Capture Shadowplay Narrated By Joseph OConnor Shown As Script

God, this book is tiresome, An amazing read. The language and dialogue are simply superb here, It's harsh, tender and humorous all in one must read book, This tracks Bram Stoker and his life around the time of his writing of Dracula, This is a triumph from Joseph O'Connor, one of Ireland's true masters, Set in

the Lyceum Theatre in, and with a cast of characters including Henry Irving, Ellen Terry, Bram Stoker, and briefly Oscar Wilde, Fantastically evocative historical fiction with a wide streak of poignancy and an even wider streak of queer desire and anxiety, One for fans of The Wardrobe Mistress, The Phantom of the Opera, and Things In Jars, In this fictionalized account of the life of Bram Stoker, the author adopts some of the literary techniques of Stokers famous novel, Dracula, including the use of diary entries, letters and transcripts of conversations as well as more traditional third person narration.
As Stoker struggles with limited success to achieve his literary aspirations, some of the fun is spotting names and places that will later find their way into Dracula.


The core of the novel is the relationship between Bram Stoker and the bombastic Sir Henry Irving, When famed actress, Ellen Terry, arrives on the scene it creates an even more turbulent triangle, Poor Florence, Bram Stokers wife, is rather left out in the cold as the Lyceum Theatre becomes central to Stokers life, Not to mention attending to the whims of Sir Henry Irving, an equally allconsuming occupation, the main qualification for which seems to be the ability to consume large quantities of alcohol.


I loved the descriptions of the theatrical performances and all the backstage goings on, There is a great episode where Oscar Wilde attends a performance and provokes a very raucous after show party, The author also throws in some supernatural elements and its all set against the backdrop of a London stalked by Jack the Ripper,

The last, quite long, section of the book transports the reader ahead a number of years and has a distinctly melancholy tone as age and infirmity catch up with the main characters.
I found the end of the book poignant and rather moving,

I listened to the audiobook version, narrated by Anna Chancellor and Barry McGovern, To be fair, the latter does the majority of the narration with Anna Chancellor contributing a couple of sections purporting to be recordings of Ellen Terrys recollections of Sir Henry Irving.
These are wickedly funny and delivered in Anna Chancellors inimitable style, Where Ellen Terry appears elsewhere in the book, she is voiced by Barry McGovern rather than by Anna Chancellor, even in chapters told from the point of view of Ellen Terry.
However, I cant fault Barry McGoverns representation of the rich, plummy tones of Sir Henry Irving or the soft Irish lilt of Bram Stoker,

Shadowplay is inventive, imaginative and full of Gothic atmosphere, I can definitely see why it has earned a place on The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fictionshortlist, excellent fictional account of the relationship between Irving, Stoker and Ellen Terry while also bringing the reader through the probable journey that ended in the writing of Dracula.

Joseph O'Connor is such a brilliant writer and manages to convey both Dublin and London in detail,
The dialogue and rapport between the characters was amazing and at times hilarious: had to read some parts aloud to himself and we had a good cackle together.

The pace was at times a bit choppy which was distracting from the narrative and the story: that said this was a rather lovely read and one I recommend wholeheartedly.

Excellent, beautiful writing

There was so much about the synopsis that had me excited Victorian England, Jack the Ripper, theater, Bram Stoker writing Dracula, . . there was so much potential, This book had moments where I felt invested, but unfortunately, it never quite worked for me, The writing style was strange it jumped from letters, to journals, to narrative and there were many times where it was unclear who's perspective I was reading from.
It felt very choppy and hard to follow,

I really enjoyed the parts that gave insight into the writing of Dracula, as well as the fear of Jack the Ripper terrorizing London.
However, there was never enough of those plot elements, I feel like the author was trying to do too many things with the story, making it feel convoluted and confusing, I feel like I don't quite understand what story the author was trying to tell,

ARC provided via Netgalley Historical fiction of the highest order, Absolutely topnotch.

This is one of my favorite novels of this year, . . or any year. I love everything Joseph OConnor has done here: the structure, the characters, the story, his gorgeous prose, Its deeply satisfying fiction.

