Sunday 24 February 2019

Tall Tales: "A review of Once Upon a River" by Diane Setterfield




"Once Upon a River" by Diane Setterfield

A book review


Once upon a time, there was an author who wrote stories, really good stories. She loved stories so much that she wrote a novel about them – about the way in which stories mould our world, fashion our thoughts, shape our past and help us fathom our present; about the way in which, like a living being, tales change and grow at each retelling; about how each and every one carry stories in our hearts, whether we choose tell them or not...

Diane Setterfield’s third novel Once Upon a River is an ambitious and complex work, but one which wears its erudition lightly and hides its artifice well.  At one level, in fact, it can be enjoyed as a well-crafted historical mystery.  We are in the 19th Century, on the evening of a winter’s solstice.  The door of The Swan, an inn at Radcot on the River Thames, opens to reveal a badly injured man carrying a little girl.  She’s seemingly dead – Rita, the local nurse and midwife, can detect no breath or heartbeat.  Yet, against all odds, the girl revives and wakes up, whether by magic, as a result of a miracle or through some natural wonder.  This does not solve the enigma of the girl’s identity, which cannot be easily ascertained especially since she turns out to be mute.  The girl could well be the daughter of the Vaughans, kidnapped two years previously finally returned by her captors.  Or the illegitimate granddaughter of a local farmer, abandoned by her mother before she committed suicide on being forced into prostitution.  Or, if one is to believe Lily, the parson’s housekeeper, she might be a revenant, the ghost of Lily’s long-dead sister. 

This mystery lies at the heart of the novel and makes a page-turner out of it, particularly in the rather breathless final chapters.  Setterfield houses her story in a well-researched historical context which is conjured through loving descriptions of the Thames and its communities, and through references to the new scientific worldview which was then challenging more conservative religious and supernatural views.  The story is peopled by interesting characters, including farmer Robert Armstrong, the dark-skinned illegitimate son of an earl and a housemaid; strong-willed Rita, a self-taught scientist; and Henry Daunt, who is actually based on the real-life Henry Taunt, photographer and chronicler of the Thames.   Setterfield also subtly evokes the period through references to the literature of the time – echoes of Dickens and, to my mind at least, Wilkie Collins, abound. 

All this would have been enough to make of the novel a considerable achievement.  But Once upon a River is also a post-modern piece of meta-fiction.  This insightful review on the Opinionated Reader blog makes the valid point that the novel purposely includes familiar tropes of British Gothic literature, particularly the river and the inn.  This is very true – the  Thames, in particular, could be considered not just a setting but a central character in the book, whereas the Swan is the place where the novel starts and ends.  But the novel is also rich with other references to legends and folklore.  Key scenes occur on the winter and summer solstice and the Autumn equinox; there are mentions of dastardly highwaymen, water sprites, goblins, ghosts, changelings, clairvoyants.  And even though most of the supernatural aspects of the tale can be (but are not necessarily) rationally explained (Ann Radcliffe-style), the otherworldly is never too far too seek.  Setterfield also throws her net wider than the reaches of British folklore – the figure of Quietly, the ghostly ferryman, owes as much to Classical mythology as to the classic English ghost story, and the motlew crew at the Swan act as a more modest version of a Greek chorus. 

What is impressive, at the end of the day, is that all these knowing references are presented in an intriguing and involving story worthy of the classic 19th century novelists.  True, it’s a tall tale, and some of the loose ends are perhaps too conveniently tied up at the end.  But, we don't really mind... Like the patrons of the Swan, we all love a great story, don’t we?

Hardcover464 pages
Published December 2018 by Transworld Publishers/Random Books

Henry Taunt at Marsh Mills, Henley

***

As listening suggestions to accompany this novel, I would like to propose some works of classical music by English composers inspired by the river.   George Frideric Handel’s Water Music, composed in 1717 for a concert on the Thames, immediately came to mind, but their stately grandeur did not seem to fit the mood of the novel.  So I will start with a contemporary piece – Thames Reflections by Clive Jenkins (b. 1938) premiered by the Chamber Ensemble of London at a concert celebrating music and composers associated with the Thames

Summer Night on the River was composed by Frederick Delius in 1911.  It is a rather ironic choice, given that it was not inspired by an English river but by the French river Loing.  It is, however, a lovely piece, evoking mysterious mists shimmering above the water.



In his three Parables for Church Performance, Benjamin Britten combined elements of the Japanese noh plays with English medieval “mysteries” to create a new yet timeless music theatre form.  Curlew River, the first of the set, is based on  Umidagawa (Sumida River) by Juro Motomasa (1395–1431), which Britten saw during a visit to Japan and the Far East in early 1956.  His librettist, William Plomer, moved the setting of the original to the fictional Curlew River in East Anglia.   This ‘church opera’, rather surprisingly, reflects some elements found in Setterfield’s novel, including a mysterious Ferryman, a woman looking for her lost child, and the ghost of a dead boy.   Here’s the ritualistic opening of the work, taken from a recording conducted by the composer himself.

Despite its very English setting Once upon a River also harnesses images from Greek mythology.  And so a Greek river is next : Lethe one of the five rivers which flowed through Hades where all those who drank from it experienced complete forgetfulness.   It is evoked in the last movement of Arcadiana, a work for string quartet by Thomas Ades, written when the precocious composer was still in his early twenties.
  
And if you’d like to explore the other movements of this wonderful composition, do start with the meltingly beautiful O Albion.  To save you looking for it, here it is in a live version performed by Ensemble Perpetuo.  It was recorded during a concert appropriately themed Rivers and Oceans, bringing us back to where it all started...

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