Ophelia's Fan: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book
Review: Millions of people, at some time or another, have read at least a little bit of Shakespeare. He is the most popular English playwright in the world. The time in which William Shakespeare lived and worked is infinitely appealing to most people. Christine Balint has successfully brought Shakespeare's time to life in her latest novel. In Ophelia's Fan, Balint does a brilliant job of portraying the life and times of Irish actress Harriet Smithson, who is credited with bringing Shakespeare to France.
The setting was spectacular. It was very interesting and well written. Balint made the small town of Ennis, Ireland come to life. Not only Ireland, but England's Drury Lane, and Paris, France were exceptionally developed. "This city opens my ears. Everything happens in waves of sound. Even voices, as I walk down the street listening to their strange music, crescendo and decrescendo as evenly as they would under the hands of a conductor," says Balint of Paris, an excellent example of her sensory images.
The hardships, the plot and the setting are all realistic. Perhaps this is because although the story is fictional, the character is real. Everything in this story is historically correct and very believable. Harriet goes through many of the same problems that a struggling actress would go through now.
The plot is very smooth and usually easy to follow. It was amazing to see how Balint imagined this woman's life may have been like. The basis of the plot was very real and easy to relate to. Balint did an excellent job in creating Harriet Smithson's life, and molding it to fit the story and still made it very appealing to readers.
Balint gave Harriet a real strength and plenty of energy. She was always encountering problems and pulling through. Not only did Harriet have to make a life for herself in the theatre, but support her mother and handicapped sister as well. She also had to deal with a bad reputation for being an actress and trying to make a decent marriage. Harriet was overworked and all odds were against her, but she persevered and it paid off for her in the end.
On the darker side of things, the book can be considered slightly boring by some. There were points in the story when nothing was going on and nothing was changing, and it was difficult to get through. For example, Harriet stayed in Drury Lane, not getting any more or less popular, for a very long time, hoping to get a break, but still in the shadow of other actresses. "I have spent three years hanging about backstage, waiting for some new opportunity. I wonder whether Fanny Kelly may marry and retire from the stage, allowing me my own attempt at fame. If they would only let me have a season at her roles, I know I would have as much success as she. But how am I to be noticed when I am on the periphery of the company?" says Harriet.
Balint did not describe the information of some aspects of Harriet's life that I'd hoped she would. She did not tell what happened to her marriage, or even tell of her son for that matter. This part of the book was very disappointing. It was also hard to read and slightly confusing at this point. Trying to get as much information as you can out of her letters to her son is very hard to do. She says only that she is having problems with her husband and leaves the rest up to the reader's speculation.
There was also some skipping around with the time and setting of things. It would go back to Harriet's childhood in Ennis randomly, and confuse you for a while. It was also hard to remember where she was, why she was there, who was with her and why. It wasn't always easy to remember the people and their relationship to her either.
This book was a wonderful was to learn more about the 19th century theatre and still enjoy a fictional story. I appreciated how Balint weaved historical events into the plot and everything was so detailed and accurate. It was beautifully written and the characters were very developed and well rounded. The little inserts of Harriet's characters' stories was a genius idea and I loved knowing more about the people she played on stage. When Harriet got to Paris, Balint used many French words or phrases. I thought this was a wonderful touch and made the story that much more authentic. It was not at all hard to follow. All in all I thought Ophelia's Fan was a wonderful book that I would recommend to anyone.


Rating:
Summary: (3.5)Ophelia as muse for genius
Review: Ophelia's Fan is quality historical fiction, written by a talented author, who skillfully brings the past to life in vivid detail; the contrast between poverty and wealth, the importance of education and humanity's impotence against the vagaries of an indifferent fate.

Beautifully rendered, the novel traces the historical journey of Harriet Smithson, an eminent Shakespearean star, on the stages of London and Paris. Born in Ennis, County Clare, Ireland in 1800, Smithson is raised, at the request of her actor father, by an Episcopalian priest, given all the advantages of education so that she might better herself and the fortunes of her family. Thanks to the efforts of the Reverend, Harriet is saved from a life of poverty, but at a certain cost: she never really knows her parents or siblings intimately, having only the occasional visit until she begins her stage career ion London, just after her father's death. At that time, the support of the family falls to the young woman.

With her family in dire straights, Harriet decides to take them with her to London, lest they parish in squalor and poverty. The time has arrived for Harriet to repay the family for her years of good fortune. Hardly glamorous, work in the theater demands long days of rehearsal and memorization, bleak and tedious endeavors. Young Harriet plays a series of numbingly similar female roles, constantly preparing for the few opportunities to play Shakespeare that come her way. Studying diligently, the beautiful actress is almost unaware when gentlemen flock to her side, but soon she is dreaming familiar scenarios of love and marriage.

After some success in London, Smithson removes herself to Paris, where she expends her energies, much applauded for her depiction of Shakespearian heroines. It is in Paris that she comes face to face with her future, in the person of the composer, Hector Berloiz, who is obsessed with the actress as Ophelia, desperate to have her as his wife. The unworldly Harriet is carried away by the composer's unbridled passion, tricked by the dramatic emotional roller coaster of the courtship into believing such extreme feelings can sustain a marriage.

The bulk of the novel concerns Harriet's life, pre-Berloiz, tracking her early years in Ennis, where she was saved from poverty, to the uncertain years in London, where she had difficulty attaining the start status that fills her dreams. Later, in Pairs, Smithson knows a few brief years of success. Through a series of letters to her son, an older, wiser Harriet tries to explain the circumstances of her marriage to Berloiz and their intense attraction to one another. At the same time, she must confront the reality of their lives together. During her decline, acting and youth relegated to the past, Smithson has ample time to consider the harsh life she has led, with little enough choice, after all.

Drawing from the few sources available, the author fills in the details of life in the theater, both the demands and the rewards. Smithson's blooming years are all too brief, but she does enjoy the accolades of her peers and the citizens of Paris for some seasons. Although the actress avoids poverty during her childhood, the family is dogged by a lack of adequate funds until her Parisian success. While the author portrays Harriet Smithson as Berloiz's muse, little is known of their lives together and whether she continued to inspire his music after their explosive and brief courtship. The letters to her son indicate the opposite. Still, this is a fascinating romp through the backstage door of theater life and the endless struggle for recognition. Perhaps as Ophelia, Smithson knows her finest hour. Luan Gaines/2004.