Angelica: A Novel

by Arthur Phillips

2007

Status

Available

Call number

813.6

Genres

Collection

sold/unread

Publication

Random House (2007), Kindle Edition, 352 pages

Description

Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. HTML:�??A masterpiece . . . seamlessly mixes psychological disintegration, the dissolution of a marriage and . . . a classic ghost story.�?��??USA Today NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE �?� NATIONAL BESTSELLER �??Angelica impresses first as a clever send-up of the late Victorian novel, and then becomes its own very original thing. It is engrossing, deeply moving, and�??precisely because it is moving�??very frightening.�?��??Stephen King London, the 1880s. In the dark of night, a chilling spectre is making its way through the Barton household, hovering over the sleeping daughter and terrorizing her fragile mother. Are these visions real, or is there something more sinister, and more human, to fear? As the family�??s story is told several times from different perspectives, events are recast, sym- pathies shift, and nothing is as it seems. Set at the dawn of psychoanalysis and the peak of spiritualism�??s acceptance, Angelica is a spellbinding Victorian ghost story, an intriguing literary and psychological puzzle, and a thoroughly modern exploration of identity, reality, and love. Praise for Angelica �??Starts as a ghost story . . . turns into a spectacular, ever-proliferating tale of mingled motives, psychological menace, and delicately told crises of appetite and loneliness.�?��??The New Yorker �??Spellbinding . . . cements this young novelist�??s reputation as one of the best writers in America.�?��??The Washington Post Book World BONUS: This edition contains excerpts from Arthur Phillips's The Tragedy of Arthur, The Song… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member kpasternack02

Hated it. Sort of liked it. Refused to stop reading it. You can't categorize this book - it's a ghost story (but it's not - it says so right in the beginning - but it is), it's a Freudian book, it's about Victorian life, it's about madness and hysteria, it's misogynistic, it's feminist writinng in

its illustration of the hardships of being a woman in Victorian times, it's about the tensions between science and magic/spiritualism, it's about parent/child relationships, it's about marital strife and its impact on the various characters. Basically, it's all those things. I didn't find the ending as annoying as some people. But I didn't enjoy the book.

It was well-written. I admire how the male author can so clearly get into the mind of a mother/female. It dragged on forever.

But what drove me craziest was if only the husband and wife would have TALKED to each other, there would be no need for me to listen to all those hours of book. I could not live in Victorian times.

Show Less

23 more

LibraryThing member bcquinnsmom

I really hate saying this because I don't think it's fair to make comparisons between the different works of one author, but after The Egyptologist and Prague, this one was a bit of a letdown. Even though it's true that it has all of the hallmarks of Phillips' writing (uncertainty of memory,

unreliable narrators views, truth as an elusive entity), all of which put together become the basis for my favorite novels, this one just didn't deliver as did the other two.

It is and isn't a ghost story, but is made to sound like one. In reality, it's a look at the end of a marriage during the Victorian period, told by 4 different narrators, each of which is unreliable. Constance Barton is the suffering wife who married way above her station, then became pregnant and had several miscarriages. Her one surviving child, Angelica, becomes a powerful focus in her life, much to the detriment of her husband Joseph. When Joseph decides that it's high time for Angelica to be moved out of the nuptial bedroom, Constance suffers and begins to be convinced that there is evil afoot. Exactly what is the nature of the evil is the focus of the story.

Some readers will be left unsatisfied, but such is the nature of this type of writing. I enjoyed it, and did not stop once I picked it up, but it wasn't up there on my favorites by this autho

Show Less

LibraryThing member carolcarter

Here is a book to set you thinking. Angelica is a highly complex novel, not the least because it presents the reader with four different points of view. Arthur Phillips unveils the story through the eyes of the four main characters, each of whom has a different slant on the same series of

events.

Angelica is the story of a victorian marriage in 1880's London. Said marriage of several years is beginning to unravel when the book opens. What begins as a ghost story slowly reveals itself to be something darker. Clues are left very subtly and while I relished the idea of a true ghost story, it slowly became obvious that this was not it. The underlying tale is much sadder and all too understandable in light of the period it is set in. (That the same things happen still on a daily basis does not dilute the astonishing pain caused by the ignorance of the older period.) The bulk of the tale is told by the wife and mother, Constance, through the voice of an unknown narrator. The spiritualist called in to exorcise the suspected haunt picks up the tale and we are vouchsafed a slightly different interpretation. From here the story is retold by Joseph, the husband, and the narrator reveals their identity.

