SO19: Your editor, Charles Spicer, says that you write "a novel of manners," and I think that's true. Could you talk a bit about how and why you chose to write these novels in mystery form?
CF: It's an interesting question! I think there was never a society more in love with its own manners and codes than Victorian London, and one of the fascinations of the crime of the period is that it ruptures that very formal set of behaviors. I wanted to write about a detective who belonged to a world of great external placidity but saw the breaks in that surface. If the novels didn't have an element of crime, they might get a little bit stilted, I fear, or aimless. And then, it's always fun to have a mystery.
CF: It's an interesting question! I think there was never a society more in love with its own manners and codes than Victorian London, and one of the fascinations of the crime of the period is that it ruptures that very formal set of behaviors. I wanted to write about a detective who belonged to a world of great external placidity but saw the breaks in that surface. If the novels didn't have an element of crime, they might get a little bit stilted, I fear, or aimless. And then, it's always fun to have a mystery.
SO19: A charming paragraph
in the book makes reference to the modernity of the 1870s and the rapid
approach of the year 1900. How and why did you choose to write about the 19th
century generally, and Lenox’s particular moment in it specifically?
CF: I've always loved the fiction of the 19th century, and its
atmosphere was what really inspired me to write the books I do—writers like
George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, Elizabeth Gaskell…I could go
on. As for the specific span of the series, from 1865 to 1876 (so far), I think
that was around the time when the last barbarism of the previous century, the
public hangings, the hideous poverty, was finally really shed. You had money coming
in from the north and the empire, the great Parliamentary battles. It's the
heart of the Victorian period to me...
SO19: As its story demonstrates, this book takes place just as
private detection is becoming a profession. Could you talk about that a bit—why
you think it happened, perhaps, or any other thoughts on it?
CF: I think the story of the whole 19th century is of a society
trying to bring order to the wildness of the world. Scotland Yard was started,
the dark continents were colonized. But the wildness kept pushing through
anyway—the great Victorian power structures couldn't smother crime entirely. I
think that's why the era gave rise to the private detective, a sort of
comforting freelance figure battling against dark forces. It's interesting that
so many of the detectives are very logical and scientific too. It was a
positivist age. They were convinced they were moving toward a utopia. They had
no idea how complicated the 20th century would be.
SO19: Lenox is a
privileged man, and in that sense offers contemporary readers the kind of
fantasy for which many of us turn to historical fiction. Yet his sense of obligation to his
community—or, more accurately perhaps, communities—resonates in all of the
series’ books. Why did you make this choice? How does it shape the themes and
storylines of the books?
CF: To be perfectly honest, I've been relatively (not crazily)
privileged in my life, and I've always felt some sense of responsibility from
that. I think this is one of those times when there was something unconscious
at work.
SO19: Identity theft,
assassination, class bias, political incompetence and corruption: many of the
book’s elements are part of our lives today. Do you look consciously for themes
that have contemporary resonance?
CF: I get asked this often, and the answer is that I don't! I try
to write as truly to the history of the period as I can, without worrying about
our own world. I think it's a testament to the Victorian period that the
resonances are there nevertheless. It was the first society that really looked
like ours, an emerging middle class, men going to work each morning, dinner
parties, education, and so I think we see ourselves in it—the moment of human
history when we can really begin to recognize ourselves.
SO19: The novel involves a
number of rather complex and arcane subjects, and touches briefly on still more
unexpected details of the period. The practices of the House of Commons, the
etiquette of the Palace, the workings of the Victorian railway network…how do
you research these complicated systems such that they are referenced so
accurately in your novels?
CF: Thank you very much! I like to find little pockets of interest
within the daily life of Victorian London and research the hell out of them. In
A Burial at Sea it was the navy, in
another book it was counterfeiters. In this one it was the Palace and the
railways. I just read every word I could find on them. I like it much better
when a writer's knowledge seeps into the work than when he or she presents a
big chunk of information, but that requires knowing a lot more than you're
going to use.
SO19: The Queen is vividly
if briefly portrayed in this book, as is the life of the Palace and staff
around her. What inspired this storyline? What surprised you most about her and
her world?
CF: I've always been scared of incorporating historical figures,
because the voice is hard to get right—and this was the ultimate historical
figure. I was just so fascinated by what I read of her that I had to try it. I
tried to make her voice sharp and clever, as it was in real life apparently. I
also hoped to hint at the bizarrely consuming grief she felt over the death of Prince Albert
SO19: You’re clearly an
avid reader. What authors or texts do you feel most shape your own writing
about the 19th century?
CF: There are many, many! It's mostly fiction, actually, because I
find the most important thing for me is getting the shape of the world right.
That's more important than facts or history—just the texture, the voices, the
dialogue, the street life, the manners. The writers I mentioned earlier help
with that, and also Wilkie Collins, Benjamin Disraeli, H.G. Wells, George
Gissing, Anthony Trollope—he provides a lot of the atmosphere for my books.
Then, I do also read non-fiction. I like to dip into biographies of the
political figures of the age.
SO19: An Old Betrayal and The Last Enchantments,
your literary novel appearing in January, both take place in England
CF: I love writing mysteries, but a huge part of my mental life as
a reader is outside of genre fiction, in literary fiction. The Last Enchantments, which we hope is a sort of contemporary Brideshead Revisited, is a book I've
worked on for several years, and it's different in almost every respect from
the mystery novels. For all that, as you point out, they're both set in England America
SO19: Are you planning on
continuing the Lenox series? If so, any hints about the next installment?
CF: There are more Lenox books to come, yes! I will say that in the
next one his career goes in a radically new direction. I hope that'll be
exciting for readers. There's always the chance of alienating people who like
the characters to stay exactly where they are. <