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Sophie and the Sybil
Berlin, September 1872. The Duncker brothers, Max and Wolfgang, own a thriving publishing business in the city. Clever, irresponsible Max is as fond of gambling and brothels as the older, wiser, Wolfgang is of making a profit. When Max's bad habits get out of hand, Wolfgang sends him to the Spa town of Homburg, to dance attendance upon a celebrity author – the enigmatic Sibyl, also known as George Eliot. As enthralling and intelligent as her books, she soon has Max bewitched.
Yet Wolfgang has an ulterior motive: for his brother to consider Sophie von Hahn, daughter of a wealthy family friend, as a potential wife. At first, Max is lured by Sophie's beauty and his affectionate memories of their shared childhood. But Sophie proves to be nothing like the vision of angelic domesticity Max was expecting. Mischievous, wilful and daring, Sophie gambles recklessly and rides horses like a man.
Both women have Max in thrall – one with her youth and passion, the other with her wisdom and fierce intelligence. Out of his depth, Max finds himself precariously balanced between Sophie and the Sibyl. What's more, Sophie worships the great novelist of questionable morals – and is determined to meet her.
A compelling Victorian novel and a playful meditation on the creation of literature, Sophie and the Sibyl balances a tale of courtship and seduction with a fascinating, lively imagining of the writer George Eliot at the end of her boldly unconventional life, and the height of her fame.
Yet Wolfgang has an ulterior motive: for his brother to consider Sophie von Hahn, daughter of a wealthy family friend, as a potential wife. At first, Max is lured by Sophie's beauty and his affectionate memories of their shared childhood. But Sophie proves to be nothing like the vision of angelic domesticity Max was expecting. Mischievous, wilful and daring, Sophie gambles recklessly and rides horses like a man.
Both women have Max in thrall – one with her youth and passion, the other with her wisdom and fierce intelligence. Out of his depth, Max finds himself precariously balanced between Sophie and the Sibyl. What's more, Sophie worships the great novelist of questionable morals – and is determined to meet her.
A compelling Victorian novel and a playful meditation on the creation of literature, Sophie and the Sibyl balances a tale of courtship and seduction with a fascinating, lively imagining of the writer George Eliot at the end of her boldly unconventional life, and the height of her fame.
292 pages, Hardcover
First published April 8, 2015
About the author
Patricia Duncker
22 books88 followersPatricia Duncker attended school in England and, after a period spent working in Germany, she read English at Newnham College, Cambridge.
She studied for a D.Phil. in English and German Romanticism at St Hugh's College, Oxford.
From 1993-2002, she taught Literature at the University of Aberystwyth, and from 2002-2006, has been Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, teaching the MA in Prose Fiction.
In January 2007, she moved to the University of Manchester where she is Professor of Modern Literature.
She studied for a D.Phil. in English and German Romanticism at St Hugh's College, Oxford.
From 1993-2002, she taught Literature at the University of Aberystwyth, and from 2002-2006, has been Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, teaching the MA in Prose Fiction.
In January 2007, she moved to the University of Manchester where she is Professor of Modern Literature.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
February 7, 2017
An enjoyable literary comedy that mixes fact and fiction, which paints a fascinating if not always flattering portrait of George Eliot (the Sibyl) during the last eight years of her life. Duncker's starting point was the coincidence that Eliot's German publishers shared her surname, but her postscript also explains that it was also infuenced by John Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman, another story set in Victorian times with a modern narrative perspective.
The other strong female character is Countess Sophie von Hahn, a young heiress determined to escape the narrow conventional expectations of the day, and her marriage to Max Duncker, the younger of the brothers who run the publishing house, who develops something of an obsession with Eliot. All of this is linked to an exploration of how real events may have influenced the plot of Daniel Deronda (which I must admit I have not read) and subplots about the gambling spa of Homburg, Wagner, the Roman governor Lucian (and his relationship with a Christian slave girl) and the Scottish ballad Tam Lin.
If all of this sounds dry and academic that would be a misrepresentation - there are plenty of comic episodes and none of the characters is entirely spared.
The other strong female character is Countess Sophie von Hahn, a young heiress determined to escape the narrow conventional expectations of the day, and her marriage to Max Duncker, the younger of the brothers who run the publishing house, who develops something of an obsession with Eliot. All of this is linked to an exploration of how real events may have influenced the plot of Daniel Deronda (which I must admit I have not read) and subplots about the gambling spa of Homburg, Wagner, the Roman governor Lucian (and his relationship with a Christian slave girl) and the Scottish ballad Tam Lin.