The final section is told by the four year old daughter of Constance and Joseph in the form of a written exercise imposed by her psychiatrist (whom I believe is intended to be Freud himself). Aside from the rich complexity of the historical detail and psychological nuances of each character, the book will continue to haunt the reader in its lack of a clearly delineated denouement. Like really good films that leave you guessing, one could have a conversation about this book for a long time. I expect future readings to leave me with different impressions and I look forward to discovering them. For your sake I am leaving out a lot of information. You will enjoy the book all the more for making your own interpretations.

Arthur Phillips, a five time Jeopardy champion, has written two previous books which sit temptingly on my TBR stack. I gladly await his next offering.

Show Less

LibraryThing member yarmando

With echoes of "Turn of the Screw" and "Fingersmith," this is an enthralling novel. It is beautifully written, playing with the reader's desire for a clear understanding by offering only brief glimpses at possible truths. Is the girl Angelica molested by spirits, drawn there by her parents'

marriage difficulties? Is her father horribly abusing her whilst hiding this fact even from himself? Is her mother falling into madness as the memories of her own abuse bubble up from where she repressed them?

The key passage, I think, comes as Joseph listens to a twisting story by the pompous Dr. Miles: "The tale did not stop here, but turned upon itself at least three more times before Joseph lost all track of who had been guilty, mad, or worthy of his sympathies...the meanings of both the murder and the marriage shifted, guilt fluttered from one shoulder to the next...."

But in the end, we find that these shifting points of view are all Angelica's attempt to please her psychotherapist by speculating on her childhood tragedy, and she herself refuses to pin things down, because these stories do not point to the truth but only to other points of view: "a machine of four jagged wheels, their interlocking teeth made only for each other."

Show Less

LibraryThing member Bookmarque

I don’t know whether to applaud Arthur Phillips or slap his face. Once again he gives us a tale with multiple viewpoints of the same events and once again we question how much (if any of it) is truth. It smacks of being clever for cleverness’s sake.

This novel touches on a lot of things; marital

issues, misogyny, feminism, gender roles, medicine and science versus occultism and magic, sex, child-rearing, madness, Victorian attitudes and animal vivisection. All brought to us through each person’s narrative. Not a 1st person perspective though, but one of omniscience of a sort.

Not as action-packed as The Egyptologist, nor with as many narrators, this one moved more slowly. As it is a Victorian novel pastiche, I suppose it ought to. After about 100 pages though, things started to happen and I became anxious to read the events from other people’s POV, especially Joseph who was made out to be nothing more than a brute by Constance and Anne. Each of them seemed very different than the others’ perception of them, but yet in a way, the seed of that perception was present even to themselves. That’s what made the ending so frustrating, that I seemed to get cohesion and then had it taken away so totally.

Show Less

LibraryThing member melydia

Constance Barton has had enough miscarriages that the doctors now forbid her to have intercourse with her husband, for one more pregnancy will likely kill her. She begins to fear his every touch, but when a strange spirit seems to be attacking their daughter, she starts to see connections between

it and her husband's behavior. She hires a spiritualist, but it may already be too late. The story is told from four points of view, one after the other, each adding a new layer to the confusion. Is there really a ghost or is it hokum? Is the spiritualist a charlatan or can she really help? Much of the drama stems from the Victorian mores and inability to discuss anything frankly, which is kind of annoying to my modern sensibilities. I kept hoping for something truly interesting to happen, but in the end, it really didn't. I was kind of meh about the whole thing, hoping for something a little bit more epic. Ah well.

Show Less

LibraryThing member Gary10

Original and innovative novel about a father-mother-daughter triangle told in part through the eyes of each character. The author creates an atmosphere of the Victorian period with masked sexual innuendos, spirits and creepy hysteria. The story is told through different characters and the author

does not help us choose which version is correct--so the plot line and even the conclusions are unsettled.

Show Less

LibraryThing member phoenixcomet

I simply could not get into this book. The writing was interesting and mildly compelling, but I found it difficult to connect to the characters and abandoned the story after about 100 pages.

