The Somnambulist - Essie Fox In The Somnambulist we meet Phoebe, a very unworldly and innocent 17 year old who lives with her widowed mother, who belongs to a religious sect that marches the streets trying to save drunks and harlots, and her aunt Cissy, a one time singer in the theatre. Phoebe's life is very restricted, no friends her own age and only the company of Cissy and her mother, Maud and a few theatrical friends of Cissy's. The night that Maud finally relents and lets Cissy take Phoebe to the theatre is the night that changes Phoebe's life; she sees Cissy with a mysterious man and has a brief encounter of her own. When Cissy dies and Phoebe's and Maud's lives seem doomed, Phoebe is offered a job as companion to the mysterious man's wife and a motion of events is set in order with far reaching consequences. Although the reader is perfectly aware of what is going on and as such there is no real air of mystery to us, for Phoebe she is totally in the dark and unaware of what we and the other characters know. Her level of naivety and innocence is such that she probably can't even imagine the intrigue that surrounds her and it is well that the reader remembers this as they read. I initially thought that it was far too obvious but I had forgotten that the story was about Phoebe, from her point of view and as such she was very much oblivious and indeed the pawn in other people's games. It is her story of how she came to the truth. Essie Fox certainly does Victorian England justice, one can imagine the stench and filth surrounding the city, the dark smog, the fug of filth, the running mess in the streets and indeed her description of the muck on the hems of dresses after walking in the streets and then trailing it into the house produces a very clear image. In contrast, the cleanliness and purity of the countryside at Dinwood gives a welcome breather to the reader as well as the characters where we can clear our minds and shake off the darkness of the sins of the city. There's some very clever imagery of decay in both city and country when the lives of all concerned start to break down and as Phoebe passes from complete naivety to awakening. It's a story of secrets and how they impact on the lives of all involved and as such is well told and certainly evocative of that era when Victorians seemed to be such a strait-laced bunch but where underlying immorality was rife - and secret! Although I personally would have liked more intrigue and not to know what was going on and would have welcomed a more gothic horror edge to this novel (which is promised on the publishers page but not really delivered in my view) I have to admit it is a nice enough read and the writing is, for the most part, very good.