If all of this sounds dry and academic that would be a misrepresentation - there are plenty of comic episodes and none of the characters is entirely spared.
May 16, 2015
In Duncker’s sixth novel, a playful Victorian pastiche, George Eliot’s interactions with her German publisher and his feisty young wife provide fodder for Daniel Deronda. Consciously modeled on John Fowles’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman, this is a postmodern blending of history, fiction, and metafictional commentary. Brothers Max and Wolfgang Duncker really were George Eliot’s German publishers, but the coincidence of their surname matching the author’s makes them her clever stand-in. You will love seeing how historical events are woven into the novel. Duncker also mimics Victorian dialogue and narration.
See my full review at The Bookbag.
Related reading: My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead
See my full review at The Bookbag.
Related reading: My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead
September 11, 2017
Just when I was beginning to feel like I love all the books I read, it turns out I don’t.
Victorian romance seems a stretch, but as a musing on the life of George Eliot-- in a partially fictional form--this was interesting. I couldn’t help but feel it was kind of shameful though, to be playing around with real people’s lives like that.
“And now we, her readers, encased in future times, become the secret voyeurs.”
Duncker is very talented, clever, and inventive, which I can appreciate even though many of her points and references were over my head. I was intrigued by the creative plot and liked almost all of the characters, but I never warmed to her writing style (removed? academic?), which kept me from enjoying the experience.
Victorian romance seems a stretch, but as a musing on the life of George Eliot-- in a partially fictional form--this was interesting. I couldn’t help but feel it was kind of shameful though, to be playing around with real people’s lives like that.
“And now we, her readers, encased in future times, become the secret voyeurs.”
Duncker is very talented, clever, and inventive, which I can appreciate even though many of her points and references were over my head. I was intrigued by the creative plot and liked almost all of the characters, but I never warmed to her writing style (removed? academic?), which kept me from enjoying the experience.
October 15, 2015
An odd, fascinating historical novel. The characters aren't particularly likable, but their story is interesting and beautifully written; Duncker doesn't go particularly deep with any of them, but they give you plenty to think about, all the same. (I was intrigued by her remark at the end that while she loves George Eliot, she doesn't think she would like Mary Ann Evans. That really comes through in the story, which is something I wouldn't have expected.)
February 19, 2016
I loved this book. It's beautifully written and regularly breaks through the fourth wall with the narrator turning to address the reader directly as the book sashays between fictional biography and true biography.
Sophie and the Sibyl is at heart a biographical fictional ode to the Sibyl, George Eliot (whom I must confess, I have never read). As Patricia Duncker states in the afterword, "Throughout this tale I have mixed fiction with the detail of real lives in outrageous ways." This novel was inspired by Patricia Duncker's love of George Eliot's novels and her discovery that George Eliot's publisher, Duncker of Berlin, shared her surname. This coincidence allowed Patricia Duncker to imagine a world where her adoration of George Eliot's writing was due to the fact that she was a descendant of those Duncker publishers, and to place herself as a present day narrator into a Victorian tale.
This book takes place during the last eight years of George Eliot's life. George Eliot, aka Marian Evans, aka Marian Lewes, aka Marian Cross. The subtitle of this book is "A Victorian Romance", and the 'romance' is between the Sibyl and her many admirers, both male and female.
In this book we see the Sibyl through the eyes of her publisher, Max Duncker, and his young, confident, vital wife, Sophie. While Max is one of the many in the thrall of the Sibyl, the scales fall from Sophie's eyes when the Sibyl's actions affect her personally and cause her to question the hypocrisy between the words the Sibyl writes in her novels and the way she lives her own life.
The Victorian setting of the novel is important both for understanding just how scandalous Marian Evans' behaviour was by the standards of Victorian England and for the shock to the reader when the narrator jars us back to the present.
This is quite simply, an exquisite book.
Sophie and the Sibyl is at heart a biographical fictional ode to the Sibyl, George Eliot (whom I must confess, I have never read). As Patricia Duncker states in the afterword, "Throughout this tale I have mixed fiction with the detail of real lives in outrageous ways." This novel was inspired by Patricia Duncker's love of George Eliot's novels and her discovery that George Eliot's publisher, Duncker of Berlin, shared her surname. This coincidence allowed Patricia Duncker to imagine a world where her adoration of George Eliot's writing was due to the fact that she was a descendant of those Duncker publishers, and to place herself as a present day narrator into a Victorian tale.
This book takes place during the last eight years of George Eliot's life. George Eliot, aka Marian Evans, aka Marian Lewes, aka Marian Cross. The subtitle of this book is "A Victorian Romance", and the 'romance' is between the Sibyl and her many admirers, both male and female.
