Katherine Howe blew me away with her first book, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. It hit number two on the New York Time’s Bestsellers. Her first book weaves together modern story, scholarly research and fictional eighteenth-century documents. Impressed by the research, beautiful prose and themes of her first novel, I set into The House of Velvet and Glass as soon as I could.
The House of Velvet and Glass follows the Boston-based Allston family as they grapple with their fates. Pieces of their lives are interwoven, jumping from 1885 to 1917 and in between, member to member. Sybil Allston, the eldest daughter now “too old to marry” is the key player in the book. She grieves for lives lost by exploring seances, the use of the crystal ball, and opium.
The front cover features a poppy, an extremely rich symbol. It is the line between living and dying, dreaming and waking. It brings peace to wounds but in excess it numbs us. The theme is explored in the environment of opium dens, and behind the doors of the well to do. The period of the book is at the edge of when the United States began to regulate opiates, previously a generous ingredient in many over the counter remedies. So full of technological advancement, the era also marks the great catastrophe of the Titanic and the beginning of World War I.
House of Velvet picks up on themes begun in The Physick Book. Once again academia and the scientific method conflicts with intuition, magic and the unexplainable. Fate and freedom war. Characters must decide how to live their lives with honor even with few options. How does one make a mark? Through family we find our darkness and ourselves.
I recommend this highly to all who love historical, literary or paranormal fiction. The prose is to die for, each word carefully fitted to compose a rich vision. I can see the light streaming through the curtained windows and experience the invigoration of an opium dream.
