As someone who loves Frankenstein, this take on the Shelley’s all from an outside perspective with a supernatural tinge had to be on my TBR. The Glowing Hours blends everything you’d imagine about that fateful summer and amplifies it. Keep reading this book review of The Glowing Hours for my full thoughts.
Summary
Summer 1816: London is a hostile place for the newly disembarked Mehrunissa Begum, who’s come to deliver her brother’s letter of inheritance before returning to her comfortable life in Lucknow, India. Only, she can’t find her brother anywhere and has no money for the return trip. With nowhere else to go, Mehr finds refuge in a boardinghouse for Indian maids. If she can’t find her brother, she reasons, she will get a job and start saving.
Mehr is soon hired at the English estate of Mary and Percy Shelley, young artists of burgeoning fame who are on the run from secrets of their own. Mary is brooding and quiet, but takes a curious liking to her new maid, asking her to accompany the Shelleys and her stepsister, Claire—as well as the eccentric Lord Byron and his physician, John Polidori—to Lake Geneva for the summer.
Almost immediately, Mehr notices strange, ghostly events at the villa. The walls breathe, portraits shift, and phantoms appear like unbidden guests who refuse to leave. The weather is fierce and foreboding, showing no signs of softening its relentless pall. And as Mary Shelley begins work on what will become her earth-shattering literary phenomenon, Mehr finds herself trapped in the villa as the rest of its inhabitants descend into madness.
Review
I always wondered what happened in the summer of the creation of Frankenstein. The Glowing Hours transports us to that summer and illustrates a story that brings the supernatural. It examines the truth behind the Gothic, the factors that came together to create a summer no one will forget. This story explores the intoxicating pull of Byron and the ways in which they are fighting against love, ambition, and their desire to make a mark on the world. For Mehr as someone witnessing it all, occupying this middle position, she’s able to witness this descent while also being this wild card. She witnesses this drama, the ways these characters are haunted by their pasts, and this creeping atmosphere.
(Disclaimer: Some of the links below are affiliate links. For more information you can look at the Policy page. If you’re uncomfortable with that, know you can look up the book on any of the sites below to avoid the link)
While there isn’t that much about Frankenstein, it’s about these characters who are swirling in this summer. About the ways in which there’s genius, but also hauntings. The Glowing Hours brings the supernatural to an already charged moment. It’s Mehr’s story, not Mary’s and so we are able to witness, while also being entrenched in Mehr’s own character development and journey. Go into this knowing it’s about Mehr and a look at a possibility. Find The Glowing Hours on Goodreads, Storygraph, Bookshop. org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.