Madame Solario

by Gladys Huntington

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119 120 121

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AFTERWORD BY ALISON ADBURGHAM
504pp
ISBN 9781910263105

Set at Cadenabbia on Lake Como in September 1906, Madame Solario (1956) evokes the leisure of the pre-1914 world and the sensuous delights of Italy: the chestnut woods, the shuttered villas, the garden paths encroached by oleanders: ‘the almost excessive beauty of the winding lake surrounded by mountains, the shores gemmed with golden-yellow villages and classical villas standing among cypress trees.’ When the mysterious Natalia Solario arrives at the Belle Vue Hotel, there are disquieting rumours about her past life and about her excessively close relationship to her brother.

The author herself was equally mysterious: Madame Solario was published anonymously, which contributed to its succès de scandale (Gladys Huntington’s name was not revealed for thirty years). In 1956 the New York Times review of the book began: “The author of this extraordinary novel has chosen to remain anonymous. Curious, the mind invents fantastic impossibilities: Henry James crossed with Ivy Compton-Burnett rendered by EM Forster? [And we would add Edith Wharton to the mix.] Whatever the source, the controlling hand is strong, highly skilled and very sure…major theme is reinforced by echoing minor theme to the creation of a harmonious if disquieting whole.”

The reviewer in The Listener said: “Everyone seems concerned to prove Madame Solario either purist Jamesian diamond or common Ouidian paste.” The Bookman called it ‘a major work of art… one is in the hands of a master” and the Observer “an extraordinary novel” and “an unusual and distinguished piece of work.” But the Illustrated London News was snidely damning: “If one can imagine Miss Daphne du Maurier writing a story in the style of Henry James, this might be the result.” (Although of course some might say we Persephone readers would be be more inclined to read Daphne du Maurier than Henry James...)

Comparison with Henry James persisted but Elizabeth Bowen is a more likely influence, with her power to make known what needs to be known without being told. In Madame Solario character is revealed in a single gesture, by a sentence of greeting or a dismissive glance, by the movement of a gloved hand to adjust a veil. The intimation of incest emerges from the imperceptible to the barely perceptible, to the blindingly perceived.

Madame Solario was filmed in France in 2012; it was chosen for inclusion in Laurence Cossé’s A Novel Bookstore as one of the best novels ever; and it was the subject of a book called Qui a écrit Madame Solario? (a mystery like that of Elena Ferrante nowadays).

Endpaper

Read What Readers Say

Quirky Reader

‘Madame Solario’ is the story of a woman who became the obsession of more than six men. Each of these obsessions caused different forms of strife. It makes you wonder if Madame Solario welcomed their attentions or abhorred them. Was she an attention-seeking and vain creature or just a victim of circumstance? Or just a plain victim? This is one of those books that remains with you after you finish it. Could the characters have done other things to alter their outcomes to make them happier or did some form of narcissism or self- importance win out in the end? The European setting of the early 20th Century before The Russian Revolution and WW1 helped to amplify the proceedings. I would highly recommend this story to readers of Vladimir Nabakov, Leo Tolstoy, Angela Carter, and Margaret Atwood.

@Disraeli81 on Instagram

Conjuring a group of rich, fashionable Edwardian holidaymakers, Gladys Huntington’s decorous prose in ‘Madame Solario’ shimmers like the waters of Lake Como beyond the terraces and gardens of the luxurious Hotel Bellevue. With the deftest of touches, the author evokes a self-contained world – ‘a forcing house for situations’ – of Visconti-like elegance and exclusivity. But with the sudden arrival of the fabulously beautiful Madame Solario, swiftly followed by her handsome and charismatic brother, dark forces are unleashed which jeopardise this hitherto well-ordered community. In an atmosphere of rumour, jealousy and creeping suspicion, pages which at first exhale an aroma as delicate as Parma violets start to emit the noxious whiff of corruption, sexual intrigue and barely contained violence. Beguiling and disturbing in roughly equal measure.

Rebecca Wallersteiner, ‘The Lady’

Vividly captures a leisurely, lost Edwardian world - the 'voluminous chiffon veils' thrown over women's large hats, silk parasols, the 'almost excessive beauty of the winding lake surrounded by mountains' and 'classical villas standing among cypress trees.'

Categories: Overseas Sex