Product Description

Beautifully evocative and suspensful double time-scheme narrative about Rembrandt, love and art. In January, 1662, the artist Rembrandt, bankrupted in the great tulip crash, accidentally stows away on a boat for Hull. To pay for his passage, he must paint the Captain's portrait. For himself, he paints a portrait of the Captain's beautiful wife. Rembrandt has seduced many a sitter before, and sets about doing so again. But he has a rival -- none other than the MP for Hull after the Civil War, the poet Andrew Marvell! And the Captain's wife is far from being a passive player in this triangular game of love, deceit and manipulation. All this is discovered in the present day by another painter, Amy, who has returned to her old family home as a restorer. As she paints a portrait of the man she is becoming involved with, so she uncovers the secrets of the past. This fine novel will appeal to fans of Girl with a Pearl Earring and Tulip Fever.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #198142 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Review
Praise for Silence and Shadows: 'In Silence and Shadows, James Long has invented a brand new genre ... the archaeological thriller' Tony Parsons 'one of the most unexpected and evocative thrillers in years' Daily Mail

In this debut novel Will Davenport explores a fictional episode in the life of Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn - probably the greatest portrait painter of all time. In reality, little is known about Rembrandt's life save the bare biographical details, but Davenport crafts a tale in which the Dutchman comes by chance to Hull in spring 1662. Having just been declared bankrupt, Rembrandt accidentally stows away on a ship bound for England. He is forced to pay for his passage by painting a portrait of the captain. But the captain's wife, Amelia Dahl, holds far more interest for the Dutch painter and soon he is engaged in a contest to win her affections with none other than the poet and then MP for Hull, Andrew Marvell. Interwoven with this fictional history, chapter for chapter, is the present-day story of one of Amelia Dahl's descendants - Amy Dale. She too is an artist, finding herself by coincidence restoring the Dahl's ancestral home in Hull. As Amy becomes more and more involved with the subject of her own painting, a brooding and mysterious man, she unravels the secret truth behind her ancestor's involvement with Rembrandt and Marvell. The novel starts slowly but the second half is utterly gripping. Davenport has a good feel for plotting, and his adroit shifting between time periods makes it easy for us to suspend our disbelief at the numerous coincidences. The characters are less successful - Amy does not always ring true, and Rembrandt and Marvell both come across as odious. Still, there are some fine ideas - about art and its power, self-delusion, the relationship between painter and painted and what art represents - and this is undoubtedly a promising first novel. (Kirkus UK)

Rembrandt in England, locked in a fierce struggle with the poet Andrew Marvell for artistic preeminence-and the attentions of a beautiful woman: all in this outing from Davenport (a.k.a. British thriller writer James Long: Silence and Shadows, 2001, etc.). It's 1662, and the 56-year-old Rembrandt is bankrupt. Fleeing his creditors, the notorious homebody becomes an accidental stowaway on a ship bound for Hull (the evidence for Rembrandt's residence in England is flimsy, but Davenport, otherwise, stays close to the historical record). Ship's captain Dahl promises to pay Rembrandt's passage home if he likes the portrait he has commissioned. Dahl's intermediary is another passenger, the Dutch-speaking Marvell, at first glance a self-important parliamentarian. Painting the captain is a tedious chore; painting his wife, the beautiful Amelia, the challenge of a lifetime. And Marvell gives Rembrandt the opportunity. Working in different mediums, each man will pay tribute to Amelia's beauty, and the subject herself will decide the winner. This may all sound rather loopy, and the identification of Amelia as the Coy Mistress of Marvell's most famous poem may be several degrees too cute, but it works surprisingly well on the page. Davenport finds a convincing voice for Rembrandt, and the artistic rivalry becomes all the juicier thanks to the serenely manipulative Amelia. What works far less well is a storyline set in 2001 that gets equal time. Here, hot-blooded young artist Amy Dale, a descendant of Dahl's, joins a crew that's restoring the grand country house once built by Amelia. Amy seduces her scarred but sexy co-worker Don, who may or may not be bad news. The two stumble on Rembrandt's wall paintings, but their subsequent sleuthing never blends with a surrounding melodrama that churns out two murders and one near-miss (all, curiously, involving a chain saw). Although the contemporary story becomes an annoying distraction, Davenport does right by Rembrandt and his genius-and that gives his fantasy a glow of its own. (Kirkus Reviews)

