Crakethorne Asylum a victorian gothic mental hospital set in victorian times. Sounds like a recipe for success!
Sadly that wasn't the case for me, I wanted to love this book, i really did but it just wasn't a fit for me. For now this will be down as a DNF for now but I will come back and give it another go soon.
I haven't written this book off completely! ( )

4.5*

Following the folklore-soaked mystery “[b:The Hidden People|30052003|The Hidden People|Alison Littlewood|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1461876563s/30052003.jpg|50461044]”, Alison Littlewood returns to the Victorian era with her latest book, “The Crow Garden”. The novel’s narrator is Nathaniel Kerner, a young “alienist” or “mad-doctor”, who has found a placing as under-physician at Crakethorne Manor, a remote asylum in desolate, rural Yorkshire. The son of a doctor, Kerner has his demons to exorcise – he still feels guilty about having, when still a boy, indirectly encouraged his father’s suicide. This gives him the incentive to prove himself as a “progressive” physician, a proponent of a more humane approach to the treatment of psychological problems. The asylum director, Doctor Chettle, is not too keen about Kerner’s methods, preferring his own phrenological theories and experiments with electric shock treatments. Yet, he gives Kerner a free hand with their latest patient, the “hysterical” Mrs Victoria Harleston, who has been admitted at the behest of her husband. Harleston claims that she is haunted by the ghost of her husband’s son, and that she has the gift of conversing with the dead. After initial sessions with the patient leave little effect, Kerner invites a “mesmerist” in the hope of curing Harleston. The session, however, has unexpected consequences, leaving Kerner in doubt as to whether Harleston is really mad or whether there might be some truth in her allegations and imaginings.

The novel shifts between the mists of Yorkshire and the thick, industrial fog of London; between the oppressive ambience of the mental asylum and the creepy goings-on of the City’s “spiritualist” circles. These settings are well researched and, apart from building a chilling atmosphere, they also give us an authentic snapshot of 19th Century life. The Victorian era however does not merely provide a backdrop to the plot. On the contrary, I felt that the novel is itself a tribute to the popular novels of the time, particularly those of a Gothic, supernatural bent. The narrative voice and dialogue are perfectly pitched – they could have come out of Dickens or, better still, Wilkie Collins. There are also plenty of Gothic tropes – ghostly manifestations, noctural perambulations in grimy streets, madness, obsession and (with more than a nod to “[b:The Woman in White|5890|The Woman in White|Wilkie Collins|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1295661017s/5890.jpg|1303710]”) the wife placed in an asylum against her will. And as with the best supernatural fiction, there is that constant niggling doubt as to whether the allegedly otherworldly manifestations are all a product of the mind.

Some of Wilkie Collins’s works had a radical (for their time), proto-feminist message. I feel that Littlewood cannily taps into this vein, giving her Victorian novel a more contemporary flavour and going beyond mere pastiche. Her subject-matter and approach – making the 19th Century relevant and appealing to contemporary readers – reminded me of Sarah Waters’s brilliant early novels “[b:Fingersmith|8913370|Fingersmith|Sarah Waters|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348622459s/8913370.jpg|1014113]” and “[b:Affinity|25337939|Affinity|Sarah Waters|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1428720323s/25337939.jpg|1413038]”. “The Crow Garden” certainly deserves to share a shelf with them. ( )

4.5*

Following the folklore-soaked mystery “[b:The Hidden People|30052003|The Hidden People|Alison Littlewood|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1461876563s/30052003.jpg|50461044]”, Alison Littlewood returns to the Victorian era with her latest book, “The Crow Garden”. The novel’s narrator is Nathaniel Kerner, a young “alienist” or “mad-doctor”, who has found a placing as under-physician at Crakethorne Manor, a remote asylum in desolate, rural Yorkshire. The son of a doctor, Kerner has his demons to exorcise – he still feels guilty about having, when still a boy, indirectly encouraged his father’s suicide. This gives him the incentive to prove himself as a “progressive” physician, a proponent of a more humane approach to the treatment of psychological problems. The asylum director, Doctor Chettle, is not too keen about Kerner’s methods, preferring his own phrenological theories and experiments with electric shock treatments. Yet, he gives Kerner a free hand with their latest patient, the “hysterical” Mrs Victoria Harleston, who has been admitted at the behest of her husband. Harleston claims that she is haunted by the ghost of her husband’s son, and that she has the gift of conversing with the dead. After initial sessions with the patient leave little effect, Kerner invites a “mesmerist” in the hope of curing Harleston. The session, however, has unexpected consequences, leaving Kerner in doubt as to whether Harleston is really mad or whether there might be some truth in her allegations and imaginings.

The novel shifts between the mists of Yorkshire and the thick, industrial fog of London; between the oppressive ambience of the mental asylum and the creepy goings-on of the City’s “spiritualist” circles. These settings are well researched and, apart from building a chilling atmosphere, they also give us an authentic snapshot of 19th Century life. The Victorian era however does not merely provide a backdrop to the plot. On the contrary, I felt that the novel is itself a tribute to the popular novels of the time, particularly those of a Gothic, supernatural bent. The narrative voice and dialogue are perfectly pitched – they could have come out of Dickens or, better still, Wilkie Collins. There are also plenty of Gothic tropes – ghostly manifestations, noctural perambulations in grimy streets, madness, obsession and (with more than a nod to “[b:The Woman in White|5890|The Woman in White|Wilkie Collins|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1295661017s/5890.jpg|1303710]”) the wife placed in an asylum against her will. And as with the best supernatural fiction, there is that constant niggling doubt as to whether the allegedly otherworldly manifestations are all a product of the mind.

Some of Wilkie Collins’s works had a radical (for their time), proto-feminist message. I feel that Littlewood cannily taps into this vein, giving her Victorian novel a more contemporary flavour and going beyond mere pastiche. Her subject-matter and approach – making the 19th Century relevant and appealing to contemporary readers – reminded me of Sarah Waters’s brilliant early novels “[b:Fingersmith|8913370|Fingersmith|Sarah Waters|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348622459s/8913370.jpg|1014113]” and “[b:Affinity|25337939|Affinity|Sarah Waters|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1428720323s/25337939.jpg|1413038]”. “The Crow Garden” certainly deserves to share a shelf with them. ( )

In 1856, the young doctor Nathaniel Kerner makes his way north to Crakethorne Manor in Yorkshire: his first placement as an alienist or mad-doctor. He hopes to find an asylum full of progressive ideas and enlightened leadership, but it soon transpires that the enlightened spa treatments and extensive gardens described in the brochures are fictions. Instead Crakethorne is governed by the unstable Dr Chettle, who eschews modern notions of treatment in favour of the questionable science of phrenology. His new home isn’t all that Nathaniel would have wished. And yet there is one aspect which captures his imagination: Victoria Adelina Harleston, his beguiling patient...

For the full review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2018/02/16/the-crow-garden-alison-littlewood/ ( )