In this book we see the Sibyl through the eyes of her publisher, Max Duncker, and his young, confident, vital wife, Sophie. While Max is one of the many in the thrall of the Sibyl, the scales fall from Sophie's eyes when the Sibyl's actions affect her personally and cause her to question the hypocrisy between the words the Sibyl writes in her novels and the way she lives her own life.
The Victorian setting of the novel is important both for understanding just how scandalous Marian Evans' behaviour was by the standards of Victorian England and for the shock to the reader when the narrator jars us back to the present.
This is quite simply, an exquisite book.
April 6, 2016
It helps to be familiar with George Eliot's novels but it's by no means essential to be able to enjoy this book. Patricia Duncker mixes up real events and people with her own imaginative additions. At the heart of the novel are the two eponymous women, George Eliot (the Sybil) and the young Countess Sophie, very different examples of powerful, independent Victorian women. Most of the book is set in Berlin as Duncker uses the neat coincidence that Eliot's German publishers share her (Duncker's) surname.
As well as an interesting story and powerful characters, we get get meditations on religion, morality, ancient civilisations and the art of fiction writing. At first, I thought I might become irritated with the digressions of the intrusive modern narrator but these are kept to a minimum. And, if you've never read any George Eliot, this novel will certainly persuade you to do so; or if, like me, you read them a long time ago, it will send you scurrying back for some re-reading.
As well as an interesting story and powerful characters, we get get meditations on religion, morality, ancient civilisations and the art of fiction writing. At first, I thought I might become irritated with the digressions of the intrusive modern narrator but these are kept to a minimum. And, if you've never read any George Eliot, this novel will certainly persuade you to do so; or if, like me, you read them a long time ago, it will send you scurrying back for some re-reading.
June 27, 2016
c2015: FWFTB: Mischievous, thrall, passion, intelligence, worships, novelist. So now I know that any books described as 'playfully erudite' are to be avoided at all costs. What a pretentious load of old cobblers. I really struggled with this book and really didn't care for the characters or the outcome. For that reason, I am unable to recommend to the normal crew.
June 12, 2023
This story did not instantly grab me thanks to the very analytical interpretation of art right off. Those were the parts that were important within the story so as to establish the era of the story but also the very essence of The Sybil. But they were the ones that went over my head not only because my mind doesn't bend that way but also because the very hard words that were used. Don't get me wrong, I love a challenging book once in a while, and this was a good one at that, it's just that it's a little bit disappointing when you hardly understand anything one of the main character says throughout the whole book.
I did like The Sybil though, it's not often authors have the guts to take a real person out of history and portray them realistically "ugly" when the character isn't a villain in the story. She was really the one that established the era of the story for me, if there hadn't been a character like her, the story wouldn't been so realistic.
We have Max who is mesmerised by The Sybil, which really brings the comical factors into the story. He's this young man who just kind of goes along with his whims and how he feels at each moment. He doesn't have a goal or a real interest in life so for this story to work, he really did need to be put under a kind of a spell.
He also falls in love with Sophie who's a young woman with loads of ambitions and activities, she's the moving force of the story, the one who brings some kind of a point to Max's existence also. Her misfortune is to be so energetic she has no patience for reflection thus muddling up relationships and creating havoc all the way. Which in turn is comical but also at times heart breaking.
Towards the end of the book we've settled on a kind of calmness, a serenity, which again is disrupted by chaos and this is what lowered the ending in my view to only 2 stars. It was as if we were going at it yet again and I started to yearn for the book to be over at this point.
The writing is impeccable, as is always the case with Duncker, but the story is for those who really really really love a Victorian romance.
I did like The Sybil though, it's not often authors have the guts to take a real person out of history and portray them realistically "ugly" when the character isn't a villain in the story. She was really the one that established the era of the story for me, if there hadn't been a character like her, the story wouldn't been so realistic.
We have Max who is mesmerised by The Sybil, which really brings the comical factors into the story. He's this young man who just kind of goes along with his whims and how he feels at each moment. He doesn't have a goal or a real interest in life so for this story to work, he really did need to be put under a kind of a spell.
He also falls in love with Sophie who's a young woman with loads of ambitions and activities, she's the moving force of the story, the one who brings some kind of a point to Max's existence also. Her misfortune is to be so energetic she has no patience for reflection thus muddling up relationships and creating havoc all the way. Which in turn is comical but also at times heart breaking.
Towards the end of the book we've settled on a kind of calmness, a serenity, which again is disrupted by chaos and this is what lowered the ending in my view to only 2 stars. It was as if we were going at it yet again and I started to yearn for the book to be over at this point.
