Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier

This week I had the joy of reading a novel by Tracy Chevalier. I had read her Girl With a Pearl Earring a few months ago and found it to be both beautiful and satisfying. So I had high expectations for Burning Bright, and I was not disappointed.

Ms. Chevalier likes to pull famous faces from the past into her novels, but she does not make the mistake of building the entire story around them. In this case, she introduces readers to the intriguing, if somewhat bizarre, William Blake. Blake, a poet and painter, lives in the same neighborhood with Jem Kellaway and Maggie Butterfield, two nearly-adolescents who are the primary characters of the novel.

Jem has recently moved from rural Dorsetshire to London with his family when he meets Maggie, a city girl who has grown up in London. Jem's feelings for Maggie mirror his feelings for this new city: he is intrigued by the mysteries and curiosities of London's streets, but he is also a bit disgusted by what he finds there. Jem likes Maggie, her high spirit, her intrepid willingness to explore the nooks and crannies of the city. But he is put off by the coarseness that Maggie's parents and brother-and sometimes Maggie herself-display. In return, Maggie enjoys the power she experiences as Jem's guide to all things London, and she finds his rural simplicity and honesty a refreshing change from the guileful family and neighbors she is used to. As time passes, they learn to trust one another and their friendship becomes a safe place for them to explore the challenges and joys of growing up.

Chevalier does a stunning job of keeping her story simple and focused. Jem and Maggie's relationship, the response of Jem's family to their new urban environs, and the subtle changes that take place in each of the characters over the course of the novel--these are the heart of the novel. But while Chevalier never sacrifices her characters veracity for sensational plot developments, she yet manages to create a believable backdrop of historically crucial events and persons. William Blake, in whom the children find a stabilizing influence in their quickly-changing lives, is also a sympathizer with the French revolutionaries. He finds his home and his freedom threatened by Loyalists who would wipe out dissension before it can take hold in Britain. Thus readers are given a glimpse of how the French Revolution may have impacted the daily lives of people in neighborhoods throughout London and elsewhere, as well as how it affected the literature and art of the time.

Less historically memorable, but interesting nonetheless, is the phenomenon of Philip Astley's circus, located in a field across the bridge from Westminster Abbey in what was then the outskirts of London. (Hard to believe if you've visited the city in recent years...there are no open fields to be seen anywhere in the area, unless you can get a distant glimpse of one from the top of the London Eye which now stands in that neighborhood.) According to Chevalier, Astley's circus employed, and therefore influenced, the majority of residents in that part of the city. Indeed, Astley built much of the neighborhood himself to house his performers and other circus staff. While not as impactful as the French Revolution, Astley and his circus undoubtedly left a mark on London, a mark which may remain subtly visible to this day.

Jem and Maggie are small characters against a grand backdrop of historical events. But they never seem insignificant or overwhelmed by their surroundings. Chevalier paints a beautiful picture of two real souls who are impacted by events and people around them, take those relationships and experiences into themselves, and then grow to become more sure-footed in the ever-changing world they inhabit. Burning Bright will leave you feeling gently inspired that the move from innocence to experience can be achieved successfully, and even gracefully, especially if you have a friend to navigate it with you.