For today's #HistFicThursdays blog, I am thrilled to be welcoming Samantha Ward-Smith to the blog with a guest post about her latest book Ravenscourt , as part of her Coffee Pot Book Club tour! Read on to find out about the inspiration for her novel, and how she brought Ravenscourt into the Gothic tradition. But first, let's meet the book... Blurb He wanted to be gone from the dark enclosing room, with its mocking misery, to be gone from this house of nightmares, of shattered dreams, and discovered secrets which could not be put back in the box. Venice, 1880. Alexander, Viscount Dundarran, seeks refuge from scandal amidst the fading grandeur of crumbling palazzos during the infamous Carnival in the city. There he encounters the enigmatic Lady Arabella Pembrook—a young, beautiful widow. Both are scarred by their pasts but find solace in each other and a chance at redemption. But when duty calls Alexander back to England upon his father's death,...
For today's #HistFicThursdays blog, I am thrilled to be welcoming Samantha Ward-Smith to the blog with a guest post about her latest book Ravenscourt, as part of her Coffee Pot Book Club tour! Read on to find out about the inspiration for her novel, and how she brought Ravenscourt into the Gothic tradition.
But first, let's meet the book...
Blurb
He wanted to be gone from the dark enclosing room, with its mocking misery, to be gone from this house of nightmares, of shattered dreams, and discovered secrets which could not be put back in the box.
Venice, 1880.
Alexander, Viscount Dundarran, seeks refuge from scandal amidst the fading grandeur of crumbling palazzos during the infamous Carnival in the city. There he encounters the enigmatic Lady Arabella Pembrook—a young, beautiful widow. Both are scarred by their pasts but find solace in each other and a chance at redemption.
But when duty calls Alexander back to England upon his father's death, a darker journey begins. Travelling to Ravenscourt, the decaying estate once belonging to Arabella’s late husband, Alexander must confront the house’s disturbing legacy which has echoed through the generations. Within its walls lie secrets that refuse to stay buried and will threaten everything he thought he knew. But can Alex uncover the truth in time?
Ravenscourt
is available on #KindleUnlimited and via this Universal Link
Guest Post
Ravenscourt: Challenging the Gothic Tradition
I absolutely love a good Gothic book such as Jane Eyre, The Silent Companions, Mrs England, The Yellow Wallpaper, and one of my all-time favourites Rebecca. All of these books have similar themes with the Gothic house very much at the centre. I can never resist a book with an atmospheric house on the cover!
In 19th century fiction, the haunted or decaying house often reflects a woman’s mental state or social confinement. A locked room or attic symbolises repression, secrets, or emotional imprisonment for example Jane Eyre and The Yellow Wallpaper. In the patriarchal home walls hide madness, abuse, or crimes that cannot be spoken in public.
The Gothic tradition lies within Victorian society. Women on marriage lost all rights to own property – her wages, her possessions and even her children were controlled by her husband. Domestic abuse was not a crime – legal tolerance allowed men to beat their wives. The role of the asylum allowed husbands and family to institutionalise women with very little evidence. Women could be admitted for ‘hysteria’ ‘melancholia’ or simply for defiance of gender roles. Bertha Mason’s attic confinement in Jane Eyre mirrors real-life incarceration of ‘mad’ wives.
Unmarried or widowed women with very little money often became governesses and these women had a very unique role within the house. They were neither servant nor family – they were very much the ‘other’. Victorian fiction uses this role to great effect as the outsider discovers silenced wives and servants who are dominated by the man of the house. In Mrs England the governess desperately tries to save her mistress but in Jane Eyre the governess falls in love with the brooding master who has imprisoned his wife in the attic. For the modern audience it can be an uncomfortable read – how do we reconcile the dark, handsome hero with the controlling prisoner of a woman who obviously needs help? I loved Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea which told Bertha’s story.
And then we have Daphne du Maurier’s classic Rebecca – the Gothic psychological thriller about obsession, identity, and a woman haunted by the legacy of her husband’s first wife. Obviously not set in 19th century but it has the ‘haunted’ house, the ‘outsider’ in the second Mrs de Winter who doesn’t even get given a name, and a dead woman who pushes society’s norms. Rebecca is portrayed by the men in the book as an adulterous, hysterical woman who does not know her place. But it is Rebecca who we are meant to remember.
After I had picked up yet another book with a Victorian governess, a cruel husband, and of course the haunted estate, I thought what if I challenged this trope? That the very things that constrained women at that time were the weapons my female character used against the men in her life? I don’t want to give too much away about Arabella, my female main character, but she is not what she seems and she is definitely not a governess. She wheedles her way into the two men’s lives using her charms and her formidable manipulation. We never get her point of view which is obviously deliberate and like the men in her life we are never sure who she really is.
It is Charles Pembroke, her deceased husband, who feels imprisoned by Ravenscourt, his family home. He is haunted by family tragedy, by his own abusive father who does commit Charles’ mother to an asylum, and by the walls of the house itself. The classic Gothic tropes are all there in his past but I wanted Charles to be the one effected by the house with his own insecurities used against him.
Alexander, Viscount of Dundarran, Arabella’s second husband, is a naïve, trusting young man with idealistic views of the world. He genuinely wants to do good but comes from a place of privilege and with no clue of what it is to struggle. He does however want to fight against the patriarchal system and campaign for reform. He is a ‘new’ man but his succession to the Dukedom brings him into conflict with society.
However, it is the patriarchal system which ironically Alexander has to use in the end. So, whilst I push against the Gothic tradition it is the rules of Victorian society which ground the novel and its plot. I use the Gothic tropes of the haunted house, the sexual and emotional suppression, domestic violence and madness but in a way which challenges the reader – things aren’t always as they first appear.
Now, let's meet the author:
Samantha Ward-Smith is the author of Tower of Vengeance, her debut historical novel set in the Tower of London during the 13th century, and the forthcoming Ravenscourt, a Victorian Gothic tale unfolding across Venice, London, and the windswept Lancashire moors. She lived in London for over three decades, building a career in investment banking while also pursuing a PhD in English at Birkbeck.
For the past 13 years she has volunteered at the Tower of London, an experience that provided invaluable historical insight and directly shaped her writing. Now based in Kent by the sea, Samantha continues to explore the intersections of history, place, and story, writing in the company of her two cats, Belle and Rudy.
You can follow Samantha on these links:
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