Mrs Saville

by Ted Morrissey

Margaret Saville's husband has been away on business for weeks and has stopped replying to her letters. Her brother, Robert Walton, has suddenly returned after three years at sea, having barely survived his exploratory voyage to the northern pole. She still grieves the death of her youngest child as she does her best to raise her surviving children, Felix and Agatha. The depth of her brother's trauma becomes clear, so that she must add his health and sanity to her list of cares. A bright spot seems to be a new friendship with a young woman who has just returned to England from the Continent, but Margaret soon discovers that her friend, Mary Shelley, has difficulties of her own, including an eccentric poet husband, Percy, and a book she is struggling to write. Margaret's story unfolds in a series of letters to her absent husband, desperate for him to return or at least to acknowledge her epistles and confirm that he is well. She is lonely, grief-stricken and afraid, yet in these darkest of times a spirit of independence begins to awaken. 'Mrs Saville' begins where Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' ends. This paperback edition includes the short story "A Wintering Place" and an Afterword by the author.

248 pages, Paperback

Published August 29, 2018

About the author

Ted Morrissey is the author of two books of scholarship and five books of fiction—Crowsong for the Stricken, Weeping with an Ancient God, An Untimely Frost, Figures in Blue, and Men of Winter. Chicago Book Review listed Weeping with an Ancient God as a Best Book of 2015. His stories and novel excerpts have appeared in more than fifty journals, among them Glimmer Train, ink&coda, and Southern Humanities Review. His novel Mrs Saville has been serially published at Strands Lit Sphere. In addition to teaching high school English, he also teaches in the MFA in Writing program (online) for Lindenwood University. He and his wife Melissa, an educator and children’s author, have five children and two rescue dogs. Ted is also the founding publisher of Twelve Winters Press, which he based on Leonard and Virginia Woolf’s Hogarth Press.

Reviews

[Melanie Falconer]

I am not sure exactly what I think of this book. The book is a collection of letters written by Margaret Saville to her husband, who is away on business. Margaret is running the household with her two children. She is grieving the loss of one son and now her brother has returned from an attempted journey to Antarctica. He is a shell of his former self and now Margaret is worried because of her brother’s health and the fact that her husband is not returning her correspondence. She also has a budding friendship with Mary Shelley, who is struggling to write a book. The book has a surprising ending. I felt it was a slow moving book which results in the three stars in my rating.

[BookTrib.com]

MRS. SAVILLE is an eerie novel that I could not put down, and for me, that’s rare. Author Ted Morrissey channels a fictional character in a way that I have never experienced before. It reminded me of the practice of automatic writing in which a person goes into a trance, a spirit speaks through them, and they write down the otherworldly message. There is an unexpected supernatural quality to this novel.

Read our full review here:
https://booktrib.com/2021/07/08/book-...

[Lisa Lawrence]

I can’t quite get a handle on my thoughts about the book. It has stayed with me : the sign of a good character and a well-written story. Still, the mental disorder and the psychological twists are uncomfortable - not my goal in a book.

[Seamus Reilly]

A very well written and cleverly crafted book.

[Cyndi Beck]

I was absorbed by this novel. I would like Mr. Morrissey to get busy on continuing this story. Readers want more, please and thank you.