Libra
Active Member
Ophelias Fan –Christine Balint
Christine Balint is a 33 year old author in Melbourne ,Australia.She has also written The Salt Letters (which I have not read.)
I picked up this book for its beautiful cover and also because it is another historical fiction which I tend to be drawn to.
The book is about Harriet Smithson, a Shakespearean actress who was most famous for her role as Ophelia at the time. Today she is mostly known as muse to Hector Berlioz, a French Romantic Composer who was most known for composing Symphony Fantastique.
Each chapter is beautifully written and engages you to that moment of Harriets life and you feel her passions, pains, worries, and struggles as a theatre actress.You also get a view of how women acting in theatres were perceived.
The story starts off from Ireland where she was born , (1800) being given to a preist to raise her and educate her. Then off to England and Paris and through the theatre world of the 19th century.
I enjoyed reading about her life and the theatre world , and each chapter was engaging but a few things really annoyed me :
First, you start off when she was young, then next chapter would go to when she was older and in London, then next chapter would go back to when she was young.
It was hard to keep track, every time you would have to re adjust to that part of the story where it was left off two chapters before.
Second, the writer has inserted letters from Harriet to her son Louis through the book, making it even more mixed up.
Third , a few chapters the narrators were, Jane Shore, Julliet, Ophelia and some other main character from Hamlet.(the name escapes me for now)
Although I can understand these women were her roles, it took away from “her” story. I felt the book was “unfinished “ and “unorderly”. I wanted a beginning, middle and end . I wanted to know how was her life after she married Hector Berlioz, her relationship with her son, and the time before the end of her life in 1854. The book for me did not flow through nicely and felt like information was taken and thrown together to make a book.
Two things I got out of it: learning about Harriet , and getting an interest for plays.
As for the “Fan”, her mother made it for her and another actor used it as a prop on Ophelia .
Christine Balint is a 33 year old author in Melbourne ,Australia.She has also written The Salt Letters (which I have not read.)
I picked up this book for its beautiful cover and also because it is another historical fiction which I tend to be drawn to.
The book is about Harriet Smithson, a Shakespearean actress who was most famous for her role as Ophelia at the time. Today she is mostly known as muse to Hector Berlioz, a French Romantic Composer who was most known for composing Symphony Fantastique.
Each chapter is beautifully written and engages you to that moment of Harriets life and you feel her passions, pains, worries, and struggles as a theatre actress.You also get a view of how women acting in theatres were perceived.
The story starts off from Ireland where she was born , (1800) being given to a preist to raise her and educate her. Then off to England and Paris and through the theatre world of the 19th century.
I enjoyed reading about her life and the theatre world , and each chapter was engaging but a few things really annoyed me :
First, you start off when she was young, then next chapter would go to when she was older and in London, then next chapter would go back to when she was young.
It was hard to keep track, every time you would have to re adjust to that part of the story where it was left off two chapters before.
Second, the writer has inserted letters from Harriet to her son Louis through the book, making it even more mixed up.
Third , a few chapters the narrators were, Jane Shore, Julliet, Ophelia and some other main character from Hamlet.(the name escapes me for now)
Although I can understand these women were her roles, it took away from “her” story. I felt the book was “unfinished “ and “unorderly”. I wanted a beginning, middle and end . I wanted to know how was her life after she married Hector Berlioz, her relationship with her son, and the time before the end of her life in 1854. The book for me did not flow through nicely and felt like information was taken and thrown together to make a book.
Two things I got out of it: learning about Harriet , and getting an interest for plays.
As for the “Fan”, her mother made it for her and another actor used it as a prop on Ophelia .