The writing is impeccable, as is always the case with Duncker, but the story is for those who really really really love a Victorian romance.
April 10, 2022
One of these creative writing teachers whose own work stands as a rich exemplar for their students. She puts me in mind of Maggie O'Farrell and Sarah Perry, whose Hamnet and Melmoth share much in common with this book, which complements the verisimilitude of deeply researched history with an incendiary imagining and invention that pushes the boundaries of the historical fiction genre, into something "rich and stange". This one revolves around the wildly unconventional life of George Eliot. I remember using Middlemarch like a sleeping pill at university, but I'm now fired up to give that old classical writer another try. Have to find more from Duncker in the meantime.
March 12, 2017
Wonderful and totally enthralling. I seemed to become ever so slightly Victorian while reading 'Sophie and the Sibyl', not something I can often be accused of, and I imagined myself strolling around public gardens or galleries, thinking edifying thoughts and readying myself for knowledgeable and informative conversations. (Not a Dickensian slums and pauperism kind of life for me).
I have been a fan of Patricia Duncker's work since reading 'Hallucinating Foucault' many moons ago, and her latest is one of her finest novels. Admittedly I had been a bit nervous about another decidedly historical novel from her as my least favourite is 'James Miranda Barry' (although still a good book), but my fears were put aside on the first page, as the text delivered clever, beautifully realised prose, with just the right amount of humour.
The story revolves around Max Duncker, the spendthrift sleeping partner in a family-owned German publishing house, who is sent by his brother to court attendance upon the most famous contemporary female author Mary Ann Evans (or Marian Lewes, or Polly, depending on the role she is playing), known to the book-reading world as George Eliot, the Sibyl of the title. Max is also expected to consider wooing the daughter of another of their authors, the wealthy Sophie von Hahn. These two women each command a hold over Max, but find themselves suddenly at odds with each other. Max's life becomes quite complicated, without even knowing that an encounter between Sophie and Mrs Lewes could potentially cause a huge rift in his personal life, and even his commercial one.
I won't go into too much detail, but safe to say that the story takes us on a brief tour of Europe, calling in at various locations in Germany as well as London and Venice, all wonderfully atmospheric, details of situations often given with moments of humour that hindsight can provide, and stylistic touches that place the book firmly in its time and place (the description of the raucous events of a performance of The Flying Dutchman is particularly brilliant). An absolute pleasure to read and a must for any fans of Victorian melodrama.
I have been a fan of Patricia Duncker's work since reading 'Hallucinating Foucault' many moons ago, and her latest is one of her finest novels. Admittedly I had been a bit nervous about another decidedly historical novel from her as my least favourite is 'James Miranda Barry' (although still a good book), but my fears were put aside on the first page, as the text delivered clever, beautifully realised prose, with just the right amount of humour.
The story revolves around Max Duncker, the spendthrift sleeping partner in a family-owned German publishing house, who is sent by his brother to court attendance upon the most famous contemporary female author Mary Ann Evans (or Marian Lewes, or Polly, depending on the role she is playing), known to the book-reading world as George Eliot, the Sibyl of the title. Max is also expected to consider wooing the daughter of another of their authors, the wealthy Sophie von Hahn. These two women each command a hold over Max, but find themselves suddenly at odds with each other. Max's life becomes quite complicated, without even knowing that an encounter between Sophie and Mrs Lewes could potentially cause a huge rift in his personal life, and even his commercial one.
I won't go into too much detail, but safe to say that the story takes us on a brief tour of Europe, calling in at various locations in Germany as well as London and Venice, all wonderfully atmospheric, details of situations often given with moments of humour that hindsight can provide, and stylistic touches that place the book firmly in its time and place (the description of the raucous events of a performance of The Flying Dutchman is particularly brilliant). An absolute pleasure to read and a must for any fans of Victorian melodrama.
September 12, 2017
For a book called "Sophie and the Sybil", with two women on the cover, and centring on the life of George Eliot, it sure does focus a hell of a lot on some guy named Max, who is neither interesting nor likeable. I understand the intention to create a neutral midpoint between the two women, but the end result is far too much time spent on a man who exists only to be a pair of eyes, much to the detriment of the story of what should be twin protagonists. This is a short book - only ~290 pages long. It should not need to dwell so heavily on this guy.
And the problem is, the book itself provides ample examples of other secondary characters who would provide much more interesting points of view. Herr Klesmer, or his wife, for example. One of Eliot's stalkers would also be a very unique perspective, although perhaps a little grim for a story this light.
