The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds (Book Review)

The Quickening Maze
By Adam Foulds
Published by Penguin Books, 2009
Print Price: $15

The time is 1837 England and the poet John Clare has been committed to an asylum by friends and family for spells of depression, lunacy, and violence. Most of the time he is sane, but on occasion he thinks he is other people like Lord Byron, and sometimes sees and speaks to his childhood love, now long dead. He does still write poems when the mood strikes him but his popularity passed decades ago and his style is out of fashion and nobody cares about his works.

Alfred (Pre-Lord) Tennyson arrives at the asylum seeking help for his depressed brother Septimus, but could also qualify as a patient himself, suffering as he is from the death of his closest friend. Tennyson's arrival causes quite the stir in the establishment's owner, Matthew Allen, and his family. They are excited to have a young poet around, even though his first works have bombed. Especially enthralled is young Hannah Allen who has all the romantic notions of a young and handsome poet running through her mind. And Alfred doesn't disappoint. He's brooding in all the right ways.

The Quickening Maze isn't a book that is powered by plot. Its strength is in the characters. Foulds does a great job showing the inner workings, longings, and frustrations of its cast. John Clare is trying to separate his past from his present, or in some cases surrendering to them both at the same time. Alfred Tennyson is attempting to come to terms with the death of his best friend and figuring out where his poetry will take him. Hannah wants to fall in love and get married or get married and fall in love or something along those lines. Matthew Allen thinks he is doing good work but feels unsatisfied and thinks maybe his talents are being wasted.  Other supporting characters such as the mad Margaret, who sees angels and feels she is a messenger of God, are given rich treatment as well.

The great thing about a work of fiction that is based on fact is that it makes you want to investigate and see what parts of the story actually happened. It also got me interested in reading Tennyson and Clare. Of course everyone has heard of if not read poems by Tennyson, but Clare is rather neglected. While I have heard his name, I've never read one poem by him. So a book like this reignites interest in authors that might have fallen by the wayside.

I enjoyed the book. Once I figured out it wasn't going to have a lot of plot but instead was going to focus on character interactions and motivations, it was a nice read. Foulds gives the story the "feel" of a 19th century novel with great atmosphere. It also gave the reader a taste of what was considered mental health facilities and treatments in 1837. In other words, practically ZERO treatment except confinement, abuse, and ignorance for those most severely afflicted. For those that were more "harmless", a lifetime of meaningless drifting from day to day and being kept out of trouble.

I felt Hannah was the weakest of the cast because she was so stereotypical of the women of that time period. It seemed like she fell out of a Jane Austen novel, she was so obsessed with a figment of her imagination and her desire to just get married. Besides her hollow character, the rest were intriguing and interesting.

My Grade: B+