Three must-read new historical novels

One of the reasons I love historical fiction is that it is such a powerful way to put women – who are so often pushed to the periphery of history – into the centre. Three new historical novels I have recently read have done just that: Pip Williams’ The Dictionary of Lost Words, Lauren Chater’s Gulliver’s Wife and Kirsty Manning’s The Lost Jewels.

Here’s why I loved them.

The Dictionary of Lost Words

by Pip Williams

A debut novel from Australian writer Pip Williams, The Dictionary of Lost Words uses actual historical events and people to create its story. It’s about a young woman named Esme, whose father is one of the men tasked with the creation of the first Oxford English Dictionary, and it is both a personal story of one woman and a great glimpse into the world at the turn of the century.

Esme begins the novel as a young girl whose favourite place to be is under her father’s desk at his workplace – a shed in editor James Murray’s garden, known as the Scriptorium. It is through her eyes that we see the dictionary coming together over years of work, and the process of how words are selected. The simple act of taking a slip containing one word sets Esme on a new path, though it’s not immediately obvious to her or us what that will be.

When Esme starts actively seeking out words that aren’t even in consideration to be included in the dictionary – mainly words used by women and more specifically working class women – she finds her sense of purpose and the novel finds its compelling core.

The novel’s pacing reflects the changing times and Esme’s growth from a girl into a woman, with a slower and more gentle start that builds rapidly as the century turns and Esme’s insular world opens up to people and forces outside the walls of her sanctuary.

In The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams has taken a story that in lesser hands could be a very cut-and-dried history and imbued it with the passion she clearly has for words and the importance and weight that they are given, and by whom. It packs an emotional punch that I wasn’t expecting, and makes me very impatient to see what she will write next!

Buy it here

Gulliver’s Wife

by Lauren Chater

Lauren Chater’s follow up to The Lace Weaver has such a fantastic premise that I can’t believe it hasn’t been done before. A historical novel based on a fictional character by a real author is so meta that I got tongue-tied trying to describe it to people.

Mary Gulliver is a minor character in Jonathan Swifts’ classic novel Gulliver’s Travels. In Swift’s hands, she is not much more than an afterthought, but in Lauren Chater’s new novel, Gulliver’s Wife, she is placed front and centre.

A practising midwife (one of the only honourable professions for women in the early 1700s, thanks to its protection from the church), Mary has re-built her life following the loss of her profligate husband, who left her in debt when he disappeared at sea. Her main concern is how to keep her family safe, in a world where being a woman without the protection of a man is a precarious position to be in and when your reputation can be ruined by any man’s whims.

When her husband Lemuel is found and returned to Mary’s home, her newly-ordered world is threatened not just by the loss of the autonomy she had finally found, but also because of the danger he poses to their standing in the community when he comes back rambling about ‘little people’.

The fraught relationship between Mary and her daughter Bess is also brought to a head with Lemuel’s return, as Bess has idolised him since she was a young child and with his return believes his promise that he will take her to sea with him. A number of chapters are written from Bess’ perspective, a device that successfully heightens the stakes and is used very effectively to engender sympathy for Bess and provide dramatic tension.

Mary’s professional life is attacked as well, as surgeons try to take over the practice of birthing which they say, ironically, cannot be entrusted to women, and under the guise of science are pushing the church to remove midwives from the birthing suite. Mary is drawn into the frontlines of this argument and the inclusion of this subplot to the book heightens the drama and brings another level of interest to an already engaging story.

It’s a testament to Lauren’s ability that Gulliver’s Wife is able to be so deeply rooted in the time and place of its setting and to allow the reader to be thankful that we live in 2020 (even with what is going on in the world right now), while also bringing home the fact that women still face many of those issues today.

An absolutely gripping read, with a powerful and ultimately hopeful story to tell.

Buy it here

The Lost Jewels

by Kirsty Manning

I am a sucker for any kind of book that deals with fashion or jewellery, so when you throw in a mystery plot and jumps through time, you’ve hit the trifecta.

Spanning 400 years, The Lost Jewels uses the true story of the 1912 discovery of the Cheapside jewellery hoard to tell a deeper tale of family, poverty, greed, luck, opportunity, secrets and redemption.

Dr Kate Kirby is a respected jewellery historian, with a personal tragedy in her background she would rather forget. She is given the opportunity to study and write an article on the Cheapside Jewels, which are about to go on display in London. Kate then travels from her home town of Boston and adventures across the globe to delve into the history of the jewels and their secrets. Interlaced with them is the personal mystery of Kate’s great-grandmother, whose story we see unfold in 1912 when she is a young impoverished girl who is changed forever when the Cheapside Hoard is discovered.

Kirsty Manning’s skill in mixing the modern detective work of Kate’s journey with the historical insight gained from including the perspectives of the various characters that came into contact with the jewels results in a fast-paced book that really moves. The novel is rich with historical information, which is never used gratuitously but rather invites you to delve even deeper into the fascinating and often dangerous world of precious gems (and thanks to the wonderful further reading section at the back, you can).

In her author’s note, Kirsty mentions that one of her inspirations for writing this book was that she loves to uncover hidden parts of history, ‘in particular, women’s voices that have been long overlooked or dismissed’. This certainly emerges as a strong theme throughout the novel, particularly in the storyline of Kate’s great-grandmother Essie.

If you are a fan of Kirsty’s earlier novels The Jady Lily and The Midsummer Garden, or fellow author Kelly Doust’s books, Precious Things and Dressing the Dearloves, then you are sure to love this novel.

Buy it here

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About the Contributor

Shanulisa Prasad