Sophie and the Sibyl: A Victorian Romance

By Patricia Duncker

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Apr 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9781408860540

Patricia Duncker

Patricia Duncker is the author of five previous novels: Hallucinating Foucault (winner of the Dillons First Fiction Award and the McKitterick Prize in 1996), The Deadly Space Between, James Miranda Barry, Miss Webster and Chérif (shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in 2007) and The Strange Case of the Composer and his Judge (shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger award for Best Crime Novel of the Year in 2010). She has written two books of short fiction, Monsieur Shoushana's Lemon Trees (shortlisted for the Macmillan Silver Pen Award in 1997) and Seven Tales of Sex and Death, and a collection of essays, Writing on the Wall. Patricia Duncker is Professor of Contemporary Literature at the University of Manchester.

Reviews for Sophie and the Sibyl

[bodachliath · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[1n-5 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

i am all for any fictionalization of george eliot. as i was reading, though, it just felt too gimmicky. the flow of this novel is very awkward and there are fairly definite seams showing between fiction and research. i had hoped to enjoy this read much more than i did.