Belgravia
Ratings12
Average rating3.8
Entertaining enough read. Nothing fabulous, but has enough Downtonesque aspects that it was enjoyable.
First, I shall state that I, unlike many other reviewers who enjoyed this book in serialized form, listened to the audiobook version. I read that the app created for this novel contains lots of historical background to the real-life Cubitt, so I don't know if reading the book through the app would have been more enjoyable.
Juliet Stevenson did an excellent job giving voices to each character, which is no surprise as she is a delightful actress. Her performance is the reason I give 2 stars to Julian Fellowes' Belgravia instead of just one.
This book is really quite tedious. While the book starts off with a decent premise (following the stories of some of the people pictured in “The Duchess of Richmond's Ball” capturing the gliterati the night before Waterloo. But, the plot devolves into a drawn-out story filled with cardboard characters. The novel starts out slow, stays slow, and is dullsville even during big reveals. Every thought characters have is spelled out ad infinitum, even though it is clear what they are thinking from their actions or reactions.
Even worse, the characters generally do not speak or act as their live counterparts would have in the 1840s Victorian London. Perhaps, the author was attempting to create an Austen/Gaskell/Eliot mashup that could appeal to modern readers. And that is a failing; I find it hard to believe, for example, that anyone in the upper middle to upper classes would spend ages talking about wanting to be a parent and teach their child how to hunt; it was much more about having an heir in place so their lovely estates wouldn't be entailed away.
Of course, there's some “Upstairs, Downstairs” in this novel, which I find to be a useful technique missing in Austen and Gaskell. But the two servants who turn against the Trenchards seem to do so with little encouragement or motivation.
The big reveal at the end made no sense whatsoever. Do you mean to tell me that Lady Caroline Brockenhurst would not at least give her husband an inkling that they have a grandson and heir before telling nearly the entire cast of the novel? It was sort of like a Hercule Poirot murder-solution and just did not work.
I will end by saying that I really wanted to enjoy “Belgravia.” I think there is a place for this type of story in today's fiction offerings and have enjoyed some of Fellowes' work in the past (especially the brilliant “Gosford Park” screenplay).