The last book I read by Emma Donaghue, Slammerkin, was an enjoyable and melodramatic novel, and I was expecting something similar from Life Mask . However, the style of the two books are very different.
Life Mask tells us an imagined story of the life of three historical characters in the late 18th century - the celebrated actress, Eliza Farren, the sculptor, Anne Damer, and the twelfth Earl of Derby, a Whig politician. I must admit, due to my lack of historical knowledge, I couldn't say whether it was accurate, but it felt like I reading something written at the time (although, probably, with much more modern language - but not jarringly modern). The correspondence which the characters exchange with each other are fantastic - the glimpse into English politics at that time, and the effect of the French Revolution on England is fascinating.
I was just utterly absorbed in this. The intricate machinations of the society, the delicate steps the citizens of "the World" take around each other - it's fantastic. I loved reading the epilogue and discovering that almost all the characters in the book actually existed - no wonder it feels like stepping into the past. Five out of five.
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