Fen Fiction : A review of "Wakenhyrst" by Michelle Paver
Michelle Paver has
written two successful YA fantasy series: Chronicles of Ancient Darkness
and Gods and Warriors. She has
also published two chilling ghost novels for adults: Thin Air (which I
greatly enjoyed reading just over a year ago) and Dark Matter (which I’m
yet to read but is, according reviewers I respect, just as brilliant). Both are built on a similar premise –
individuals in eerie, extreme landscapes, whether Himalayan peaks or the
expanse of the Arctic, start losing their grip on reality and are haunted by
ghosts, real or imaginary.
Paver’s latest novel, Wakenhyrst,
also features a protagonist in thrall of a supernatural obsession. Yet, there are enough departures from her previous
‘formula’ to make this a refreshing uncanny read. It’s also
possibly the most ambitious of her adult novels, a tightly-plotted Gothic yarn
with strong feminist undertones.
Wakenhyrst’s setting is the (fictional) village of the title, a
small settlement in the Suffolk Fens, a few years before the Great War. At first glance, this would appear to be a
more prosaic backdrop than the ones the author generally uses – but it’s one
which provides ample opportunities for a Gothic tale, thanks to the insidious
marshy landscape which surrounds the village, the rich Medieval history of the
area and the ancient folklore and folk beliefs of its inhabitants. All these
elements are nicely combined by Paver to create an atmosphere of dread which is
often tinged with ‘folk horror’. As the
author herself explains in her concluding note, the inspiration for this novel is a
real life event, the discovery of the Wenhaston Doom, a medieval painting of
the Last Judgment whitewashed by the Puritans and rediscovered during
renovation works in 1892. This is
transposed to “Wakenhyrst”, where a similar find triggers a strong emotional
reaction from the conservative and misogynistic Edmund Stearne. Stearne is an eminent medieval scholar and
owner of Wake’s End, a rambling manor house situated at the outskirts of the
village right next to the Fens. He
considers himself a rational academic, but feels surprisingly revolted by one
of the demons portrayed in the Doom, a malevolent figure which is a cross
between traditional iconography and the ‘fen monsters’ which inhabit the area’s
legends.
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| Detail from the Wenhaston Doom (from http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/wenhaston.html) |
It is no spoiler to
state that it is this demon which will stalk the pages of this novel and haunt
the increasingly fevered dreams and imaginings of Stearne. Even in this regard,
there is a marked difference from Paver’s previous supernatural tales. The Wakenhyrst demon is not the typically ‘spirit’
of many ghost stories, including Paver’s own, but (assuming it’s real), it’s a
particularly ‘physical’ and hideous entity, ugly, fetid and violent. A monster, in other words, which could have
come from the pen of M.R. James.
Although, one should say, not all monsters are demons, and there are
some humans who are worthy of that name...
Indeed, whilst Thin
Air and Dark Matter are subtitled “a ghost story”, Wakenhyrst is
more of a Gothic tale, with some elements of ‘sensation fiction’ added for good
measure. The Gothic element is evident
not just in the nature of the plot, but also in the way it is presented,
particularly through the use of multiple viewpoints and found manuscripts. The novel is held together by a “frame story”
set in the 1960s in which Maude Stearne, Edmund’s daughter, is drawn from a
lonely, reclusive life at Wake’s End, and compelled to recount the tragic
events which form the core of the novel.
These occurrences (as we learn very early on), had consigned her father
to a mental institution where he spent years painting several canvases
featuring demons and devils (this finds a real-life parallel in the curious
story and posthumous fame of artist Richard Dadd). The account of Stearne’s descent into madness
is told in the third-person but, very clearly, from the perspective of an older
Maud. In this respect, Wakenhyrst
can also double as a coming-of-age story, and a particularly harrowing one at
that. Interspersed throughout the text
are pages from the diary of Stearne, extracts from the medieval Book of
Alice Pyett (a thinly-veiled reference to the Book of Margery Kempe), on
which Stearne was working with Maud’s help at the time of the Doom’s disovery,
and The Life of St Guthlaf, a fictional hagiographic account closely
based on the life of St Guthlac of Crowland.
These disparate threads are deftly woven by Paver into a gripping canvas,
whose momentum increases in the final chapters.
For me, Wakenhyrst
works best as a “Gothic thriller”, rather than as a supernatural tale. I had found Thin Air chilling and unsettling
because it left the reader in doubt as to whether the ghosts haunting its
protagonists really existed. In Wakenhyrst,
however, I found it difficult to entertain the possibility of the demons ever having
been real. It does not make the tale any
less exciting – but it does drain it of some of its supernatural aura. This is partly due to the inherent scepticism
of the narrator – which possibly reflects the author’s own views. The novel is saturated with the beliefs of
the Middle Ages, but in her concluding Author’s Note, Paver comes across as disparaging
of the writings, legends and mindset of the era.
Just by way of example, the writings of Margery Kempe are regularly lauded as the
very first autobiography in English and often included in feminist and women’s
studies – considering the feminist viewpoint of the novel, it is
therefore ironic and rather disappointing to find Paver dismissing Kempe as “bizarre,
narcissistic and oddly pitiable”. One
may well agree with Paver that Guthlac of Crowland was “merely a delusional
young man afflicted by malaria, home-made opium and loneliness” – but, even
leaving spiritual considerations aside, the fact that his life inspired so many
poetic accounts and medieval artistic works, testifies to a fascination with
this figure which should not be brushed aside.
We might not share the beliefs of our medieval forefathers, or at least,
not all of them, but as a first step to respecting and understanding their
mindset, we should be ready to momentarily put our preconceptions on hold. Much as we do when we immerse ourselves in a page-turning
tale such as Wakenhyrst...
P.S. Don't you think it's a really great cover?
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| Beginning of Felix's Life of St Guthlac, 8C, Parker Library, Corpus Christi College |
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