Synopsis
Beautifully evocative and suspensful double time-scheme narrative about Rembrandt, love and art. In January, 1662, the artist Rembrandt, bankrupted in the great tulip crash, accidentally stows away on a boat for Hull. To pay for his passage, he must paint the Captain's portrait. For himself, he paints a portrait of the Captain's beautiful wife. Rembrandt has seduced many a sitter before, and sets about doing so again. But he has a rival -- none other than the MP for Hull after the Civil War, the poet Andrew Marvell! And the Captain's wife is far from being a passive player in this triangular game of love, deceit and manipulation. All this is discovered in the present day by another painter, Amy, who has returned to her old family home as a restorer. As she paints a portrait of the man she is becoming involved with, so she uncovers the secrets of the past. This fine novel will appeal to fans of Girl with a Pearl Earring and Tulip Fever.

From the Publisher
First rate Historical novel which will appeal to fans of Girl with a Pearl Earring and Tulip Fever.

Customer Reviews

When it's good it's great - when it's bad it's terrbile
This is a brave attempt to mix historical fiction with a modern who-done-it. I am sorry that the author didn't just stick with the history which is brilliantly written. The tale of Rembrandt's possible stay in Hull is fun, engrossing and a joy to read. The problems start with the modern story which is a badly told horror story mixed with chic lit. The characters are badly drawn and unsympathetic - I even ended up laughing out loud at the end! A sorry mix.

very good and very bad
There are two stories merged together here: the historical fiction and the rather strange modern would-be thriller. The link between them does not work particularly well, so I will review them separately.

The tale of Rembrandt's possible stay in Hull is well told. The characters of Rembrandt and Marvell come out nicely and their rivalry for the favours of the beautiful Amelia is plausible. The scenes and settings are well described, especially the visit to York. I like the way the author has woven the few known facts into his story, even to the extent of linking these events to the change in Rembrandt's style in later life. The only negative point is the character of Amelia, who seems a bit odd. By the end of the book I had no clear idea of what made her tick.

The modern thriller part was very disappointing. The Texas chainsaw massacre goes to Hull. The characters are inplausible, especially Don, who seems to have carved up his mother's secretary for no reason we are ever given. Amy, the devil-may-care heroine, failed to win my sympathy in any sense. The only point of interest is the theory that Rembrandt's genetic material is so powerful that it is the source of Amy's artistic leanings, 300 years later. The backdrop of an unlikely building site manned by unlikely builders doesn't help.

If you're interested in Rembrandt it's still worth reading, but the modern stuff takes a bit of stomaching. If the author had just stuck with the history he wouldn't have had to contrive the finding of 3 hidden journals either.

Interesting but ultimately improbable
I guess I would have given this 3.5 stars if that were possible: it's better than a 3* but doesn't really make it to a 4*. This is a book of two halves which ultimately don't quite come together for me: the 'past' story is one of Rembrandt and his competition with Andrew Marvell over their seduction of the intriguingly written Amelia Dale in 1662. Poet and painter compete to see which can capture her best, in words or paint, with the woman herself as the ultimate prize. Rembrandt works admirably (though possibly because I know nothing about him?) but Marvell as depicted here seems out of kilter with the poem he writes (To his coy mistress). Also the poem itself doesn't quite seem to fit with the situation and the fact that Amelia hints they are already lovers, but I suppose it is Marvell's most famous poem.

The 'present' story I found far less convincing, even though the premise itself was an interesting one: Amy Dale, a descendant of Amelia, comes to the house where the past story was set and which is now being renovated. She traces the story of the competition through Amelia's diary and is herself involved in a fatal triangle between two men.

The problem is that I don't think Davenport's portrait of Amy or her relationship with Don is in the slightest bit realistic, and the plot device of two (or three?) journals is both clunky and unnecessary. I quite like the fact that Amy is both painter like Rembrandt and yet also object of rivalry like Amelia, but wasn't quite sure if that was what the author intended. There are far too many incidents with chainsaws in this story; and the idea of Don being able to simply recite the whole of Marvell's poem (all 46 lines of it!) off pat was too much. The end of the modern episode was also very rushed and anticlimatic - far too many loose ends left dangling. Which was a shame as the figure of Don is an intriguing one that unfortunately this book doesn't explore enough to do him justice.

So overall a book with more promise than it fulfills, but still an interesting page-turning read.