In any case, my final verdict is that when "Sophie and the Sybil" actually deigns to look upon Sophie and/or the Sybil, it's fantastic. That scene with Sophie discovering the statue was wonderful. But most of the time it just wanders around with Max, devoid of meaning or interest, just like him.
And the problem is, the book itself provides ample examples of other secondary characters who would provide much more interesting points of view. Herr Klesmer, or his wife, for example. One of Eliot's stalkers would also be a very unique perspective, although perhaps a little grim for a story this light.
In any case, my final verdict is that when "Sophie and the Sybil" actually deigns to look upon Sophie and/or the Sybil, it's fantastic. That scene with Sophie discovering the statue was wonderful. But most of the time it just wanders around with Max, devoid of meaning or interest, just like him.
October 1, 2015
Believe it or not, Sophie and Sibyl (George Eliot) was modeled by John Fowles’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman, a postmodern blending of history, fiction, and metafictional commentary. Max and Wolfgang Duncker were Eliot’s publishers.
In 1872, the novel opens in Berlin, the venerable English author is exploring Homburg and Berlin in the company of her 'husband' while ushering her latest novel, Middlemarch, into German translation. Max, a young cad fond of casinos and brothels, has two tasks: ensuring Eliot's loyalty to their publishing house, and securing Countess Sophie von Hahn's hand in marriage. Overall I found it quite different from other books, even though I like George Eliot's books.
In 1872, the novel opens in Berlin, the venerable English author is exploring Homburg and Berlin in the company of her 'husband' while ushering her latest novel, Middlemarch, into German translation. Max, a young cad fond of casinos and brothels, has two tasks: ensuring Eliot's loyalty to their publishing house, and securing Countess Sophie von Hahn's hand in marriage. Overall I found it quite different from other books, even though I like George Eliot's books.
April 1, 2015
I found this an interesting and at times an unusual book. The writing style was quirky in parts, even voyeuristic. I would have liked a bit more of that fondness of her characters and entering the story itself to comment. I didn't know much about George Eliot's life prior to staring the book and I must say I found it a good read. And since finishing the book I have an incredible yearning to re-read "Middlemarch", "Daniel Deronda" etcetera. It would be good to discover her again as an adult. Will add them to my reading list now!
January 9, 2016
This was a fun read, probably more a 3.5. I liked the games it played with George Eliot's life and work. I enjoyed the style and tone of the narration, even though I don't think the point it makes is that profound (she takes issue with much classic literature punishing young women for their choices, which is overly simplistic in my view). Duncker also somewhat disproves her own point - without much real adversity her invented characters aren't nearly as compelling as Eliot is.
September 1, 2017
3.5 Duncker the postmodernist (piss)takes on Eliot the doyenne of realism; hijinx ensue. Even though the book's not quite as fun as it thinks it is, it was still plenty fun. Rounded up for excellent pacing and absolute absence of bloat (though many enjoyable rantlets and fourth-wall-breakages and sly tricksinesses with truth'n'fiction) -- such a refreshing rarity in contemporary litfic.
April 6, 2020
It's possible that this was just too learned for me and there was some level of joke in it that I didn't get.
What I saw was characters ranting, lecturing, pontificating, a didactic and long-winded tone. Especially but not only the sibyl who was portrayed as a narcissist but one that I couldn't see the charm in (most narcissists have charm that helps them get away with it). I really wanted to like the novel because at the centre of it is an elderly. ugly, selfish femme fatale but she was tedious and charmless in a way that older women are stereotyped to be but in the real world aren't always.
Other stereotypes was Sophie the girlish and clue-blooded socialite who I found so unpleasant I figured she must be a real person (but no turns out Max and Sophie are inventions). There was also Edith the perenially unloveable, tragically devoted and frumpy dyke. It's possible that one just hit too close to home for me (but also it's a bit of a stereotypical view of a lesbian. Granted many of the actual facts about her are based on historical evidence, I still think she could have been presented through a SLIGHTLY more sympathetic gaze like the ne-er-do-well Max who I think we are supposed to like for being handsome and slightly dumb and the main love interest (the apex of the triangle I suppose).
Because of the sapphic stuff around George Eliot I was expecting some sexual tension between Sophie and the Sibyl (considering the book is named after them and supposed to be a romance) but I could have settled for less except the women attacking and undermining other women trope is so done to death and Eliot's nastiness to Sophie is so uncalled for and petty. I was expecting at least some sort of alliance. Gender is performed very regressively in the book for all that Sophie is free spirited and yearns for an education she becomes just a spoilt picnic-goer obsessed with her child(ren) and oblivious of nearly everything.
