The Anatomy of Ghosts
Review by Jane Hunt, NHTI Adjunct Professor
Set in the Cambridge University of 1786, Andrew Taylor’s mystery-cum-romance-cum-historical novel pulls us deep into the sights, sounds, textures, odors and especially the sensibilities of the late Enlightenment. Here is a world which, in William Manchester’s illuminating phrase, is lit only by fire; in the shadows thrown by that fire, ancient medieval superstitions struggle for dominance with the emergent rational outlook of the modern world.
Enter John Holdsworth, widower, bookseller, erstwhile printer, and would-be rationalist, who finds himself haunted by guilt over the recent deaths of his wife and young son. The author of a small book, The Anatomy of Ghosts, Holdsworth has advanced the notion that ghost stories do not merit the “serious consideration of men of education.” For his efforts, Holdsworth has drawn withering criticism from the religious establishment, creating enough of a local sensation to draw him to the notice of Lady Anne Oldershaw, whose son Frank, a student at Cambridge, has gone mad, apparently after encountering a ghost.
Lady Anne’s summons proves a precarious blessing. While rescuing Holdsworth from the poverty into which his grief, guilt, and troubles have plummeted him after losing his wife and son, that summons also plunges him into mysteries surrounding Frank Oldershaw’s madness, a theft from the Cambridge Library, college politics, a haunting, blackmail, debtor’s prison, and murder. En route to unraveling these tangled threads; Holdsworth lays more than one ghost and resurrects his own hopes for the future.
The story is compelling enough, but the even greater treat here is the research Taylor has done on 18th-century Cambridge, its geography, culture, customs, language, and mores. You’ll return to the 21st century with a profound mix of gratitude and relief haunted by a ghost of regret.
Taylor, Andrew. Anatomy of Ghosts. New York: Hyperion, 2011. PR6070 .A79 A85 2011
