Narrated by Taylor Ann Krahn and Tim Campbell
In 1816, a group of five writers lived for a few months at the Villa Diodati on the shores of Lake Geneva. One night, during a particularly virulent storm, they sat around telling each other ghost stories, and then one of their number issued a challenge that they should all write one … and the rest is history because one of those stories was eventually published as Frankenstein. The writers were, of course, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and his wife, Mary, her step-sister Claire (and Shelley’s some-time lover) and Byron’s friend and physician, Dr. John Polidori, whose own effort, The Vampyre, was written several decades before Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
In A Drop of Ink, Megan Chance re-imagines this story some sixty years later, in 1876. Author Bayard Sonnier is as famous for his romantic liaisons as for his writing, and, as was the case with Byron, he’s the equivalent of a rock star in terms of his fame and the interest that is generated by anything and everything he does. Following the ending of his most recent, scandalous, love affair, Bayard has left England in the attempt to find some anonymity and time to work on his next book, which is already overdue. He is accompanied by his secretary, Giovanni Calina who, in spite of his Italianate name, hails from Bethnal Green in the East End of London. The son of a cobbler, Giovanni – usually referred to in the book as ‘Vanni’ – has been well educated and managed to land the job as Bayard’s secretary, in part because of his skill with languages – a definite plus, given Bayard’s intention to travel. Vanni is also an aspiring writer, and hopes that perhaps he will be able to learn something about the craft by working closely with the renowned author.
Not long after the pair arrives at the Villa Diodati, which Sonnier has rented for a few months, they are joined by two American sisters – Adelaide and Louisa Wentworth – and Julian Estes, an up-and-coming poet who, like Shelley, is an atheist, is estranged from his wealthy family and has been financially cut off by his father. The sisters were brought up to believe in free love (which isn’t a byword for promiscuity, but rather a movement that advocated the removal of law and church from the matter of personal relationships) as were Mary Shelley and her step-sister, so the parallels are immediately apparent. Louisa and Bayard had been lovers briefly in London, and Louisa is determined to revive their relationship in order to help Julian to further his career, while Adelaide hopes that a change of scenery will enable her to recapture her former feelings for Julian and to be the muse he needs. They are pretty much destitute and running from the debt collectors – and Julian and Louisa certainly have no compunction about sponging off Bayard for as long as they can; hopefully long enough for Julian to publish his next work and bring in some money.
I’ll say now that while there are various romantic entanglements going on throughout the story, it’s not a romance and there’s no HEA. It is, however, a piece of superbly written, atmospheric historical fiction based loosely on real events, but which quickly takes on a life of its own. While it’s fairly slow to start, it wasn’t long before I started to find myself not wanting to put it down, and sometime well before the second half, I was utterly captivated. That’s not to say that it’s an easy listen either; these characters are flawed, selfish, deceitful and untrustworthy to differing degrees, the relationships are complicated and messy and the author explores some very raw, dark emotions during the course of what is an incredibly rich and compelling story.
Mirroring the real-life relationships and characteristics, it’s clear that Bayard is Byron in this bunch, with Estes being Shelley; Adelaide is Mary and Louisa is Claire, leaving Vanni to feature as Polidori. Shelley ran off with Mary when she was just sixteen; he was married and his wife was expecting a child, both of whom died soon afterwards. In a strange development, the couple were accompanied on their elopement by Mary’s step-sister, who became Shelley’s lover. She also made her way into Byron’s bed at some point – and those relationships are mirrored here, with the added layer of the developing understanding between Adelaide and Vanni, who, after some initial hostility, start to realise that they are probably the only two ‘normal’ people at the villa and who find common ground in their aspirations to write and their determination to finish their ghost stories before the deadline.
In rather a sweet development, the pair bond over their writing; both have been dismissed by Bayard and Julian, who selfishly forbids Adelaide to continue because he wants her completely devoted to him. Much of the second part of the story deals with Adelaide gradually coming into her own, and starting to live her life for herself rather than for those around her. With Vanni’s quiet support and unspoken love – he’s the only person to take any account of what she wants – Adelaide finds inspiration, companionship and the strength to take back the reins of her own life.
If anyone gets their just desserts in this story, it’s Adelaide, whose story ends in an uplifting way. But that doesn’t come easily or without heartbreak; events at the villa spiral out of control on the very day of the ghost-story deadline and culminate in betrayal and tragedy.
The story is told from the PoVs of Vanni and Adelaide, performed here by Tim Campbell and Taylor Ann Krahn. I’ve listened to Mr. Campbell on several occasions, but Ms. Krahn is completely new to me, so I was interested to hear her and see if she could keep up with her co-narrator who is, despite the issues I’ve had in the past with his pronunciation, an extremely accomplished vocal actor. While she gives a decent performance and differentiates well between the two sisters, her performance of the three male principals is not particularly successful and most of the time I needed to rely on the text in order to work out who was speaking, especially when it came to Bayard and Julian. She does a slightly better job when it comes to Vanni, lowering her pitch a little and adding a harsher edge to her tone, but I’m afraid it appears that she and Mr. Campbell were not singing from the same hymn-sheet when it came to their interpretations of the men. We are told several times that Vanni is from London; Mr Campbell’s English accent is pretty good, but Ms. Krahn’s is practically non-existent. I believe that Bayard and Julian are also British; again, Mr Campbell picks up on that, and in fact, performs all of his chapters using an English accent for both narrative and dialogue (other than when portraying the sisters, of course) – but if his co-narrator attempted an English accent for the male characters, it wasn’t noticeable.
Tim Campbell’s female characterisations are some of the best I’ve heard. His interpretations of Adelaide and Louisa are excellent, and so clearly delineated as to make it impossible to confuse them. His English accent is very good, as I’ve said before, although his performance here is once again let down by a number of mispronunciations of certain words and sounds (I won’t list them here, but you’ll find details in my other reviews of his work). His other, European, accents are strong, and I have to give him props for Vanni’s drunken East End accent, which, while short-lived, is superb.
Even though the narration is a bit of a mixed bag, I did enjoy listening to A Drop of Ink. The story itself was engaging enough as to enable me to – if not forget then at least accept – Ms. Krahn’s lack of technical skill and to focus on the characters and their interactions. It’s not always a comfortable listen, but it’s a thoroughly gripping tale of lies, betrayals, resentments, love and self-discovery, and one I’m sure will appeal to fans of well-written historical fiction.
Caz
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