Felony

by Emma Tennant

Felony is the story of the literary treachery that took place at No. 43 via Romana, Florence, where Claire Clairmont, once lover of Lord Byron and mother of his daughter Allegra, lived until her death in 1879. It is also the story on Henry Jame's brilliant novella "The Aspern Papers", which is based on that household and the nefarious doings of the lodger there, Edward Augustus Silsbee, thief and Shelleyite. "Felony" is about the misdemeanours inherent in writing - theft, false memory, plagiarism and greed for celebrity - and it demonstrates too the embarrassment and shame suffered in their quest.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

190 pages, Hardcover

First published November 5, 2002

About the author

Since the early 1970s, when she was in her mid-thirties, Emma Tennant has been a prolific novelist and has established herself as one of the leading British exponents of "new fiction." This does not mean that she is an imitator of either the French nouveaux romanciers or the American post-modernists, although her work reveals an indebtedness to the methods and preoccupations of some of the latter. Like them, she employs parody and rewriting, is interested in the fictiveness of fiction, appropriates some science-fiction conventions, and exploits the possibilities of generic dislocation and mutation, especially the blending of realism and fantasy. Yet, although parallels can be cited and influences suggested, her work is strongly individual, the product of an intensely personal, even idiosyncratic, attempt to create an original type of highly imaginative fiction.

Reviews

[Megan S]

Impenetrable. Thank goodness it's short.

[Jess]

Not only unfair to Henry James but unfair to Fenimore, too. To imply her suicide was over a man in the name of rewriting her history with a feminist spin is highly problematic.

[DJ]

Possibly I had been looking forward to this for too long, have made this mistake before but it all felt rather jumbled up with no connectivity.
I was in immense pain whilst reading and as it is short I may give it another chance...
Maybe some Summer Afternoon in the garden in a Sun Hat with Birds tweeting and chirping to put me into a different frame of mind...

[DJ]

Finally getting round to this one - definately a case of " too many books too little time " !

Finished.
Whilst I enjoyed this cross between a Novel and a Novella, I definately think it should either be read by people who have already read Henry James' THE ASPERN PAPERS or at least by people who have a little knowledge if the characters and real people who are involved. It truly does add to the enjoyment. It is for this reason that I am only giving it 3 Stars.
Possibly as in the past I may have expected more as I have had it sitting since its release tantalising me and thus I wanted more from it.