The Curious Life of Elizabeth Blackwell - Pamela Holmes

Author: Pamela Holmes

Genre: Historical Fiction

Rating: 2 stars.

In a Nutshell: A historical fiction inspired by the true story of Elizabeth Blackwell, a Scottish botanical illustrator from the 18th century. The story should have wowed me, but the writing was just okay. I appreciate the intent, not the content.

Story Synopsis:

1730. Elizabeth Blachrie, who is the daughter of a wealthy trader, elopes with Alexander Blackwell as she is sure her family woint accept him. They settle in London and smart-talking Alexander lands up owning a printing press after some hiccups. However, when things don’t go as planned and Alexander is imprisoned for some breach of business laws and debts, Elizabeth has to make a living not just to survive but also to free her husband. She falls back on her drawing skills and with support from the team at the Chelsea Physic Garden, begins a series of engravings on exotic plants that could function as remedies. Will this skill save her husband and her? How will things work out for the pair?

The story comes to us in the limited third person narration of various characters.

Once again, the same question as often comes up for historical fiction reviewers: If a book is based on a real person, do we rate the person’s story or the book? I see many readers calling the story inspiring, crediting Elizabeth Blackwell as being a resourceful, smart and courageous woman. Absolutely no doubt in any of these points. However, as this is a ‘book’ review, I shall focus on the writing and the approach towards the narration of this amazing woman’s story. And therein lies the problem: both were below par.

Where the book worked for me:

🌺 History seems to have forgotten the contribution of this Scottish botanical illustrator. I appreciated the book’s attempt to bring her story back into the public eye.

🌺 There’s no denying the strength of Elizabeth Blackwell. Hand-creating, engraving and painting more than 500 individual images by hand over a period of two years – her efforts deserve to be remembered and celebrated. I loved learning about her and her methodology. I looked up her illustrations online and ended up awed by her talent and the intricate detailing in her work.

🌺 Some of the secondary characters are interesting, though they get only a minor focus.

🌺 The book does cover a few good themes, such the value of women’s education and the need for them to have their own career. While some of the content didn’t fit in with the image we have of the 18th century, it was still a good attempt.

Where the book could have worked better for me:

🌵 Whenever a book is based on facts, I know that there will be some liberty taken with the actual events. But when these creative licenses go beyond what is necessary, I don’t like it. (This is the main reason why ‘Year of Wonders’ and ‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’ failed so miserably for me.) Blackwell had a child when her husband was imprisoned; in the book, she has no children until much after he is released. Online articles reveal that she stayed faithful to her loser husband throughout their marriage; this isn’t the case in the book. I get the need to fill in the blanks when  history has no mention of the truth, but surely not at the cost of compromising on the values of the original person. 

🌵 It’s not just that facts are twisted but certain facts, which could have helped us understand the situation better, aren’t mentioned in the book at all. For instance, Alexander was her second cousin in real life; this isn’t revealed anywhere. Elizabeth’s age also is never specified, though there are a few references to “he was a few years older” or “my daughter would have been as old as you are”. A character’s age is one of the essentials in understanding their behaviour. I had assumed Elizabeth to be in her teens or so when she eloped, that’s how her behaviour was portrayed. Imagine my surprise when I discovered online that she was in her late twenties!

🌵 The first half of the book has only minor hurdles but the second half drags the pace as well as the plot development. There are needless twists just to enhance the impact of a few facts. I had to force myself to complete it.

🌵 There is one secondary character who seems to be a closeted lesbian and moves to another city to be with her lady lover. While I appreciate the addition of a queer arc to the story, I don’t think it was depicted realistically.

🌵 Even for such a dramatic story, I didn’t end up feeling anything for any of the characters. It felt like they were at a distance and the writing didn’t allow me to connect with them. Being emotionally invested in a story always helps in liking a book better.

🌵 I always appreciate it when such stories come with a detailed author’s note, clarifying their approach towards the facts and revealing more about their writing decisions. There is an author’s note in this book but it is minimal and doesn’t reveal much of value.

🌵 The writing was quite basic, I’m sorry to say. The narrative focus shifts across various characters while it should have been restricted mainly to Elizabeth and Alexander. Elizabeth’s sister, Christian, gets an interesting arc, but most of it isn’t even relevant to the main proceedings and one track in it (related to Harriet) isn’t even completed. Elizabeth’s character is written as loving Alexander to regretting their marriage to loving him to regretting… and so on without showing a smooth shift in the emotions; the overall effect is as if she has a shaky personality instead of being a woman tormented by the ghost of her hasty decision. Most of the story is in the past tense but the last few chapters suddenly shift to the present tense without any justification. The narration is jumpy and often skips days or years; these skips are sometimes mentioned with tags such as “five days later” but often go unannounced. It just felt very haphazard.

All in all, I had expected to love this book for its efforts to highlight a long-forgotten brave and intelligent woman of the past. But the lacklustre writing ended up sullying my experience. If you are not a stickler for quality in writing, please do try this book to know at least a little about the talented female illustrator that science and history forgot.

If you intend to Google more about this artist, make sure you search for “Elizabeth Blackwell herbalist”; searching merely by name shows the results of another remarkable Elizabeth Blackwell, a 19th century physician who was the first woman in America to receive a medical degree.

The National Library of Medicine’s online archive has a virtual copy of Blackwell’s book, ‘A Curious Herbal’. Do page through it and view the intricacies of each illustration created by her hands.

My thanks to Bloodhound Books for a complimentary copy of “The Curious Life of Elizabeth Blackwell”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.