Henry James' Midnight Song [Hardcover]

Carol De Chellis Hill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1993

When a bloody body disappears from Dr. Freud's study, Inspector Maurice Le Blanc must cope with Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Henry James, Edith Wharton, and others. By the author of The Eleven Million Mile High Dancer. 35,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Feminism, the nature of evil, the art of the novel, romance, psychoanalysis and anti-Semitism are among the topics tackled in this exuberant novel by the author of Let's Fall in Love . A series of women are murdered in fin de siecle Vienna, necessitating an investigation by famous French detective and bon vivant , Maurice Cheval LeBlanc. Among the players (and suspects) are the quintessentially American Mains; Mr. Main's sophisticated cousin, the Countess Bettina von Gerzl; Dr. Freud, whose wife and sister-in-law had, for a few minutes, sheltered a corpse in their parlor; Henry James, briefly Freud's patient; and Edith Wharton, under the spell of nascent eroticism, thanks to Morton Fullertan. Hill takes the reader on an exhilarating, kaleidoscopic tour of influential people and ideas at the turn of the century. She is perhaps too ambitious, however, stuffing the chronological parameters of her novel with more than they can rightfully claim. As the introduction by the fictional editor of this manuscript notes, "although all of the events occurred between 1890 and 1910, the chronology is select and confused. . . " If Hill's style often seems overly voluptuous ("black horses galloped, black angels in the night," or "she was joyous now as her feet bounced up the stairs, thinking again she must share it with someone, she simply, simply must! "), such florid writing actually nourishes her unabashedly romantic and sensual narrative.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Expatriate American literati and the heavyweights of psychoanalysis collide in this spirited novel set in the dreamy streets of fin de siŠcle Vienna--the latest extravaganza from Hill (The Eleven Million Mile High Dancer, 1985, etc.). Edith Wharton is trying to save Henry James from Sigmund Freud in one of the many paths taken by this complex mystery tale. Believing the doctor's theories on the childhood origins of female hysteria to be so much poppycock, Mrs. Wharton inadvertently finds herself in the middle of a serial killer's rampage, which has the anti-Semites of Vienna, who believe the murders to be Jewish ritual killings, in an uproar. A famous detective is summoned from Paris when the home of Dr. Freud becomes the latest murder site and the situation becomes critical: the corpse has disappeared. The father of psychoanalysis, the formidable Mrs. Wharton, and the faltering Henry James, who feels guilty that a dear friend in Venice has killed herself, all become suspects, along with the beautiful Countess von Gerzl, with whom the debonair Inspector promptly begins a passionate affair. Add to this cast of luminaries a visiting all-American family, cousins of the Countess, which consists of thoroughly middle-class parents, three precocious adolescents, and their radically feminist aunt, and cameo appearances by Jung and his most famous patient, Sabina Spielrein, and the narrative becomes busy indeed--so much so that the threat represented by the murderer as he stalks the Inspector seems merely an afterthought. Rich and flavorful, with the period's ferment of ideas ably represented--but largely lacking the essential dramatic ingredients on which the whodunit depends. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 445 pages
• Publisher: Poseidon Pr; 1ST edition (August 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671755757
• ISBN-13: 978-0671755751
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #870,441 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An informative and suspensful masterpiece!, June 12, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Henry James' Midnight Song: A Novel (Paperback)

I wasn't too sure what to expect when I picked up this book at a friend's recommendation. Not having been a Henry James fan, the title simply turned me off. As soon as I'd finished the first two pages, I knew I wasn't going to be able to put this book down without some sort of physical threat to my well-being. Aside from being an exquisitly written novel, it's filled with factual information and characters, social commentary (as applicable to our time as to turn of the century Vienna,) and truely haunting suspense. Plus, it's a bit difficult these days to find a book with truely likeable characters. Hill creates colorful portraits of sometimes bleak historical figures (i.e. Sigmund Freud, Edith Wharton, Carl Jung, and of course Mr. James) with a fabulous array of (possibly) fictional characters that you can't help but feel admiration, adoration, and/or sympathy for. Hill's range of styles and points of view are wonderfully displayed in this fine work that you could read again and again, learning something new everytime.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Secrets of the Fin-de-siecle!, February 11, 2000

By 

Michael Benton (Lexington, KY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Henry James' Midnight Song: A Novel (Paperback)

This is an amazing fictional exploration of a very explosive, talented, and contradictory era and place. That is Vienna, Austria at the turn of the century. Hanging over this whole novel is the question of how a city of beauty and imagination could have also been a hotbed of rampant and violent anti-semitism. But what truly sets this novel apart is its brilliant re-creation of the figures of this age: Henry James as a secret reader of potboilers; Edith Wharton the secret writer of pornography; Carl Jung's indiscretions with female patients; and Sigmund Freud's early failures. The author Hill, is at the top of her game though in inverting the Freudian theories of "female hysteria" and the women characters are strong and appealinq.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing! Very captivating, April 19, 1998

By 

Katherine Schutte - See all my reviews

This review is from: Henry James' Midnight Song: A Novel (Paperback)

This book takes you in and interweaves you inside a complex mystery in which no one will ever really know the truth. Questions our notion of mastery and delivers the unexpected. Read this!