Fiction review: The Flight of Gemma Hardy

"There was no possibility of taking a walk that day."

With that spare sentence in the 19th century, Charlotte Brontë began "Jane Eyre," the classic and beloved story of a girl's tumultuous journey into adulthood while facing cruelty, deprivation and deception.

"We did not go for a walk on the first day of the year."

And with those words, Margot Livesey starts "The Flight of Gemma Hardy," a reimaging of "Jane Eyre" that includes elements of Livesey's life and a novel that transports the reader into a gripping, affecting and ultimately healing world.

Born in 1948 to a Scottish mother and an Icelandic father, Gemma is orphaned by the time she is 3 and is taken in by her mother's kindly clergyman brother to be a part of his family in Scotland. But when he drowns while ice skating, Gemma finds her world upended. Her aunt-by-marriage treats her with disdain and outright cruelty, and her cousins, feeding on their mother's bitterness, neglect and tease her.

Sent to Claypoole, a boarding school for girls, Gemma, now 10 and small for her age, is considered as much servant — she is one of the working girls — as student. Bullied by the other working girls and befriended by only one of the regular students, she endures much until, almost 18 and with Claypoole closing, she takes a job as au pair to an 8-year-old girl on the remote Orkney Islands. The child, Nell, is the niece of the often-absent owner of Blackbird Hall, fortysomething Hugh Sinclair, who works far away in London.

At the manor, Gemma finds a sort of contentment — and love — but also dishonesty. A dark secret — but not a mad wife in the attic — leads her to a journey during which she will discover much about her family — and herself.

Livesey invests much in her characters, as even the minor ones are drawn with care and devotion. But it's Gemma — determined, intelligent and strong, if also initially unforgiving and untrusting — who carries the story and wins the reader's admiration.

Plot and people alone, though, do not bear the novel. Livesey's precise and frugal prose powerfully contributes to depicting Gemma's loneliness, such as this sentence during one of the girl's journeys: "The animals in the fields were strangers; the trees had no names."

Inspired by "Jane Eyre" but never merely derivative, "The Flight of Gemma Hardy" will, of course, appeal to readers of the earlier work. But such is its power, stamped with Livesey's originality, that even those to whom "Jane Eyre" is a stranger are likely to find this a rewarding read.

Livesey, a native of Scotland who now teaches at Emerson College and lives near Boston, explains that she is "writing back" to Brontë and not simply retelling "Jane Eyre." In doing so, she succeeds greatly. Livesey has created a story of flight, but in that flight, Gemma not only flees but also eventually soars. And Livesey, the acclaimed author of seven previous novels, aims for and reaches the skies in this work of love.

THE FLIGHT

OF GEMMA HARDY

Margot Livesey

464 pages, Harper, $25.99

Book & Author Dinner

What: The Junior League of Richmond's 67th annual Book & Author Dinner. Margot Livesey is one of the featured authors.

When: May 1, 7 p.m.; doors open at 6 p.m.

Where: Greater Richmond Convention Center

Tickets: Individual tickets are $70, and tables of 10 are available for the discounted rate of $650 until March 31. Patron-level sponsor tickets are $85. Friend-level sponsor tickets are $135. A limited number of non-dining cocktail seats will be available for $45.

More info: (804) 643-4886, ext. 33, or bookandauthor@jlrichmond.org

Website:

www.bookandauthordinner.org