Enjoyable, reminiscent of gothic novels. ( )

Phoebe is 17 and has lived a fairly sheltered life in the Victorian East End. Her father is dead and her mother, an avowed member of a religious group, shares her house with her sister Cissy, a former singer. Phoebe is close to Cissy and accompanies her to Wilton's Music Hall where Cissy comes out of retirement to perform once more and Phoebe is ropes in to help out. After this Cissy dies and Phoebe is forced to become a 'companion' to Mrs Samuels, a rich but sickly woman. Life for Phoebe is never the same again.

Without giving away too much of the plot, this is a pastiche of a high-Victorian gothic novel which links madness, death and the supernatural very well. The only discordant note for me was the continued emphasis on sex, and the consequences. Others have claimed the book as dull, I enjoyed the creation of a strong sense of atmosphere. Whilst the plot seems obvious and a little overwrought, it mirrors the convoluted plots and motifs of the genre it is trying to emulate. Essie Fox is obviously a devotee of the Victorian and that makes this book both a true homage and also a great read on its own. ( )

This captivating book, which takes its name from the painting by Millais, quickly immerses the reader into the theatrical world of late 19th century London. It is the story of Phoebe, brought up by her strict religious mother Maud and her glamorous ex-actress aunt Cissy. Phoebe's life is a network of lies which cause her to sleepwalk through life. Despite her best intentions she makes the wrong choices and her fascination for the mysterious Nathaniel Samuels could be the worst or best decision of her life. With echoes of 19th century writers, such as the Bronte sisters, this beautifully written novel uses imagery and themes of murder and deceit, leading ultimately to forgiveness and redemption. Definitely the best book I have read this year. ( )

This is too slight a story to hold up a book of this length. ( )

The Somnambulist (the sleepwalker) is an attempt at the 'Victorian Gothic' - a genre that plays with ghostly or unearthly elements intruding into the everyday. It's a form that was popular when what is now 'victoriana' was just ordinary, and there's a renewal of interest today, when that element has an added historical cachet.
The novel is quite well set up, with a household of women divided between association with the music hall, and a devotion to the 'Hallelujah Army' (a very thinly disguised Salvation Army) The elements are there for gothic mystery - two very different sisters; a daughter that seems to have far more affinity with her aunt than her mother; a dead father. Then, when Phoebe the daughter sneaks out to the wicked music hall with her aunt Cissy who is making her comeback, both Phoebe and the reader are introduced to dangerous new people and feelings.
Sadly, the assurance of the beginning is not sustained. We could forgive the extremely obvious 'secret' of Phoebe's birth if there was something more behind it, or if Essie Fox made proper use of the device whereby the reader can see and understand more than the narrator. But Phoebe just seems rather stupid, and there is no tension at all, each 'revelation' is more of an annoyance than a surprise.
Essie Fox knows a great deal about the era, and the incidental detail is good, but the prose feels rather laboured, and she uses some very irritating anachronisms in her language that are jarring and feel lazy (I won't go into them - it makes me look like a pedant!) People who have compared her with Sarah Waters should look more carefully at the differences in ther command of language.
Overall the book is rather too long, and the plot is not taut enough - it needed to be edited more severely. I wanted to like it, but I must confess to a feeling of relief that I've finally finished it. ( )