LibraryThing member yourotherleft

Phillips' stiff and evasive Victorian prose is an unusual but effective vehicle for his narrative which intertwines the diverging viewpoints of four characters on a tragic murder. Or was it a murder? And who was murdered? Phillips' story, while a compelling character study and a practiced look at

the impact of strict gender and class roles of the late 1800s, and even a fascinating work of suspense, falls short only in its failure to sufficiently answer the many questions it provokes. This novel should be read for its stark portrayal of how different events can appear when seen through the eyes of several different people. The seemingly paranoid Constance sees ghosts, the spiritualist Anne Montague sees something far more sinister, while Joseph, the husband, only sees a wife who is slowly going mad and a household that has escaped his control. This penetrating look into the unraveling of one damaged family in Victorian London is certainly a worthwhile read.

Show Less

LibraryThing member kmaziarz

In this multi-layered and psychological Gothic ghost story, nothing is quite what it seems. Constance and Joseph Barton have one living daughter, Angelica, after a long string of disastrous miscarriages. Constance has been warned that another pregnancy would likely result in her death and has

spurned her husband’s physical advances for the four years since Angelica’s birth. When Joseph finally insists that Angelica must move out of their master bedroom and into her own chamber, Constance fears for her life in the face of her hot-blooded husband’s desire. Soon, she begins to see a blue phantom hovering over her daughter’s bed at night and believes it is Joseph’s wrathful lust made manifest, threatening Angelica’s life in order to clear a path to Constance. Joseph reacts angrily when Constance expresses her fears about the ghost, and Constance seeks solace and aid from actress-turned-spiritualist Anne Montague.

The story is told four times, by Constance, Joseph, Anne, and, finally, an adult version of Angelica herself. With each retelling, more details come to light about just what was going on and the reader’s allegiance subtly shifts each time. Were Constance’s fears justified? Was Joseph a cruel madman, or was Constance suffering a psychotic break? Did Joseph have immoral designs on his daughter as Anne believed, or did events in Constance’s past influence her views of the present? Complex and deliberately paced, “Angelica” depicts the psychology and repressive social mores of the Victorian era with satisfying depth and intelligence.

Show Less

LibraryThing member crazy4novels

This is a chilling Victorian ghost story in the vein of "The Turn of the Screw." Mrs. Barton believes that her young daughter is the victim of a sexually driven nocturnal spirit. The family's tragedy is told from the perspective of Angelica's mother, her father, a bogus "spiritualist," and Angelica

herself. Each person's version of reality is colored by their own psychological demons and self-induced deception. Which version is the true one??

Show Less

LibraryThing member emhromp2

I liked this book, because of the four narratives that each give another version of the same story. Original and well written. Maybe it's the translation, (Dutch), but I thought the style was a bit boring and overdone.
This book makes you think and rethink some situations, which makes it almost

interactive.

Show Less

LibraryThing member LadyintheLibrary

Moody, evocative, true to its Victorian setting, mysterious, satisfying.

LibraryThing member cdeuker

Shifting perspective book. Constance, our first "eyes", sees her husband Joseph as a tyrant who sexually forces himself upon her, and perhaps upon their child, Angelica. She cringes from Joseph whom she sees as the bringer of evil demons. Joseph's scientific work, which involves vivisection, fits

her ghastly view of him. Next comes Anne Montague. She promises to rid Constance of demons, though she's more than a bit of charlatan herself. The fee matters. After that it's Joseph. Gloomy, morose, but -- from his point of view -- a good man cursed with a mentally ill wife who concocts out of thin air demons. Joseph disappears . . . murdered by Anne Montague perhaps, or perhaps he's a suicide. The final section (Angelica's) doesn't clarify anything. Truth is ephemeral.
Flagged a bit at times, and never felt engrossing, but always interesting enough to go on. Phillips can definitely write--this felt a bit like an intellectual exercise, however.

Show Less

LibraryThing member jasonlf

Everything Arthur Phillips writes is great and this is no exception. A story told from multiple perspectives, at least one of which is a ghost story but others are about frauds. Perfectly executed.

LibraryThing member craso

This book is described as a ghost story. It is a ghost story only in the sense that two of the characters, Constance, the wife, and Joseph, the husband, are haunted by their relationship with their parents. A better description of this book would be psychological mystery or thriller. We delve into

the psyche of a Victorian era family; the husband is quiet and inaccessible, the wife cowers within her sphere, and the child is spoiled and runs the household with her beguiling ways. We see their lives through four different narratives; the wife, the spiritualist, the husband and the grown child. Each sees the situations of their lives very differently. The wife sees her husband as a tyrant that she must protect her child from. The spiritualist feels she is helping the mother, but is really manipulating the situation for her own selfish gains. The husband is clueless to his wife’s emotional needs. The child only wants the attention of the three adults. Inevitably, the combination of these different and opposing perspectives leads to tragedy.

