An easy book to read, enjoyed it ( )

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I made space for three books on my Australian shelf A-D when I took this one down to read during further travails with my eyes. It's a big, fat book, with a big, well-spaced font, and a coherent chronological sequence of events which made it easy to read in the brief windows of time when my eyes weren't bothering me.

I admit to being attracted by the beautiful cover design, but the blurb is enticing too.



Frontispiece illustration by Leonard Weisgard, see below

Like the best historical fiction, the story still has resonance today. The Gulliver known to those of us who read the children's version of Jonathan Swift Gulliver's Travels, told us about his gentleness and good behaviour and though his motives were mixed, he proved himself to be a friend of the Lilliputians. But the Gulliver of Gulliver's Wife is not a nice man, and the novel is a cautionary tale about the complexities and risks of marital loyalty. Which is especially problematic if there is a suspicion of mental illness, but pity and compassion compromise decisions that must be made.

Even today, a traveller who returns home with strange tales that test credibility would raise eyebrows, and in Chater's novel, it certainly did in the early 18th century. When Lemuel returns after a long absence with bizarre tales of little people, his wife Mary fears the consequences. For him, and for her.

She suspects that he is mad, and that means the end of his career as a surgeon, because reputation means everything at a time when medical services were haphazard, to say the least. Worse, unless she can conceal it, his madness, most likely, means incarceration in a primitive asylum. Mary had seen her mother in an asylum, living with what was probably the late stages of dementia, and she was haunted by it.

But she also has to protect her own reputation. Having learned long ago that Lemuel is an unreliable husband who drinks and gambles and pawns her most treasured possessions, in the three years of his absence Mary has built up her practice as a midwife to become one of the most respected in her community. They are still poor, but they are getting by. Any hint of her husband's 'malady' threatens the livelihood on which she and her family depend. Her son John is away at school, but teenage Bess, who is wilful and impulsive, is a problem. She is deeply attached to her father, and is still clinging to his careless promises to take her away to sea to become a surgeon like him.

But Mary has another reason to be disappointed by Lemuel's unwelcome return. She married the wrong bloke, and the right one, Richard, is still part of her life. While never compromising her virtue, he has loved her and supported the family through all its travails. When Lemuel was thought to be dead, there was a prospect of a happier life, and it was only Mary's determination to be independent that stood in the way. [And the seven years requirement before there can be a 'presumption of death'?]

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2022/12/03/gullivers-wife-by-lauren-chater/ ( )

This was an interesting book.
Mary Gulliver is a renowned midwife & herbalist & when her husband is lost at sea she is forced to fend for herself & her children. But three years later when he returns sick & speaking in riddles her world is turned upside down.
Even though this was still an enjoyable read, I found it a bit hard to connect to the characters given as I didn't actually have the original story's facts since I gave up after forty pages after being literally put to sleep several times lol! It was interesting watching the relationship between Mary & her daughter play grow throughout the book, especially when we start to get the whole picture. At the end of the book, Lauren Chater mentions that Gulliver's Travel's is actually a parody of the likes of The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe etc. Which puts a whole new light on it, but oh well. Anyway, even though I felt pretty disconnected at first, it is a good read.

1700's were not a safe time to be in childbirth - story about a midwife, a rapist, and a wayward husband who came home with tales of little people but also an opium addiction. ( )

Set in London in the early 1700s, Gulliver's Wife by Lauren Chater is the fictionalised story of Mary Burton Gulliver. Mary's husband Lemuel is the main character in Gulliver's Travels, a novel written by Jonathan Swift and published in 1726.

Instead of reading about Lemuel Gulliver's sea journeys and adventures, we read about Mary's experiences on the home front. When Mary receives word her husband's ship has sunk and he is presumed dead, she is forced to eke out a meagre living as a midwife in order to support her two children. The novel covers the time in the novel that Lemuel is shipwrecked in Lilliput and when he finally makes it home three years later, his return throws Mary's life upside down.

Lemuel is a straight up unlikeable character and I found myself constantly hoping Mary would take a stand against the actions of her husband. As a consequence, I was often frustrated and disappointed when she wasn't able to assert the rights I enjoy as a 21st century woman of privilege. The relationship between Mary and her teenage daughter Bess was just as crucial to the story.

I haven't read Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift but it certainly didn't impede my enjoyment of Gulliver's Wife in any way.

Australian author Lauren Chater does a terrific job bringing Wapping to life on the page and I learned a lot about midwifery practices in the 1700s which was an unexpected bonus. I enjoyed Mary's struggle and attempt to protect her children against the dangers of poverty, while continuing to seek purpose and validation in her work as a midwife.

Gulliver's Wife by Australian author Lauren Chater is a terrific historical fiction novel and I can highly recommend it.

* Copy courtesy of Simon & Schuster * ( )