The Red Queen

Rating:
Summary: (3.5) Reaching across the centuries
Review:
Isolated from the rest of the world by choice, the Korea of the 18th Century is singularly insular, a structured society impervious to the evolution of the rest of civilization, although faint rumblings of The Enlightenment do reach the royal court

In writing of her life, the Crown Princess Hyegyoung, wed at ten, spends her life behind palace walls; had she not wed so young, the Crown Princess might never have know her husband well, but circumstances conspired to put them together much of the time as children. Later, she is painfully privy to her husband's mental disintegration, ea condition exacerbated by his father, King Chongjo, who spends years denigrating his son and heir. Eventually, the Royal Grandson becomes the Grand Heir to the throne, his father having lost the ability to rule.

This latest edition of the Crown Princess' memoir (there have been four previous works documenting her life) falls into the hands of Barbara Halliwell, a temporary professor at Oxford, who has traveled to Seoul for a conference. Someone has sent Barbara the memoir of the Crown Princess and her role in the royal court, where she is torn between love of son and husband and the difficulties of political survival. But why has the princess chosen professor Halliwell as her emissary in this new century?

Halliwell is a methodical woman who always prepares for contingencies. Reading the memoir on her journey toward Seoul, Halliwell is overcome by the tale of this distant princess, enthralled by a life spent so enshrined in ritual, at a time when women are rarely viewed as powerful. Throughout Barbara's time at the conference, the princess looms, as though perched on the professor's shoulder, whispering secrets, reminding, "Don't forget me".

Drabble's tale of two women is contextually rich, layered with the weight of centuries and the interpretations of history. Clearly, the Princess refuses to be forgotten and desires that her story be kept alive in the popular consciousness. As Halliwell struggles with the losses and similarities of her own life, she is able to view herself differently, her own motivations, opening another door of personal awareness. Protocol and power dominated the Crown Princess' life. Oxford, as well, is ruled by propriety and custom, tradition obviously the common ground between the two women, structure as a means of social order.

Essentially a story about the lives of women, love, loss and one's place in the world, The Red Queen reaches across the centuries to awaken long dormant memories for Barbara Halliwell. Through a renewed self-knowledge, Halliwell is able to envision a different kind of future, one greatly enriched with possibilities. The color red is a recurring theme throughout the narrative, one more thread of connection between culture and time. This fine red thread wraps each woman in her desires, looping past the men and blending the women through a conspiracy of passion, hope and dreams. Drabble's exquisite attention to this particular detail stitches lives together in a fine blend of literary fiction. Luan Gaines/2004.



Rating:
Summary: "Fear and violence, boredom and elegant inertia."
Review: Intending to write a "transcultural tragicomedy," Margaret Drabble announces that this novel will ask questions "about the nature of survival, and about the possibility of the existence of universal transcultural human characteristics." Using the real memoirs of 18th century Korean Crown Princess Hyegyong as the inspiration for her novel, Drabble creates her own version of these memoirs, placing them within the context of world history by relating them to what was happening in western civilization at the same time.

Chosen to be the bride of the Crown Prince when both are ten years old, the Princess abandons her family and marries the prince that year. We hear her adult voice relating the sad changes her husband undergoes after their marriage, as he becomes increasingly fearful and eventually insane, committing atrocities, including murder. "I failed my husband," she says, unable to stop his rampages. Describing her training to be queen, the birth of her children and their fates, and her experience in the claustrophobic court, she breathes life into her descriptions of her unusual existence. Though her observations are honest and fair, her language, not surprisingly, is elegant and formal. She keeps her distance, not really sharing her innermost thoughts and feelings.

In Part II, Babs Halliwell, a contemporary scholar in Oxford, leaves for Korea to deliver a paper at a conference on globalization. Drabble creates obvious parallels between the life of the Princess and that of Halliwell from the outset of Part II. As Halliwell boards the plane, she brings with her a copy of the Princess's memoirs, "sent to her anonymously, packaged in cardboard, through Amazon.com," which she reads in flight.

No reader will miss the parallels between the life of Halliwell and that of the Princess, who "has entered her, like an alien creature in a science-fiction movie." Halliwell's background, her tragedies, her own difficult marriage to a mentally ill husband, and her uncertainties about the future are clearly created to show parallels to the Princess's life. Drabble draws additional parallels between recent news events from around the world and events in the life of the Princess, in an effort to continue the connections across cultures and time.

Those who have studied other cultures may find Drabble's themes obvious and her deliberate parallels lacking in subtlety. She explains these parallels, rather than allowing the reader to discover them. The construction feels artificial, and Drabble's tone is sometimes coy. The diary of the Princess, however, is especially interesting for the light it casts on a way of life almost unknown to contemporary westerners, and for this the novel is both important and fascinating. (3.5 stars) Mary Whipple


Rating:
Summary: An ambitious, unusual, and extremely satisfying ghost story
Review: Korean Crown Princess Hyegyong speaks from her 200-year-old grave to reveal the true story of her life. Born in 1735, she was pampered as a child to compensate for her destiny in the palace. Her parents suffered depression; the Crown Princess knew at an early age that play was pretend but sorrow was real. Her childhood ended early when her parents entered her into the selection ceremony as a royal bride. The mother of the Crown Prince, Lady Sonhui, favored her and so she was chosen.

The little girl was horrified on her long visits to the palace, where she was petted and fed strange foods, and painted with cosmetics. At home, palace servants attended to her and her parents deferred to her. She wanted to die. Sick with fear on her wedding day, she was married at age ten to Prince Sado, also ten, who called his wife his "little Red Queen" because of her prized red silk skirt. The married children played together, with dolls, kites, a toy horse, and the toy soldiers Sado loved. The marriage was consummated five years later.

The Princess's first son died. Her father-in-law, King Yongjo, was an odd man with many obsessions and insecurities who treated his son, Sado, harshly. He decreed that the couple's second son, Chongjo, was to be groomed to be king because Sado was becoming mentally unstable. As the young mother worried over her beloved son's fate, her husband became madder and madder. Prince Sado blamed his mania on his father's lack of love toward him; his actions were violent and terrifying. Complex court and family maneuvering and catastrophes shaped the Princess's remaining years.

After the princess narrates the balance of her tragic life, the story switches to modern-day England, focusing on Dr. Barbara Halliwell, who appears on the surface to be the opposite of the powerless princess. Babs is puzzled to receive a book of the Korean Crown Princess's memoirs anonymously. She reads the book during her flight to Seoul to attend a conference. As she reads, Babs is astounded at the number of connections and similarities to her own life. Along with other parallels, her own first husband went mad because of his relationship with his father, and her own first son died in infancy. Babs cannot stop thinking about the memoirs.

In Seoul, Babs escapes her conference to search out the places the Crown Princess experienced. Because of her fascination with the Korean princess's life, Babs experiences a significant chapter in her own life --- one that reverberates past her return to London and changes her future drastically.

The surreal yet extremely satisfactory ending includes a surprise appearance by Margaret Drabble herself. A short afterword reinforces the conclusion's mood of circularity and completion. THE RED QUEEN was a bit of a slow start for me (chalk it up to a few too many beach books over the summer), but I was soon ensnared by the haunting plot of this ambitious and unusual ghost story.

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon (...)