Havisham

August 5, 2013
This stylish but dour “prelude” to Charles Dickens’s classic Great Expectations comes from Glaswegian dramatist and author Frame (The Lantern Bearers). Catherine Havisham grows up in privilege and leisure at the imposing Satis House, courtesy of her affluent father, Joseph, who runs the most prosperous brewery in North Kent and ships her off to the aristocratic Chadwyck family to polish her social graces. Joseph, a widower, sparks his teenage daughter’s resentment by disclosing he has remarried, though his second wife has since died, and Catherine also comes to loathe her ne’er-do-well half-brother, Arthur, after he begins living with them. She falls in love with the dashing racetrack gambler Charles Compeyson, and Joseph dies, leaving her the brewery. She becomes engaged to Charles, who wants to manage the Havisham brewery. However, Charles jilts his would-be bride, and Catherine’s life descends into seclusion and a slow madness; she wears only her wedding dress while living in the decaying mansion. After adopting a young girl, Estella, Catherine ages into the cynical spinster depicted in Great Expectations. Frame offers a convincing recreation of the iconic Dickens character, but his tale suffers from centering on such an unappealing protagonist. Agent: Adrian Searle, Freight Books.

If ever a literary character's backstory needed to be told, it would be Miss Havisham's, and no one tells that story better than Sophie Ward in this eminently listenable audio. Consider the calculating string-puller in Dickens's GREAT EXPECTATIONS and imagine her as a wide-eyed girl: This makes for fascinating listening, and Ward's sweet yet complex performance of Catherine Havisham's perspective suits the development of the character without fail. Ward's proper British accent is appropriate but not overwhelming, and its nuances change subtly as Catherine becomes more aware of high society's ways, to say nothing of its cruelties. Thanks to Frame's imagination and Ward's narrative skill, one might come away with a better understanding of that woman left scarred by being left at the altar. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine