Stress Her Regard Hc

by Tim Powers

by
Tim Powers

book data

388 ratings, 3.95 average rating, 42 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		33%
4		34%
3		25%
2		4%
1		1%

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published

September 1st 1989 by Ace Hardcover (first published 1989)

details

Hardcover, 392 pages

literary awards

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award (1990)

isbn

0441790550 (isbn13: 9780441790555)

description

Set early in the 19th century, Powers's ( On Stranger Tides ) seventh novel is a horror story that wonderfully evokes the period. On the stormy night …more

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Oct 29, 2007

Res rated it:

(review of isbn 0441790976)

bookshelves: sff

Read in November, 2007

The one where a hapless doctor accidentally gets himself involved with a race of strange vampirish creatures, which gets him involved with Byron and Shelley.

I liked what this book did with the creatures, combining all different strands of folklore and of science. But I didn't like the book, chiefly because there was no period feel to it at all. It was full of anachronisms: in language ("How the hell much do you expect me to believe?" -- John Keats), in attitudes ("It's...more

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Sep 12, 2008

Glen Engel-Cox rated it:

bookshelves: storage

Read in July, 1990

If you have yet to discover Powers, what a treat awaits you! For those of you who have read his earlier work, such as The Anubis Gates and On Stranger Tides, I know I'll be preaching to the converted when I say that Powers is one of the most exciting authors writing fantasy today. He is one of the progenitors of the "gonzo" fantasy, a style in which the author uses actual history for the majority of the plot, but inserts fantastic elements that explain actions left mysterious by time a...more If you have yet to discover Powers, what a treat awaits you! For those of you who have read his earlier work, such as The Anubis Gates and On Stranger Tides, I know I'll be preaching to the converted when I say that Powers is one of the most exciting authors writing fantasy today. He is one of the progenitors of the "gonzo" fantasy, a style in which the author uses actual history for the majority of the plot, but inserts fantastic elements that explain actions left mysterious by time and which will provide the details of the story. K.W. Jeter and James P. Blaylock, friends of Powers', have also written stories in this style, and Bruce Sterling and William Gibson are working on one called The Difference Engine. But gonzo fantasy is Powers' ballgame, and he's still batting 1.000.

The Stress of Her Regard is set in the time of those three happy-go-lucky but yet melancholy poets, the Romantics. No, not the rock group, but Lord Byron, Percy Shelly, and John Keats. Powers has once again picked his time period and historical people well--there are few people as full of life and mystery as these three poets. Byron, Shelly and Keats were the original Beat writers, travelling the world and putting what they saw into their fiction and poetry long before Jack Keroauc.

The main character isn't a poet, though, but a doctor named Michael Crawford. Having already suffered the death of his first wife and his younger brother, the book opens with Crawford's marriage to his second wife and her brutal death beside him in bed on their first night as man and wife. Blamed for his wife's death, and laboring under the absence of his own memory of that night, Crawford flees into hiding. But Crawford is hunted, not only with guilt for the deaths of those close to him, but also by strangely erotic dreams, and hounded by the sister of his second wife. His escape from both of these are interlocked with the poetry and lives of the Romantics. You mention fantasy to some people, and they have a hard time not relating it with Tolkien or Dungeons & Dragons. Powers' fiction isn't one style alone. The Stress of Her Regard is a perfect example of this. Not only does it predispose some knowledge of the work of the three poets, but it also has horrific undertones that threaten to explode into the forefront a la Stephen King.

Powers' previous novels have also played fast and loose with historical characters, but those characters have always remained in the background, as if Powers was wary that the "real" characters would destroy the fabric of his half-real fantasy world. In The Stress of Her Regard, though, Powers bravely tackles using the historical characters to become major forces of the storyline. In fact, the intriguing ambiguous yet always exciting Byron steals the book from Crawford, who seems to be a rudderless boat on a swift moving river. And although Byron falls victim to the lamias, his struggle and fall are the stuff that climaxes are built of, rather than Crawford's selfless struggle to rescue his wife's sister.

Not as pyrotechnic as The Anubis Gates, nor as perverse as Dinner at Deviant's Palace, nor as playful as On Stranger Tides, what distinguishes The Stress of Her Regard is the consistent tone of the novel--a spiralling descent into the insanity of creative genius, and the redemption of love.(less)

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Jun 15, 2007

Punk rated it:

(review of isbn 0441790976)

bookshelves: queer, sff

Read in August, 2006

Fantasy. This is a vampire story that includes all the classic vampire myths (Likes: blood, having people under thrall, invitations, their native soil; Dislikes: garlic, sunlight, running water, mirrors, wood), but with a twist. Powers blends vampires with succubi, trolls, the Muses, and Frankenstein's monster, and comes up with a unique creature that feeds off men while allowing them almost eternal life and a flair for poetry. Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelly, Mary Shelley, and John Keats are al...more

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Dec 03, 2009

Catherine Siemann rated it:

(review of isbn 1892391791)

bookshelves: romantics

Read in December, 2009

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 07, 2009

Tim rated it:

(review of isbn 1892391791)

Read in November, 2009

Keats. Shelley. Byron. And vampires!

Tim Powers further cemented his mastery of historical fantasy with this crackerjack 1989 tale. It's hard to believe "The Stress of Her Regard" was out of print for 14 years until tiny Tachyon reprinted it in 2008.

"The Stress of Her Regard" is one of the tales I was most looking forward to when in 2006 I embarked on a sporadic re-reading campaign of classic Powers. While it drags in spots, particularly in the first th...more Keats. Shelley. Byron. And vampires!

Tim Powers further cemented his mastery of historical fantasy with this crackerjack 1989 tale. It's hard to believe "The Stress of Her Regard" was out of print for 14 years until tiny Tachyon reprinted it in 2008.

"The Stress of Her Regard" is one of the tales I was most looking forward to when in 2006 I embarked on a sporadic re-reading campaign of classic Powers. While it drags in spots, particularly in the first third — more than I remembered — and falls a bit short of five-star perfection, it did not disappoint. Powers has long been one of my favorites.

Just as calling entities in other Powers stories merely ghosts gives the wrong impression, so the vampirism here isn't primarily the bite-your-neck sort — though there is a little of that. Here the supernatural creatures are emphasized as succubae, lamia, creatures remembered in myth as the Muses. The creatures, sometimes taking a beautiful (winged) reptilian as well as human form, have a symbiotic relationship with humans, here providing inspiration for the great Romantic poets of the early 1800s, but their attentions can be ultimately disastrous, draining vitality along with the blood, and are especially perilous to loved ones. As one character says, "These creatures genuinely do love us, but they're powerfully jealous." Fetishists — one might today almost call them groupies — want to be "victims" of these creatures.

The central character, Michael Crawford, accidentally draws the attention of the creatures on his wedding night, and his wife is torn to pieces as he sleeps. Off we go on a tale that spans (primarily) 1816 to 1822, and travels from England to the highest Swiss Alps to Italy and Austria as Crawford and the poets try to ritualistically shed these creatures.

Powers presents Keats, Shelley and Byron as major characters, not merely incidental to the plot. (There's also Mary Shelley, and a nice scene of Powers' version of the night of tale-telling that led to "Frankenstein.") And Powers' explanation for the too-early deaths of all three poets satisfies. Powers is the best at this sort of complex, thoroughly thought-out wild historical fantasy (secret histories, if you will) — though, come to think of it, very few writers have done this stuff. Well, you'd rather be the best in a small field than a journeyman with everybody else doing it.

(less)

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Aug 14, 2009

Geoff Schaeffer rated it:

(review of isbn 1892391791)

Read in August, 2009

I've thoroughly enjoyed every book I've read by Tim Powers (and I think I just have to find and read copies of "Declare" and "Dinner at Deviant's Palace" to have collected the set).

This book concerns the Romantic poets (Keats, Shelley, Byron) and their struggles against vampires. However, that one-line description simplifies things absurdly. Powers ties together historical and mythological details with an almost clock-like precision, and I found the end result t...more

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Aug 16, 2009

Mark rated it:

(review of isbn 0441790976)

bookshelves: fantasy

Read in August, 1995

recommended to Mark by: no one
recommends it for: Everyone, and fans of the English Romantic poets

"The Stress of Her Regard" was the second Tim Powers book I ever read, after "On Stranger Tides". Set in Regency England around 1817, a young doctor named Crawford puts a wedding ring on the finger of an ancient Roman statue and tragedy ensues. Crawford discovers that he is now wedded to an ancient race of stone vampires known as the Nephilim, who have given inspiration to poets throughout recorded history.

In the course of the story Crawford flees to the Continent...more

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Apr 02, 2009

Jacob Barnes rated it:

(review of isbn 0441790976)

Read in April, 2009

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 31, 2008

J.A. rated it:

(review of isbn 1892391791)

bookshelves: top-ten

Read in August, 2008

Fans of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (such as myself) sit up and take note: Tachyon Publications has reissued The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers. Originally published in 1994, this is a dark, decadent, Romantic fantasy. That’s Romantic with a capital R, as Byron, Keats, and Shelley are all characters in this immensely imagined and thoroughly researched novel. The protagonist, one Michael Crawford, is carousing the night before his wedding when he places his intended’s ring on th...more

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Feb 06, 2009

Adam rated it:

(review of isbn 1892391791)

bookshelves: horror-disguised-as-literature, literature-fantastique

A secret history involving the romantic poets, children of Lillith(Lillim or Nephelhim), the Hapsburgs, and vampire legends. The way the story is interwoven with the literature of the poets (Keats, Byron, and Shelley) and their hangers on and relatives (especially Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Polidori’s Vampyr) and with their history(and the political strife in Europe) is terrific. Great atmosphere and an air of creepiness and dread through out and the attitude towards the poets by th...more

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Sep 19, 2008

Corey rated it:

(review of isbn 0441790976)

bookshelves: fantasy, sci-fi

Read in August, 2009

This is not ‘easy’ fantasy; this is dense, intricate work more akin to ‘hard’ science-fiction in its approach to its subject matter. If you are easily befuddled by sentences such as “This phantom and the sphinx evidently each existed at specific intensities of the time-slowing they’d been experiencing—each of the apparitions only became visible or invisible as a viewer approached or receded from its characteristic point of the time spectrum,” you’re going to find Stress a grind...more

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Feb 12, 2009

Jeff Lawrence rated it:

(review of isbn 0441790976)

Lord Byron, Percy Shelly and the British Romantics... and a vampire.

What more could you want?

Another Powers tale, rooted in historical fact, blended seamlessly with fiction and fantasy; this is a very strong tale, though I did struggle with it at times. Powers challenges readers, but it's well worth the challenge.

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May 26, 2009

Martin rated it:

(review of isbn 0441790976)

Read in January, 2005

This is the first Tim Powers novel I read, and it blew my mind. It's now one of my absolute favorites of all time, and I'm working my way through his other books as quickly as I can get my hands on them. So far, I've really liked Declare and absolutely loved Anubis Gates.

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Oct 23, 2008

Matt rated it:

(review of isbn 0441790976)

bookshelves: favorites

Read in October, 2008

The Stress of Her Regard was Tim Powers doing what he does best. He picked a strange bit of history, in this case the intertwining lives of Shelly, Byron, and Keats, and then filled the gaps with a fantastic and imaginative story complete with vampires and other creatures older than man. He ties this together with a strange and dark ill-fated love story between a doctor and a nurse whose lives are ripped apart by these creatures.

I love the way Powers adjusts his writing style to h...more

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Dec 23, 2008

MarvV rated it:

(review of isbn 1892391791)

Read in February, 2009

Great read! I really like Powers tendency to include historical figures and build stories around events in their lives. In this case the tie in with several of the characters own writing is wonderful. Admitedly this is much darker than most of what I read. Don't expect happy go lucky reading here. This is IMO deep and it works most of the emotions. However happy is not it's guiding light.

As for whether this is Powers best or not. I'm not sure. Everything I've read by him is very goo...more

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