Its a terrific theatre novel, On the surface, its reminiscent of OConnors fine prior novel GHOST LIGHT which deals with the doomed romance between playwright J, M. Synge and actress Maire ONeill in earlyth century Dublin, But for me SHADOWPLAY is the more successful novel its confident, witty, and bursting with life, and it has more emotional depth than the somewhat staid GHOST LIGHT.


But the best thing about SHADOWPLAY is how OConnor gets inside the mind of another writer: Bram Stoker, Its a deeply imaginative novel about the process of imagination, We read about Stokers personal life, his frustrations as a writer, his sexuality, and his long career as manager of the Lyceum Theatre in Victorian London.
There are also Stokers dreams, nightmares, and fantasies, OConnor takes a lot of liberties to be sure, But along the way, he ingeniously weaves a tale that brings every part of Stokers life interior and exterior together into the formative process that ultimately resulted in DRACULA, Stokers magnum opus.
I cant do justice to how cleverly OConnor has done this, Its a real tour de force,

The cameo appearance of Oscar Wilde at the Lyceum is worth the price of admission alone,

And its a devilishly good ghost story too,

With that, Im off to begin DRACULA, Could it be any other way I just loved this, Very well written and brilliantly evocative of the time and place it is set in, I found it completely compelling and thoroughly enjoyed it, It examines, with great imaginative flair, the relationship between Henry Irving, Ellen Terry and Bram Stoker, who arrives in London from Dublin in thes to work for Irving as General Manager at the actors Lyceum Theatre.
During his time at the Lyceum, Stoker attempts to pursue his own literary career, with very little success, with the even today still popular Dracula passing relatively unnoticed.
The novel presents itself as unpublished writings by Stoker, which he bequeaths to Ellen Terry, and comprises a collage of phonograph recordings, newspaper extracts, letters and theatre posters, and creates from all these a panoramic view of London life, both in and out of the theatre.
Even the little touch of magic realism, something that I dont usually enjoy in an otherwise realistic novel, seemed appropriate and fitted in well with the novels overall schema.
OConnor doesnt pretend to total historical accuracy, again something I normally demand in an historical novel, but I really didnt mind here, as the book feels completely truthful in spirit in its depiction of these people and their world.
I could actually hear their voices as I read, such is OConnors marvellous ventriloquism, and the book brought a small slice of theatre history vividly alive for me.
This shimmering novel is one of the most satisfying Ive ever read, An absolutely magnificent and delightful experience, Two days after slowly finishing it, I began rereading it, one chapter at a time, Although completely accessible, the characters and themes are even deeper and richer the second time around, This was a book so interesting I finished it, Not easy for me to get into a book during the current plague, but I did, The setting is mostly London in the lateth amp earlyth centuries, including the time of Jack The Ripper, Bram Stoker, Ellen Terry amp Henry Irving are the main characters amp all work at the famous Lyceum Theatre, If you don't know all these people, you will soon enough, The writing is witty and also moving, Highly recommended! Such potential. Was really looking forward to reading this book but i found it rather irritating, there were passages where i was really into the atmosphere and story line but it went on too many different tangents for my liking, it jumped around from character to character and place to place in a way i found hard to follow,
also the actual writing, while trying to be atmospheric and it was, But at times was far too descriptive too many adjectives, adding descriptions that were really not necessary to the point where i felt they was just to fill out the word count, An enjoyable read but not a book that bowled me over,

I loved Joseph O'Connor's sitelinkStar of the Sea and sitelinkGhost Light and was really excited to pick up a Hard Copy of Shadowplay.
I was aware that while the novel is based real events surrounding the lives of Bram Stoker author of Dracula Victorian actormanager Henry Irving and leading actress of the day Ellen Terry, but many liberties had been taken with the facts characterization and chronologies and while this is effective in order to create the story I felt I could never connect with the story or the characters.


The setting of the novel really brings this story to life, London ofs is beautifully described by Joseph O'Conner and the novel is atmospheric and descriptive but I found the story a little complex and I wasn't really a fan of Theater history to begin with so unfortunately this wasn't my wow book but lovers of Bram Stoker'ssitelinkDracula or readers who enjoy Theater history may get more from this book than me.


Not a book for my real life bookshelf but hopefully when I place it in the bookclub swap book pile some other reader may find their joy in this one.
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