The Land of Nowhere

Charles Auchester(Gutenberg Volume 1, Gutenberg Volume 2) was a popular Victorian novel, blurbed by Disraeli, which Louisa May Alcott described in her diary as "charming, - a sort of fairy tale for grown people. First published in 1853, it was still in print as late as 1928, but these days is remembered, if at all, as a historical curiosity -- it has 0 reviews and only one rating on Goodreads, though it does a bit better on LibraryThing, where it has 2 reviews.

And I can see how this happened -- because, what Charles Auchester is, more or less literally, is teenage Victorian idfic for the Felix Mendelssohn fandom. [ETA: having done further biographical research, I now have some doubts as to the "teenage" aspect, see here]

Now I should be clear here, that when I'm talking the Felix Mendelssohn fandom, I don't mean Felix Mendelssohn the well-biographed historical figure, who we now know through the many letters of his preserved by friends and family. No, I mean Felix Mendelssohn the Victorian celebrity, the royals' favorite composer and darling of high society, playing concerts to devoted crowds, idolized only more after his death in 1847 at the age of 38. I want to say "what if Leonard Bernstein was a Beatle", but those two are too far in the past -- I think that of cultural phenomena I've lived through that feels closest is the enthusiasm about Barack Obama leading up to his becoming president.

So yeah, this book is celebrity RPF, and the Chevalier Seraphael (yes, that is his name), while clearly based on the historical Felix Mendelssohn, is different enough (for instance, this is a version of Felix without Fanny) had no trouble thinking of him as his own character. Those who knew Mendelssohn during his life understandably found the Seraphael rather cringe, such as the reviewer in The Athenaeum, who "could not escape the thought of what would be Mendelssohn's own hilarity and astonishment could he have seen this alleged portrait of himself". The publisher tried to sell it as a roman à clef, and encourage people to speculate on which personage wrote it, but in fact, the pseudonymous "E. Berger" was Elizabeth Sara Sheppard (translating her last name into French), an imaginative clergyman's daughter who taught school after her father's death, and wrote this novel in a fury of inspiration as a teenager in the years surrounding Mendelssohn's death, though it was not published until a few years after that.

Which makes sense to me -- there is, apparently, a certain type of lonely gifted young person, enthusiastic about music, who takes herself very seriously, who, on learning what Felix Mendelssohn was like as a young man, wishes they could be friends -- and uses that wish to fuel her creativity and try to write her wishes true. I know, because I was one such, and when I was 13 wrote a time-slip story where a character went back in time to take the place of Fanny Mendelssohn. (As an adult who knows much more about Fanny I am embarrassed by having overwritten her with my boring OC, but that is not the point I'm making here...) So, on learning of the existence of this book, I immediately went "oh, a kindred spirit, I *must* read this!"

Which I did, and it was worth it. I admit there are many ways in which this is not a good book -- it is quite Victorian, leans on some problematic tropes about genius, the pacing is odd, and the prose sometimes lacks lucidity -- but I can see the appeal and charm of this glorious mess, which is the sort of story, and setting, and characters, that could inspire a fandom -- and I would almost sort of like to see this fandom happen.

( Review follows, some vague thematic spoilers but the one major plot spoiler is under a separate cut. )

Anyway, I found this book fun and interesting to read with the protocols of "this is teenage fanfic and I'm going to bring my inner 13-year-old", though I suspect that people more knowledgeable about music might find it more frustrating. This was also an experiment in writing a long in-depth book review rather than quick Wednesday reactions, and it was more time-consuming so I probably won't do it as much, but if you enjoyed it and would like more reviews of this sort let me know! (Also I could totally see myself writing fic for this fandom -- it has some advantage over writing actual 19th century classical composer RPF.)