The narrator breaks the fourth wall a lot which we are laboriously told in one of the chapters is a la Fowles who I have to admit I have not read, and perhaps to someone who had read him this would be hysterically funny. To me it just meant another boring explanation of the flaws in Fowles which seemed kind of hypocritical in the circumstances. Then the book has so much culture, art, history, philosophy and discussions of religion that it's kind of a piece of renaissance rather than a story. I like all those things in their place but I didn't feel like a mish-mash lecture on the lot and the whiteness and wealth of the setting is touched on snidely but actually kind of rankles.
I also got annoyed at the knowing and arch way the narrator kept dwelling on Max's liking for prostitutes. I'm not against sex-workers per se but I didn't feel the amount of detail added anything to the story unless it was just meant to make wealthy young dilettantes seem hypocritical or something (but the book was ammoral enough for prostitution to be merely irrelevant). I also got very annoyed at the religion/atheism stuff. I read the book very slowly because I kept getting irritated.
I don't think this will put me off reading George Eliot (so far I have only read the mill on the floss and middlemarch) because I don't think I will particularly associate this character with that author. I have to admire Duncker for how much research she has done (though she is a professor so it is to be expected) but I just thought the scope of the book was too broad and didn't end up grabbing me.
What I saw was characters ranting, lecturing, pontificating, a didactic and long-winded tone. Especially but not only the sibyl who was portrayed as a narcissist but one that I couldn't see the charm in (most narcissists have charm that helps them get away with it). I really wanted to like the novel because at the centre of it is an elderly. ugly, selfish femme fatale but she was tedious and charmless in a way that older women are stereotyped to be but in the real world aren't always.
Other stereotypes was Sophie the girlish and clue-blooded socialite who I found so unpleasant I figured she must be a real person (but no turns out Max and Sophie are inventions). There was also Edith the perenially unloveable, tragically devoted and frumpy dyke. It's possible that one just hit too close to home for me (but also it's a bit of a stereotypical view of a lesbian. Granted many of the actual facts about her are based on historical evidence, I still think she could have been presented through a SLIGHTLY more sympathetic gaze like the ne-er-do-well Max who I think we are supposed to like for being handsome and slightly dumb and the main love interest (the apex of the triangle I suppose).
Because of the sapphic stuff around George Eliot I was expecting some sexual tension between Sophie and the Sibyl (considering the book is named after them and supposed to be a romance) but I could have settled for less except the women attacking and undermining other women trope is so done to death and Eliot's nastiness to Sophie is so uncalled for and petty. I was expecting at least some sort of alliance. Gender is performed very regressively in the book for all that Sophie is free spirited and yearns for an education she becomes just a spoilt picnic-goer obsessed with her child(ren) and oblivious of nearly everything.
The narrator breaks the fourth wall a lot which we are laboriously told in one of the chapters is a la Fowles who I have to admit I have not read, and perhaps to someone who had read him this would be hysterically funny. To me it just meant another boring explanation of the flaws in Fowles which seemed kind of hypocritical in the circumstances. Then the book has so much culture, art, history, philosophy and discussions of religion that it's kind of a piece of renaissance rather than a story. I like all those things in their place but I didn't feel like a mish-mash lecture on the lot and the whiteness and wealth of the setting is touched on snidely but actually kind of rankles.
I also got annoyed at the knowing and arch way the narrator kept dwelling on Max's liking for prostitutes. I'm not against sex-workers per se but I didn't feel the amount of detail added anything to the story unless it was just meant to make wealthy young dilettantes seem hypocritical or something (but the book was ammoral enough for prostitution to be merely irrelevant). I also got very annoyed at the religion/atheism stuff. I read the book very slowly because I kept getting irritated.
I don't think this will put me off reading George Eliot (so far I have only read the mill on the floss and middlemarch) because I don't think I will particularly associate this character with that author. I have to admire Duncker for how much research she has done (though she is a professor so it is to be expected) but I just thought the scope of the book was too broad and didn't end up grabbing me.
October 24, 2017
Read this one along with the 21st Century Board in September. It was a vacation read for me, read while on the road and in Vermont. Not sure what that has to do with the book, except to suggest that I found it an enjoyable "beach" (vacation) read, but not a book of a lot of substance, albeit it touched on the life of a heavyweight Victorian author (George Eliot ne Marian Evans) and was written by a professor of contemporary literature at the University of Manchester, England.
