Murray Morison reviews Sheena Vernon's Messiah, Love, music and malice at a time of Handel
It is an extraordinarily well researched historical novel, with really interesting
scholarship about the language of the time.
Harry Walsh, a rector’s son, is gifted in various ways. He has a
wonderful voice. He has a very handsome face. He is English. He has balls. This might prove disadvantageous when the musical scene in London was dominated by Italian castrati like Senesino and
Farinelli. In Messiah: Love, music and malice at a time of Handel Sheena Vernon plunges us into 18th century London, all rattling carriage wheels, potholes, bawds, coffee shops and rival opera
companies. We are reminded of a vocabulary largely vanished: bobbish coves and ginger-pated blockheads, land pirates and scamps, fussocks and buffleheads who enter stage left and gradually reveal the
complex plotting surrounding our hero. Although the Restoration was over by the time this book is set, it has the feel of a restoration comedy, with Lords and Ladies, Earls and Duchesses, foppish
singers and growling doormen, having walk on parts as we follow Harry’s fortunes.
We join him in the new Vauxhall Gardens as his feelings for Handel’s
assistant Peter deepens into love. But both men and women find Harry alluring, and for a considerable time he also meets the needs of an aristocratic lady with fading charms.
Against a floridly drawn backdrop of London we are introduced to
Handel, a genius not universally loved and a man given to some intemperance. Vernon deftly tells the composer’s story through Harry’s eyes as one of the greatest pieces of music, the Messiah, finds
its birthplace. This is a charming and fascinating story, wearing its scholarship lightly, but providing a glorious pattern of vignettes worthy of Hogarth (a contemporary of Harry and Handel). This
is a book for those who love music, London, history (and a dash of malice).
You can buy the book here :
Reviewer Murray Morison is the author of Y.A. novel Time Sphere, available from Lodestone.
eBook AMAZON US | AMAZON UKPaperback AMAZON US | AMAZON UK
Categories:
0 comments on this article
Leave a comment
