The alchemist

   The dour Lancashire village of Fetherhoughton; the austerity of the 1950s. At the presbytery, Father Angwin has lost his faith, his housekeeper Miss Dempsey seeks solace in her domestic duties - "There was always something one could polish. And if ingenuity were really exhausted, one could turn mattresses" - and the Bishop ("His Corpulence") comes meddling in church affairs. Up the road is the convent, grim to say the least, where poor young Sister Philomena does her best but cannot fully submit to the life her vows entail.

   In her prize-winning 1989 novel Fludd, Hilary Mantel takes the theme of transformation and applies it to her unsuspecting characters with dazzling effect. With the arrival out of a storm of the 'curate', Fludd, far-reaching change is begun and lives are touched and opened: "falseness can no longer be endured, truth must out. There must be new combinations within the heart: passions never witnessed, notions never before formed." As soon becomes clear, Fludd is no ordinary cleric, and while he's not Mary Poppins, in Fetherhoughton 'til the wind changes, nonetheless he has work to do and unusual powers with which to do it (his self-replenishing whisky bottle reminded me of Cary Grant and Monty Woolley's sherry in The Bishop's Wife!).

    I discovered this book by reading Juxtabook's review (what were we saying about the influence of blogs?), and it is every bit as good as Catherine says it is. Funny, magical, touching, wise, intelligent - the list of its attributes is long; here you'll find writing of great poise and style, a comic's gift for timing and a dramatist's ear for dialogue, but its unusual charm lies in the way in which Hilary Mantel treats her transformative theme. "The real Fludd (1574-1637)," she tells us in a note, "was a physician, scholar and alchemist. In alchemy, everything has a literal and factual description, and in addition a description that is symbolic and fantastical." However you choose to apply that to the story, whoever or whatever you think Fludd may be - and the book leaves the reader to make up their own mind about things - I found it a marvellously entertaining, clever work and I enjoyed it hugely.

Comments

[Rhys]

I think that village of the imagination Featherhoughton may be down the hill behind our house ,across the river and just sitting there !.....in fact I know it is ....

[Scrapiana]

Thank you for that. My dear departed mother gave me this book in the early 1990s. Alas, it has remained on my shelf unread. Your review has provided the necessary spur to read.

[Cornflower]

Rhys, one of the many lines about the village which made me laugh was this one:
"The first event of autumn was the snowfall that blocked the pass that led through the moors to Yorkshire; this was generally accounted a good thing."!

[Cornflower]

I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did!

[Mystica]

I am happy that the book is available at the library (in Melbourne) so thats one of your recommendations at least I could try! I have been able to get such a few so far.

[Coffee and a Book Chick]

This does sound absolutely magical -- I think I've got this on my wish list, and now I need to run to make sure! :)