Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | FICTION SHO | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Stillwater Public Library | FICTION SHO | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
A captivating debut that imagines a passionate friendship between Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert, when they were young and exploring the Nile in 1850.
Before she became the nineteenth century's greatest heroine, before he had written a word of Madame Bovary, Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert traveled down the Nile at the same time. In the imaginative leap taken by award-winning writer Enid Shomer's The Twelve Rooms of the Nile, the two ignite a passionate friendship marked by intelligence, humor, and a ravishing tenderness that will alter both their destinies.
In 1850, Florence, daughter of a prominent English family, sets sail on the Nile chaperoned by longtime family friends and her maid, Trout. To her family's chagrin--and in spite of her wealth, charm, and beauty--she is, at twenty-nine and of her own volition, well on her way to spinsterhood. Meanwhile, Gustave and his good friend Maxime Du Camp embark on an expedition to document the then largely unexplored monuments of ancient Egypt. Traumatized by the deaths of his father and sister, and plagued by mysterious seizures, Flaubert has dropped out of law school and writ-ten his first novel, an effort promptly deemed unpublishable by his closest friends. At twenty-eight, he is an unproven writer with a failing body.
Florence is a woman with radical ideas about society and God, naive in the ways of men. Gustave is a notorious womanizer and patron of innumerable prostitutes. But both burn with unfulfilled ambition, and in the deft hands of Shomer, whose writing The New York Times Book Review has praised as "beautifully cadenced, and surprising in its imaginative reach," the unlikely soul mates come together to share their darkest torments and most fervent hopes. Brimming with adventure and the sparkling sensibilities of the two travelers, this mesmerizing novel offers a luminous combination of gorgeous prose and wild imagination, all of it colored by the opulent tapestry of mid-nineteenth-century Egypt.
Author Notes
Enid Shomer won the Iowa Fiction Prize for her first collection of stories and the Florida Gold Medal for her second. She is also the author of four books of poetry. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker , The Atlantic , The Paris Review , and many other publications. She lives in Tampa, Florida.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In her debut novel, poet/storywriter Shomer (Tourist Season) imagines Gustave Flaubert and Florence Nightingale meeting in Egypt, among the crowds cruising the Nile. This is 1850, before Madame Bovary was written or Nightingale famously tended to the wounded in the Crimean War. Shomer portrays the Frenchman and the Englishwoman as seemingly having little in common: he frequents brothels, makes squeezes (tracings) of monuments, and copes with the failure of his early fiction by writing pornography. She travels with chaperones, reads hieroglyphics, and sleeps under a newfangled contraption to keep mosquitoes at bay. Sharing itineraries, the two discover they both possess unquenchable ambition, and they both suffer from depression over the gap between dreams and reality. Mutual respect begets attraction, and soon Nightingale is teaching Flaubert how women think, while Flaubert teaches Nightingale how men feel. Poetically evoked, Egypt proves as multidimensional and conflicted as the main characters, while Nightingale's maid provides humor and pathos. Narrative drama is not Shomer's forte, but she makes up for the meandering pace with rich landscapes, probing character studies, and well described insights into inspiration and genius. Agent: Rob McQuilkin, Lippincott Massie McQuilkin. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Alternative literary history--the conceit here is that Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert, both of whom traveled to Egypt in 1850, met on the voyage and developed an ardent friendship. In 1850, Flaubert had not yet written Madame Bovary and Florence Nightingale was still looking for an outlet for a personality that identified with the suffering of the world and had yet found no proper channel for her empathy. Flaubert is traveling with Maxime du Camp, and both are worldly men, having frequented whorehouses over several continents. In fact, Flaubert is currently enamored with Kuchuk Hanem, whose sultry beauty he recalls with lascivious fondness--and this while having temporarily left his mistress, Louise Colet, back in France. In contrast, Nightingale is traveling with Charles and Selina Bracebridge, friends who also serve as chaperones, and she is trying to escape both a family that tries to rein in her assertive personality and a broken engagement to Richard Monckton Milnes, the English man of letters. Although Flaubert's English is spotty, the language barrier is more than made up for by Nightingale's excellent French. He begins addressing her as "My dear Rossignol [Nightingale]," and their conversation becomes increasingly intimate, as does their physical contact, the sensual novelist helping to loosen up the strait-laced Nightingale. Although they never consummate their relationship, the sexual energy increases dramatically when they take a caravan trip across the desert. By the end of the novel, Flaubert and Nightingale split up wistfully, neither overly nostalgic for what might have been. By weaving her own imaginative constructions in with actual journal entries of both Flaubert and Nightingale, Shomer skillfully combines historical plausibility and historical truth.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Shomer's exquisite debut is an intellectual adventure through mid-nineteenth-century Egypt as experienced by two dissimilar people sitting on the cusp of greatness, though neither one knows that. Prim, earnest Florence Nightingale yearns to do good works, but her gender and disapproving family constrain her exuberant curiosity. Gustave Flaubert, a devoted cynic, loses himself in debauchery while seeking literary inspiration. Both traveled up the Nile in 1850, although they probably never met in real life. From this grain of historical plausibility emerges a captivating story about close friendship and all the pleasures and complications of understanding another human being. As their parties follow a similar route, from the temples at Abu Simbel to Philae and other sites, they develop a tender bond, and they even take a daring overland trek together (with chaperones, of course). Their encounters with ancient monuments and the unfamiliar culture enhance their psychological journeys. Flo's awkward relationship with her unadventurous maid, as significant as hers with Gustave, authentically shows the limitations of her privileged Victorian background. The superb characterizations, poignant observations on the Egyptian religion, and depictions of the land's ethereal beauty all perfectly interwoven are rendered in memorable language that excites and enriches the mind.--Johnson, Sarah Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Both Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert sought escape and direction as they traveled in Egypt in 1849-50. Having rejected a marriage proposal, Nightingale longed for purpose in life beyond the limited roles acceptable to her wealthy family. Reeling from his first novel's failure, Flaubert joined his friend Max's study of monuments but devoted more energy to sexual escapades. Although nothing indicates Nightingale and Flaubert met, poet and short story writer Shomer (Tourist Season) bases her debut novel on that possibility. In letters and conversations, they share their estrangement from others and longings for accomplishment. Flaubert explains sources of sexual pleasure to the naive Nightingale. Her quest for independence enlightens him about how societal conventions can stifle women's spirits. A desert trek to the Red Sea turns into a fight for survival after Nightingale's maid, Trout, is kidnapped, other travelers succumb to fever, and water supplies disappear. Despite a growing intimacy between the two before their rescue, Flaubert breaks his promise to meet her in Cairo, in part because he fears he has syphilis. Journeying home, Nightingale wipes Egypt from her memory as she visits European hospitals and discovers purpose and resolve at last. VERDICT Despite the intriguing premise, the novel bogs down in subplots such as relationships between Nightingale and Trout or Flaubert and Max. Readers interested in Egyptology or 19th-century travels will appreciate descriptions of ancient sites. For others, the trip may be more plodding than engaging.-Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State Univ. Lib. Mankato (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
