DEATH AND THE VISITORS

The Congress of Vienna brings a host of foreign dignitaries but precious little prosperity to the Godwin family in 1814 London.

In the run-up to the congress, the Godwins host Polish Princess Maria and her Russian husband, Dmitry Naryshkin, in their damp, creaking house on Skinner Street in hopes that the pair will support their literary efforts. Although Mary Godwin finds it wonderful that her late mother Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman “has made it all the way to Russia,” the practical value of this literary achievement is virtually nil. The Naryshkins’ promise to support the Godwins’ library evaporates when Dmitry is killed. In this rambling and episodic sequel to Death and the Sisters (2023), the feckless William and Mary Jane Godwin remain incapable of running a household. After having her French maid thrown in jail for allegedly stealing a dress, brutal Mary Jane forces her stepdaughter, Mary, to become the family cook. The ingenuity with which the future author of Frankenstein conjures up meals without money is truly a marvel, but her herculean domestic efforts leave the story stuck in the waiting room. Percy Bysshe Shelley, who’s still married to Harriet Westbrook, makes vague promises to deliver some diamonds to the impoverished Godwins, but his main service to the family is taking Mary and her stepsister, Jane, out for fresh air. Interest in Dmitry’s murder is fleeting and its solution perfunctory. The most romantic figure is Lord Byron, who appears in a brief cameo at the house of his mistress.

Readers who know how the Shelley-Godwin tale ends will wonder how it will ever get there.