Ray Furness, *On Heligoland*
The novel is set on the British island of that name at the end of the
nineteenth century. A young singer, Miss Frances Prince, has been sent
there by her father, a military attache and friend of the Governor, to
recover from the uncertain emotional involvements which she had
experienced in Bayreuth. The truths or fantasies about her relationship
with the great composer Wagner and his work add depth to her confronting
a suspected case of rape and a later suicide on the island. On
Heligoland is a triumph in recreating the mind, the time, and the place
of a young woman at a stage in European history when women were
beginning to shake off the stereotypes which had enclosed them centuries
and to assert their first moves for independence. Frances Prince is an
extraordinarily vivid and complex creation, a young woman of her time
but one whom we recognise well in our own. It is the achievement of a
remarkable imagination and a work of exceptional intensity.
A Pitchfork Publication.
--
---------------------
Professor Helen Chambers
Department of German
The University
St Andrews KY16 9PH
Tel 01334 463659
Fax 01334 463677
The University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland : No
SC013532
|