I hope she got more satisfaction out of writing it than I did out of the reading. While I found the stories as told delightful and imaginative Neo-Victorian, I set it aside with a distinct wariness perhaps best summarized from Dr. Duncker's cavalier afterword: "...I have mixed fiction with the detail of real lives in outrageous ways, I have used real names, real documents, existing evidence.... Readers who long to know the truth, in so far as it can ever be known, concerning George Eliot's life, and who wish to disentangle her facts from my fictions...would be wise to read....[her writings and the biographies.]" For me, while I have no quarrel with her statement "Truth and the imagination are not at odds with each other," I still felt she could have served her readers better by providing some guidelines on the boundaries she used in discerning fact from fiction. (I think of the afterword of Sue Monk Kidd for The Invention of Wings. She helped the reader navigate the streams of her storytelling and to surmise where imagination augmented documented reality. I wanted similar of Patricia Duncker.)
I did have a sense Ms. Duncker enjoyed writing S&S. She had a chance to explore her love/tempered-distrust relationship with Eliot, Her characters were delightful, especially Sophie and Max. I really did not need to be told yet again that the Sibyl was ugly. I knew that before I ever picked up the book. Some have said her allusions have led then to re-explore John Fowles's The French Lieutenant's Woman. I am more likely to pick up Daniel Deronda again and, maybe this time finish it.
I hope she got more satisfaction out of writing it than I did out of the reading. While I found the stories as told delightful and imaginative Neo-Victorian, I set it aside with a distinct wariness perhaps best summarized from Dr. Duncker's cavalier afterword: "...I have mixed fiction with the detail of real lives in outrageous ways, I have used real names, real documents, existing evidence.... Readers who long to know the truth, in so far as it can ever be known, concerning George Eliot's life, and who wish to disentangle her facts from my fictions...would be wise to read....[her writings and the biographies.]" For me, while I have no quarrel with her statement "Truth and the imagination are not at odds with each other," I still felt she could have served her readers better by providing some guidelines on the boundaries she used in discerning fact from fiction. (I think of the afterword of Sue Monk Kidd for The Invention of Wings. She helped the reader navigate the streams of her storytelling and to surmise where imagination augmented documented reality. I wanted similar of Patricia Duncker.)
I did have a sense Ms. Duncker enjoyed writing S&S. She had a chance to explore her love/tempered-distrust relationship with Eliot, Her characters were delightful, especially Sophie and Max. I really did not need to be told yet again that the Sibyl was ugly. I knew that before I ever picked up the book. Some have said her allusions have led then to re-explore John Fowles's The French Lieutenant's Woman. I am more likely to pick up Daniel Deronda again and, maybe this time finish it.
July 11, 2019
The ploy of the author to introduce a narrator as another character did not work out so well for me, I'm afraid. I do like it when a narrator provides us with a running commentary of things, but here her voice only amounts to a few incongruous explosions which startle and mystify rather than setting everything into a 21st-century perspective. Also I am a little cross with the author for using the archaeologist of world renown Kurt Marek, better known as C.W. Ceram, many decades before his time. But I am generally not at ease with mixing history too much with fiction and anachronisms, especially when most readers cannot be expected to discern the difference in every case - so other readers might be delighted by this very idea.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 4, 2020
The “sybl” in the title is Victorian author George Eliot (Marian Evans). This is a clever novel combining — I think! — facts about Eliot‘s later years and a fictionalized story about people in her orbit. If that description intrigues you at all, you have probably read some of her famous novels. If you haven’t, I would recommend setting this book aside and first reading Eliot’s great novel Middlemarch to see why anyone would still care about her over a century after her death. I had always assumed that Middlemarch would be boring, but when I finally tried it in my forties I could not have been more impressed.
November 18, 2017
I didn’t enjoy this as I thought I would.
I began switching off only a third through and finished it restlessly, skimming through quickly.
I’m unsure why. It is a genre I usually devour.
It was definitely clever and I loved the fierceness of the young countess.
Perhaps it was to do with the social mores of the time...I would have enjoyed sensing more of the personal connection between sophie and Max.
Interesting enough though hasn’t inspired me to explore George Elliot further, but I may take up Greek again!
I began switching off only a third through and finished it restlessly, skimming through quickly.
I’m unsure why. It is a genre I usually devour.
It was definitely clever and I loved the fierceness of the young countess.
Perhaps it was to do with the social mores of the time...I would have enjoyed sensing more of the personal connection between sophie and Max.
Interesting enough though hasn’t inspired me to explore George Elliot further, but I may take up Greek again!
