Mr. Emerson's Wife [Hardcover]

Amy Belding Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 21, 2005

In this novel about Ralph Waldo Emerson's wife, Lidian, Amy Belding Brown examines the emotional landscape of love and marriage. Living in the shadow of one of the most famous men of her time, Lidian becomes deeply disappointed by marriage, but consigned to public silence by social conventions and concern for her family's reputation. Drawn to the erotic energy and intellect of close family friend Henry David Thoreau, she struggles to negotiate the confusing territory between love and friendship while maintaining her moral authority and inner strength. In the course of the book, she deals with overwhelming social demands, faces devastating personal loss, and discovers the deepest meaning of love. Lidian eventually encounters the truth of her own character and learns that even our faults can lead us to independence.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The line between historical and fictional is murky in this nineteenth-century tale of love among the Transcendentalists. Lydia is a strong, independent woman in her thirties, sworn to remain single. Then she meets the brilliant Ralph Waldo Emerson and is swept off her feet by his promises of a new kind of egalitarian marriage. Once married though, Lydia discovers her husband's secret obsession with his dead wife. Lonely and disillusioned, Lydia falls in love with her husband's dashing young protege, the manly and odd Henry David Thoreau. As a romance novel, this is an excellent, engaging story. Readers will feel sympathy and affection for all of the characters. However, since this is a first-person narrative, the lack of a historical note explaining what in the novel is fact, what is conjecture, and what is fiction dulls the overall impression. Still, a good book-club or beach read, for it is a substantive page-turner. Marta Segal
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Amy Belding Brown's novel is a beautiful work that renders effortlessly the sentiments and sensuousness of a woman who is, to use Ms. Brown's own terms, "at war with herself, a woman of opposites who yearns to reconcile her mental acuity with her emotional sensitivity." The spiritual, emotional and intellectual lives she is after illuminating for us are wonderfully ambitious, and it is quite refreshing to see that ambition backed up with a quality of writing that bears up to the weight of its subject matter."
- Bret Lott, author of A Song I Knew by Heart

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (April 21, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312336373
• ISBN-13: 978-0312336370
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #311,339 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Transcendental Fiction, May 18, 2005

By 

Corinne H. Smith (Athol, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Mr. Emerson's Wife (Hardcover)

In the 1830s, Ralph Waldo Emerson was known throughout New England as a captivating lecturer and writer, as well as an eligible widower. Lydia Jackson heard him speak in her hometown of Plymouth, and she felt honored and almost unworthy when the great man afterward engaged her in personal conversation. Any number of women would gladly have exchanged places with her. But it was *she* whom Emerson sought out and *she* to whom he proposed marriage. (And *she* of whom he also demanded a name change and a move to Concord, but that's beside the point...)

Theirs was to be an intellectual match of equals and a real partnership, which was an unusual and ambitious undertaking for the time. But after the arrival of their first child, Waldo and Lidian fell into the traditional roles that marriages generally adhere to. For Lidian, the experience resulted in feelings of abandonment and unappreciation. She was often the last to know Waldo's travel plans for lecture tours. She became jealous of every female guest who spent time in parlor discussions with her husband -- with or without good reason -- especially Margaret Fuller. This was *not* the fulfilling life she had imagined.

And so, wanting more, she turned to a close family friend for conversation, caring, and concern - Henry David Thoreau. History has shown that the two were friends. In this novel, they become a bit more intimate, with Lidian being the instigator. In the 21st century, we're not surprised by this kind of turn of events, for we read similar headlines about celebrity marriages and third-party affairs on the front covers of grocery store rags. Those of us who are Thoreau fans would like to think that he would have been above that kind of behavior. And Lidian too, for that matter. They were *Transcendentalists*, for heavens sakes!

I was prepared to hate this book because I knew I disagreed with the Lidian-Henry relationship it describes. But I can't hate the book. It is a work of fiction, after all. I think it's otherwise a fair and valid portrayal of Lidian's life as Mr. Emerson's wife. Too frequently we hear about Ralph Waldo Emerson, and his second wife fades into the background, if she's mentioned at all. Reading this novel will provide a little more perspective into the daily life of the most influential man in 19th-century Concord. The moral of the story is: be careful what you wish for.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning historical fiction, June 8, 2005

By 

Gail Burk (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mr. Emerson's Wife (Hardcover)

I stayed up until almost 2:00 A.M. reading this book! What a gem! Beautifully written, exquisitely etched characters -- it's like being time-machined into an enchanting yesteryear and rubbing shoulders with the Emersons, Thoreaus and Alcotts!

Guess it would be classified as "historical fiction" but the book seems to effortlessly cross that thin, often shadowy dividing line between fiction and biography! What a perceptive and beautifully told account of Lidian (Lydia) Jackson Emerson -- a truly magnificent woman but one who, today, so few know. Obviously the author did meticulous research and it works --- step by step, Lidian is drawn out of the historical closet into the light.

I was particularly struck by what Ms. Brown wrote in the "Author's Note" -- that the book "explores the 'cracks' in the historical record ... tells what 'might have been'....."

She certainly succeeds -- the book is a real joy to read! And as an added bonus, glistens with thought-provoking, historical quotes. Read it -- you'll love it! It's definitely five star in my book!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A novel which leads to further reading, July 2, 2005

By 

Ananda Marie "Ananda Marie" (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mr. Emerson's Wife (Hardcover)

During my reading of Mr. Emerson's Wife, I resolved to read more about the real lives of the characters involved:Lidian Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Historical fiction can sometimes be a little dry or heavy because it is stuffed too full of facts. Not the case here! I found Lidian Emerson to be a very sympathetic character. She marries a famous philosopher who promises her an equal and mutually respectful relationship, but especially after she becomes a mother, he turns his back on her and treats her like a servant. Lidian's relationship with Henry David Thoreau is what I am most curious about. The author stirs up a romance, a very believable romance, about which I very much enjoyed reading, but I'd like to know the facts. Probably she took some liberty, but such is the playground of fiction. I did not want this book to end, and have reserved some related reading for myself. An excellent first novel!