realized that I didn't really like the plot very much. This mainly because I was unconvinced by a number of the characters. I found the way that the book shifted perspective particularly jarring, and both Juda and Val remained too opaque and still not opaque enough for what they were supposed to be.
This sounds like very serious criticism, and it is. But still, I found the book inspiring and thought-provoking and actually kind of a brilliant mess. I like brilliant messes. I kind of hope to find the same quality in the rest of her work. What do you think? Will I?
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 Brilliant, vivid, frightening, 2007-10-24
This is a brilliantly written but dark fairy tale. The main characters inner lives are very richly developed through vibrant descriptions of their experiences and the things they say about themselves. Hand's descriptions of the characters' sensory experiences, especially sight and smell, provide the reader with a strong sense of what their lives must have been like. Her descriptions of 19th century London are so detailed and vivid that I felt as if I was there. The story is a hard to bear because it concerns madness and physical mutilation (described in great detail) but ultimately rewards the reader with a vision of the agony and ecstasy some artists must endure. The tale is complex involving intertwined strands from three main characters living in two centuries, as well as several lesser characters. Although the main threads are satisfactorily resolved at the conclusion, many elements of the story remain mysterious, e.g. is Learmont a human or fairy and why does he always carry scissors? If you like John Crowley's Little Big, you may like this book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
a finely wrought page-turner, 2007-04-28
Elizabeth Hand writes exquisite, brilliant, beautiful prose and she writes it about some of the oddest and most twisted characters and situations imaginable. In this work, her use of lovely metaphors and the virtuosity of her technique with color makes for sublime reading. Her take on the role of the muse in artistic creation is original and pretty much mind-blowing. All of this and a great rollicking adventure and love story. If you enjoy the darker works of Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood, or the fairy tale collections edited by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow, you'll enjoy this, but fans of A. S. Byatt, Guy Gavriel Kay, Patricia McKillip, or Robin McKinley will also find something here. I suspect even magic realism fans, those who love Garcia Marquez, Toni Morrison, and Isabel Allende, would also like Hand. Also recommended are her first novel, Waking the Moon and her recent story collection Saffron and Brimstone.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
pretty, layered novel, definitely better for avid readers than casual ones, 2007-02-16
I didn't enjoy Elizabeth Hand's Mortal Love as much as I enjoyed her earlier novel, Waking the Moon, but it was still worth reading.
The narrative skips around a bit from character to character, which gets a little confusing, but the story is compelling and the characters themselves are interesting.
I kept feeling that I was missing some vital information that would help me make sense of the book, and after reading some Amazon reviews, I think that is indeed the case. Di's review sums it up:
"It probably helps to have some knowledge of The Maginogi and other Celtic tales, as well as the poems of Yeats and the writing of Robert Graves. Understanding who Tristan and Isolde were and the Pre-Raphaelites won't hurt. Else, how can one put this convoluted tale in perspective?"
Yeah, I don't really have that much of a classic lit education yet, so I was lost in more than a few spots. And I had no idea that some characters, like Swinburne, were actual historical figures. But I could sense that I was missing stuff, at least, instead of the story just being written badly.
I would really like to go back to this one in about ten years, after I've learned more about the subjects it touches on.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Beautiful, Erudite, Daring, 2007-02-10
This woman is a genius writer, IMHO! Of course, in the case of this novel, I know I'm biased, because she wrote it just for me. Well,at least it feels that way... what she's done so brilliantly is weave in the myth of the Muse, the creative genius that can drive men mad, or, wait, is that woman the Faery Queen? Both, neither? Woven in are the spooky tropes of a gothic thriller,and many of the stars of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, my college Art History heroes. She re-creates the laudenum laden late Vitorian era in such a bold and flawless way she literally transported me there. Beautiful bold writing and a show stopping cameo by non other than Esperanza Wilde herself make this book, to me, amazing.
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