January 18, 2019
A most entertaining book on a number of levels. The basic plot line surrounds Max, the younger brother in the publishing house for George Eliot’s Middlemarch, and his love of both the ageing author and Sophie who his expected to marry. However, an examination of the views on morality and women’s roles is also at the forefront of this ‘Victorian Romance’. The author’s interventions work well to keep the reader’s focus where she wants it. Added to this are the backdrops of archeological digs and Venice. Enjoy.
June 28, 2024
Well researched, well written, gives a not always flattering but very vivid portrait of George Elliot in her later years, in parts pastiche - excellent use of Victorian prose-style - social comedy, and an exploration of Elliot's own works and the attitudes to women displayed within them. Dunker's academic prowess shines through in this examination of and interrogation of the author she is clearly fascinated by. Both romantic comedy and something more thoughtful - take from this what you wish. Well worth a read.
April 12, 2019
An impressive literary skit on the post-Middlemarch George Eliot. Clever, amusing, sharp in its analysis, though it did sag just a little around the three-quarters-through mark. Nevertheless, a funny and learned read.
January 12, 2020
I enjoyed it a lot, but keep wondering whether it is necessary for the writer to 'shows up' in the plot once awhile when being all-knowing author might have sufficed. (It was explained in the Afterword though)
May 20, 2017
I loved this book - it was engaging, and I was quickly swept up into its magical world. It's perfect for lovers of historical fiction/romance.
October 25, 2017
not finished
January 7, 2019
Undoubtedly a clever and intriguing book but in some parts I felt it required more effort from the reader than was necessary. Not my favourite book by this author
October 13, 2017
An extremely well written, but oddly uncompelling novel.
July 27, 2015
Sophie and the Sibyl is a brilliant, clever, witty, playful, entertaining, yet profoundly thought-provoking novel. In the level and quality of its intelligence it reminds me of A.S. Byatt’s The Children’s Book, which I rate as the most stimulating novel I have read in the past twelve months.
By chance, Duncker was the name of George Eliot’s German publishers and Patricia Duncker enjoys this coincidence, even though she is not related to them. It fits in with the amusing chance events and encounters that move in and out of the book and through and across it as well. The story opens in the Berlin offices of Wolfgang and Max Duncker before moving to other parts of Europe, and George Eliot, as the “Sibyl” of the title, occupies an important place in the thoughts of all the other characters – partly because some of them were originally created by her. “Sophie” is not unlike Gwendolyn from Daniel Deronda but as the Countess Sophie von Hahn she has a sparkling life of her own. She is a wealthy, independent young woman, full of the joys of life, but she comes to stumble over the sibylline behaviour of the most famous novelist of Europe.
While the characters impact on each other, the narrator plays merry games with the reader in a gentle postmodern sort of way, and those who want to can learn much about Eliot, Victorian values, the philosopher Lucian and many other topics, including the nature of life itself, but those who can’t be bothered with all that will gain pleasure from the sheer energy of the narration. It is probably true to say that the more you know about George Eliot and her “circle” the more pleasure you will have in detecting “real” events or their parallels, but it is certainly true that a limited background knowledge will still be enough to enter into the book, which itself provides most of what one needs to know without ever becoming didactic.
To say more about the plot and even the author’s manner would create a “spoiler”, but I hope enough has been said to be a stimulant for potential readers, for this book deserves to have many of them.
By chance, Duncker was the name of George Eliot’s German publishers and Patricia Duncker enjoys this coincidence, even though she is not related to them. It fits in with the amusing chance events and encounters that move in and out of the book and through and across it as well. The story opens in the Berlin offices of Wolfgang and Max Duncker before moving to other parts of Europe, and George Eliot, as the “Sibyl” of the title, occupies an important place in the thoughts of all the other characters – partly because some of them were originally created by her. “Sophie” is not unlike Gwendolyn from Daniel Deronda but as the Countess Sophie von Hahn she has a sparkling life of her own. She is a wealthy, independent young woman, full of the joys of life, but she comes to stumble over the sibylline behaviour of the most famous novelist of Europe.
While the characters impact on each other, the narrator plays merry games with the reader in a gentle postmodern sort of way, and those who want to can learn much about Eliot, Victorian values, the philosopher Lucian and many other topics, including the nature of life itself, but those who can’t be bothered with all that will gain pleasure from the sheer energy of the narration. It is probably true to say that the more you know about George Eliot and her “circle” the more pleasure you will have in detecting “real” events or their parallels, but it is certainly true that a limited background knowledge will still be enough to enter into the book, which itself provides most of what one needs to know without ever becoming didactic.
To say more about the plot and even the author’s manner would create a “spoiler”, but I hope enough has been said to be a stimulant for potential readers, for this book deserves to have many of them.
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