Five weeks in the country : a novel / Francine Prose.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

From the acclaimed, award-winning author of Reading Like a Writer and Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris, 1932 comes an utterly original novel inspired by the strange friendship between Charles Dickens and Hans Christian Andersen and set during the summer when Dickens's family life exploded.

In the summer of 1857, when British newspapers warned of an approaching comet about to destroy the earth, an unusual-looking stranger arrived at Charles Dickens's home, Gad's Hill, in the countryside outside London. Dickens had met Hans Christian Andersen at a dinner party, a decade before, and, in a moment of desperation, had invited him to visit.

The visit did not go well. The eccentric Danish author of classic fairy tales, who barely spoke English, outstayed his welcome and alienated the Dickens household, which included nine children. Even the oblivious, obsessively self-conscious Andersen sensed the increasing tension between Dickens and his unhappy wife, Catherine, but was slow to understand--or to believe--that Dickens had fallen in love with a young actress appearing in his new play. For Andersen, those five weeks were a series of social mistakes and embarrassments but ultimately a lesson in how life's most humbling experiences can be transformed into art.

Five Weeks in the Country, a work of imaginative fiction inspired by actual events, is Francine Prose at her dazzling best.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Prose's (The Vixen) latest is based on a real incident between the 19th-century literary giants Charles Dickens and Hans Christian Andersen. Dickens invites Andersen to his country home and learns that the man has no manners, evokes scorn from the 11 Dickens children, and warms only Mrs. Dickens's heart. Andersen stays for an intolerable five weeks but is banished after espying Dickens courting his mistress. Prose tells the story in three versions. The first is told by the Dickens children who loathed Andersen. Next, in Dickens's own words, come the pressures of a successful author with worries about career, fatherhood, and his marriage. Finally, Andersen writes with dignity of his good intentions, which collapse in the face of his ineptitude. In a saving grace, he pens a new fairy tale, using the comet of 1857 as an agent to transform bleak details of his life into high art. VERDICT For the 150th anniversary of Andersen's death, Prose compassionately portrays him as a creative genius capable of enchanting the world but helpless to erase his own miseries.--Barbara Conaty

Publishers Weekly Review

Hans Christian Andersen visits Charles Dickens and his family in this revealing novel from Prose (The Vixen). The first section is narrated collectively by the nine Dickens children, who are confused and saddened by their customarily jovial father's coldness and angry impatience since he moved the household from London to Gad's Hill, a rural mansion in Kent. With the arrival of Andersen in spring 1857, the children find the perfect target for their pranks and mockery in the gangly and hypersensitive Dane, who speaks very little English but worships Dickens. In the next part, Dickens, 45, details his infatuation with a pretty 17-year-old actress he has cast in his new play. His torment hardly justifies his cruel treatment of his wife, Catherine, whom he taunts and demeans. He's also intensely jealous of his guest, refusing to show Andersen any approval or encouragement. Just as the reader begins to tire of the Dickens family, Prose turns to Andersen. In this final, vibrant section, the Danish writer reflects on his frustrations as a gay man unable to maintain a satisfying relationship, and he accurately details all that he has observed at Gad's Hill in a thinly disguised fairy tale about a comet causing fear and wonder. There's much to admire in this tale. (May)

Booklist Review

At the height of his renown and a low point in his marriage, Charles Dickens moves his large family from London to a country home. A passing fancy induces him to invite Hans Christian Andersen to visit. The maestro of fairy tales joyfully makes the arduous journey from Denmark, only to find that by the time he arrives he is far from welcome. Nonetheless, he stays for five distressing weeks, during which fears about a comet colliding with Earth run rampant. Prose's round-robin novel is based on facts upon which she boldly and astutely improvises, writing from the points of view of Dickens and Andersen, each brooding and desperate, and the children, who are repelled by Andersen's strange appearance, puzzling exuberance, and lack of English. Dickens, harshly critical of his family, is preoccupied with the performance of The Frozen Deep, a play he cowrote, and the actress Ellen Ternan. Andersen is reluctantly privy to the angst of Dickens' wife, Catherine, and endlessly irritating to the servants. Throughout this deeply insightful, gloriously detailed, and bravura tale of the trials of creativity, fame, cultural and gender divides, betrayal, and a chilling absence of compassion, Prose renders every dramatic or absurd scene with precise and resonant wit, à la Dickens. Then, at the close, Prose soars into Andersen's realm of magical storytelling.

Kirkus Book Review

The man who came to dinner. In the spring of 1857, Hans Christian Andersen visited Charles Dickens and his family at Gad's Hill, in the countryside of Kent. Invited for a brief stay, Andersen remained for five weeks, his presence intensifying tensions within the troubled household. Adding to the "unsettled atmosphere," a devastating rumor swirled: A comet was on a collision course with Earth. Imagining the visit first from the collective point of view of Dickens' nine children, then the novelist himself, then the Danish visitor, Prose creates a sensitive, multilayered portrait of loneliness, betrayal, and longing. The children, remarkably unhappy, feel unloved by their father, who seems always distant and distracted. Andersen--comically awkward and embarrassingly affectionate--exacerbates their "misery and strain," making their "hard time even harder." Dickens, who had invited Andersen in a moment of exuberance he now regrets, is irritated by his guest's odd demeanor and intrusiveness. The visit has come at a low point in his life. He's dissatisfied with a play he's producing and the quality of his acting; he feels imprisoned within his family: "His children were the turnkeys" and his wife, Catherine, "the walls and iron bars." Infatuated with a young actress--the latest of many romances--he resents coming home. Andersen, flattered to think the invitation had been motivated by admiration from an author he worships, tries mightily to ingratiate himself, but fails. Wishing he'd be asked to stay forever, to be embraced, at last, by a loving family, he leaves in tears. Prose handles her characters with sympathy, especially Andersen, whose neediness is palpable and whose ability to transform deep sadness into art is heroic. Although recounting the visit several times leads to some repetition, the result, nevertheless, is captivating. A richly textured tale. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.