ISLANDS OF MERCY by Rose Tremain

 

Only a master story teller and writer of exceptional ability could hold and juggle so many different types of characters, somehow making it all come together in a satisfactory and meaningful way. Every character is carefully crafted and developed - none are the same at the end as they were in the opening chapters. They are all integral to the story as individuals, and in their interactions with each other. And the setting - the world in 1865 - the gentrified town of Bath, the glamour, luxury and hedonism of Paris, the extreme poverty and despair of Dublin, the tropical lushness, lurking dangers, humidity and heat of Borneo. Through it all weaves the manners, mores and expectations of the times, dictating how men and women behave to each other, where their place is in society and the pecking order. But all the characters are fighting against the expectations of the times, in many different ways.. 

Clorinda Morrissey has escaped the life set down for her in Ireland. She has come to Bath to make a better life for herself, using a ruby necklace bequeathed by her mother to set her on her way. She opens a tea shop which quickly becomes a popular place for ladies and gents to partake of tea and cake. One day Jane Adearne is having tea with Valentine Ross, when the latter asks Jane to marry him. She promptly declines his proposal and leaves. Marriage, it would seem, is not for Jane. Even if, in her early 20s, this is what she should be well and truly thinking about. But not Jane. Jane is a nurse, nicknamed the Angel of Bath, for the wondrous ways she helps the sick and infirm who come to the town to take the waters. Her father, Sir William Adearne is the local doctor, and whom Valentine, also a doctor, works with. Valentine has a brother, Edmund. Edmund is a botanist and makes the alarming decision to go to Borneo to discover new plants to bring back to England, and thus make his own fortune. He makes the long journey to Borneo, in search of Sir Ralph Savage, a self styled rajah who has created his own little empire in the jungle. And then there is Julietta and her long suffering husband. Julietta is a most beguiling temptress, with whom Jane falls hopelessly in love. Is she merely a distraction, or will Jane be able to follow her heart?

So much going on! And it is a very big and intricate book. The style of writing is very much of the nineteenth century  - think sentences with many words, very descriptive of place, movement, how people are, how they think and do. It is certainly not sparse writing, but as the story went on I stopped noticing the old fashioned and at times laboured writing. The whole thing is so wonderfully held together, balanced and worthy of complete attention, the style just became part of the whole. A marvellous story celebrating the need to follow one's own heart, not to be defined by the expectations of society, or your supposed place in it.