Show Less

LibraryThing member AnnieHidalgo

I expected to like this book, but I could barely read it. The disintegration of the characters' lives was painful to watch. Constance, the mother and first narrator of the story, infuriated me. It was sad to see her husband trying so hard to hold on to their lives together, while she suspected the

worst of him at every turn. Though, to be fair, she did the same of her daughter's nanny, Nora - and THAT turns out to be the fatal flaw that leads to this family's undoing. Othello is quoted a few times in this book. Like Othello, the book leaves you - just sad, the thought that misunderstanding can lead to so much tragedy for people who seemed to have such happiness before the story's beginning.

Show Less

LibraryThing member GarySeverance

Arthur Phillips’ novel, Angelica, is a ghost story with specters of many types haunting four main characters. Set in the 1800s in London, the first character, Constance, is a shop girl hired to sell office supplies because of her attractiveness to businessmen customers. One of these customers is

a scientist, Roger, is the son of a wealthy family who falls under the spell of Constance and courts her briefly. The newly married couple move into Roger’s deceased father’s house and begin a family. Unfortunately, Constance has difficulty in pregnancy and experiences difficult miscarriages of male babies. Angelica survives a very difficult birth, but Constance is permanently injured requiring a cessation of further attempts at motherhood. Constance’s childhood demons related to her father gradually overcome her straining the marriage relationship. Roger has demons of his own related to his interactions with his father that begin to affect his as his wife deteriorates mentally. The precocious little angel, Angelica, at age four begins to play her two parents against each other, with keen insight into their haunting specters. The fourth character, Anne Montague, enters the fray when Constance seeks help through her Irish maid, Clara for symptoms of anxiety and depression. Anne is a large figure, a former actress who discovered the economic potential of using her stage skills in a practice of occult therapy. Mr. Phillips has the stage well for his ghost story.

This is Arthur Phillips' third novel and it establishes him as an entertaining and challenging writer and great stylist. Angelica is written in a style similar to that of William James, and he maintains the 19th Century style consistently throughout the novel. As in his first novel, Prague, and his second novel, The Egyptologist, and a subsequent novel, The Song Is You, Mr. Phillips character development is detailed and complex. But, his story line is entertaining and intelligent like James’ Portrait of a Lady. I enjoyed this relatively short novel and the unpredictable outcome that is typical of Mr. Phillips’ novels. The Shakespearean references in Angelica show Mr. Phillips’ knowledge and love of the bard’s work that he greatly expands in The Tragedy of Arthur.

Show Less

LibraryThing member nosajeel

Everything Arthur Phillips writes is great and this is no exception. A story told from multiple perspectives, at least one of which is a ghost story but others are about frauds. Perfectly executed.

LibraryThing member bnbookgirl

Started this one. Couldn't get past 50 pages.

LibraryThing member JBD1

A good and creepy Victorian gothic tale, told from four perspectives. Dark and suspenseful.

LibraryThing member bookwoman247

Angelica is a Victorian ghost story with some very dark disturbing psychological themes.

The title character is a little girl who seems to be the focus of hauntings by an evil entity who wishes to harm her and take her innocence.

The hauntings are tied to the conjugal relationship of her parents; the

overwrought emotions of her mother and the suppressed emotions and urges of her father.
Narrated in turn by four of the key characters at the center of the hauntings, the story is revealed one piece at a time, like a paneled mural - each panel complete in itself, yet each revealing only part of the whole.

I'm left, at the end of this book, definitely not feeling enthusiastic about it. On the other hand, I liked it well enough to finish it.

I'm very glad that my next planned read is something entirely different. Angelica left me feeling the need for a complete change of pace.

Show Less

LibraryThing member steph.severson

I did not like this book... actually couldn't get into it, didn't care about it and didn't want to read more. I kept trying to read it, thinking it had to get better, that at some point I would care what was going on in the creepy Barton house... but I didn't. Maybe it was the strange prose style,

maybe it was lack of character development, I don't really know. I didn't feel like the author was telling me enough to make me care about the plot or characters at all. I would not recommend.

Show Less

LibraryThing member Skybalon

My least favorite Phillips novel so far but that still puts it far above most stuff out there. Yes it is redundent and maybe sort of a failed experiment in pseudo-Victorian novel writing but his themes of relativity and perspective are portrayed in an unique manner that's somewhat enjoyable.

Fewer