"Venetia"

This novel by Benjamin Disreali is surprisingly quite interesting. Admittedly I only downloaded it to my Kindle because it was free. I must confess that I was hazy about exactly who Disreali was. A philosopher? He was in fact a British Prime Minister for roughly seven years, and the only Jewish PM.

Apparently, he wrote novels to get himself out of debt. This must be a purely British idea. Charles Dickens also seemed to do well writing. Writing novels in the modern day seems unlikely to get one out of debt. I can imagine the disbelief of a credit card company if someone were to say "Just wait till my new novel comes out! I will earn so much I will be able to pay all my bills!"

The novel Venetia is not the most famous. According to the Wikipedia entry it is "a minor novel" which mangles the histories of both Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley However, I was surprised by how good the writing was. It describes the life history of Venetia from her isolated childhood to her introduction to the king and queen and beyond! Unlike most romantic stories about how young Victorian women end up getting married, it is her relationship with her mother which is most central (and her absent father). That relationship which often appears to be both unhealthy and controlling is very very well described. Venetia's descents into illness which are in direct response to the control exercised by her mother are also insightful. The relationship between Venetia and her childhood friend, Plantagenet provides the romance.

I almost quit reading near the end as I expected the ending to be predictable, but there is a twist at the end which makes this book hard to categorize as a romance.