Awakening
Published on 15. May 2013
Book
Hardback
300 pages
978-1-908946-98-0 (ISBN)
Description
Wiltshire 1860: One year after Darwin's explosive publication of The Origin of Species, sisters Anna and Beatrice Pentecost awaken to a world shattered by science, radicalism and the stirrings of feminist rebellion; a world of charismatic religious movements, Spiritualist seances, bitter loss and medical trauma. Fetishist of working women Arthur Munby, irascible antiquary General Pitt Rivers, feminist Barbara Bodichon and other historical figures of the Victorian epoch wander through the backdrop of the novel, as Anna's anomalous love for Lore Ritter and her friendship with freethinking and ambitious Miriam Sala carry her into areas of uncharted desire - while Beatrice, forced to choose between her beloved Will Anwyl and the evangelist Christian Ritter, who marked her out as a wife when she was only a child, is pulled between passion and duty. Each is riven by inner contradictions, but who will survive when the sisters fall into a fatal conflict with one another?
Reviews / Votes
"Davies writes with an intensity which is simultaneously disturbing and exhilarating; her prose has a marvellous lyricism." --"Times Literary Supplement " 'Stevie Davies's latest novel, her 12th, is charged with sensitivity to the otherness of the past [...] and her social comedy breathes life into an oppressive world. [...] Awakening burns with anger against the abuses of the past, while recognising that the present has no right to condescend.' Helen Dunmore, The Guardian 'George Eliot would be impressed.' The Historical Novel Society 'Davies weaves this intricate web of faltering, painful relationships with great skill and writes very powerfully and movingly about the subtle half-tones and tentativeness of love, of childbirth, of loss as well as the horribly intrusive shock of male Victorian medical practice towards women.' The Independent 'You leave these pages feeling more fully conscious of yourself and the world around you than you did when you began them. What more can you ask for from a book?' Wales Arts ReviewMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cardigan
United Kingdom
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
Illustration
Dimensions
Height: 221 mm
Width: 139 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
451 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-908946-98-0 (9781908946980)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Stevie Davies has won numerous awards for her fiction, and has been long-listed for the Booker and Orange Prizes. Several of her books have been adapted into radio and screenplays. Stevie lives in her home-town of Swansea, where she is Professor of Creative Writing at Swansea University. She is a passionate sea-swimmer, cyclist and walker on the Gower.