poliphilo: (corinium)
poliphilo ([personal profile] poliphilo) wrote2014-01-11 03:05 pm

Music And Silence: Rose Tremain

An historical novel in which the characters- many of whom had a real existence in 17th century Denmark- flash constantly between two modes of being- now contradictory and complex - as surprising to themselves as they are to us- and now figures out of fairytale-  good king, bad queen, wicked stepmother, neglected child-  the archetypal aggrandizing the human and the human subverting the archetypal.

A novel told from many different viewpoints- in fragments of narrative- each with its own micro-climate of colour and mood: notes in a tune, beads on a string, sonnets in a sequence- each so finely worked and polished and rounded off it could almost stand alone- like a story by Hans Anderson perhaps.