Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson (review)

With her father’s recent death, seventeen-year-old Sophia and her family have fallen on hard times, so she is delighted to find herself invited to her benevolent godfather’s luxurious estate in the Mississippi countryside for an extended stay. The opulent Wyndriven Abbey is as gorgeous as its proprietor, Monsieur Bernard, but Sophia soon learns that much of the beauty serves as a mask for the estate’s (and its master’s) shadier secrets. The Monsieur’s wealth is rumored to be derived from unscrupulous business dealings, and the plantation’s slaves fear their master’s violent temper; even more troubling for Sophia, Monsieur has lost four wives to mysterious circumstances, and after he demands an engagement as repayment for his generosity, Sophia begins to fear for her own life. Elegant prose and vivid imagery give this gothic retelling of Perrault’s “Bluebeard” an exquisite sense of place; the descriptions of the lavish rooms of the seemingly endless estate are entrancing, while the hints of unease—a name scratched in a bedpost, old paintings found in the attic, a decrepit chapel in the estate’s cemetery—keep the tension mounting. Unfortunately, though, there’s nothing particularly new or inventive within the plot, and the story wanders down too many blind alleys, creating a disjointed arc that finally closes with a predictable climax. Still, the Monsieur makes a formidable opponent, and Sophia’s narration is believable as she moves from a girl willing to be taken in by her godfather’s charms to a woman that will stop his abuses at all costs. “Bluebeard” hasn’t been a popular selection for expansion into a novel-length work, so the novelty of this treatment may intrigue fans of fairy tales and historical fiction.