Readable historical novels on literary themes are scarce, so I hope it's

not out of line to recommend a new one, though it is mainly set a few years

before Mark Twain's era.   Although May 1 is the official publication
 date,
Mr.  Emerson's Wife is already on the shelves, at least in the
Northeast.  And of course available through Amazon.

I should say up front that this is not a regular Mark Twain Forum review,
but an enthusiastic plug by a friend.  I got to know Amy Belding Brown as a

voice of cool, good sense and endless information in the online Thoreau
discussion group. She knows the New England of Emerson and Hawthorne's
 day,
and knows the past from which that world arose.  As frosting on the cake,
she works at Orchard House, a home of the Alcott clan.  Amy Belding Brown
has published two other novels and a variety of stories and poems.

So it was hardly a surprise to find that Mr. Emerson's Wife was
scrupulously researched; but I was delighted by how elegantly the author
brought that homework to life.  I was struck repeatedly by her feeling for
time and place.  For example, I had tended to view the Concord of Emerson's
day as a sophisticated little place–our own mini-Athens.  But here we meet
the village through Lidian Jackson Emerson's eyes as the new bride settles
into her home, some years before Emerson's group coalesces.  To Lidian,
Concord is painfully provincial–an inland, almost hick town, far less
polished than her own precious coastal Plymouth, with its bustling ocean
commerce.

I found the portrait of Lidian as woman, wife and under-appreciated thinker
deeply moving and persuasive.  Because the second Mrs.  Emerson tells her
own story, I was impressed with the author's skill in providing suggestive
glimpses and hints of how Lidian's often bristly personality might have
struck the people around her.

The characters are a good balance of the expected and the surprising.  An
Emerson who finds it easier to lecture on friendship or love than to
express intimate feelings is no shock.  Nor, all in all, does the fine
portrait of Margaret Fuller differ much from typical views of that
over-wrought soul.  But the young Thoreau of Mr Emerson's Wife is another
matter.  Alas,  I can't be more specific without spoiling a good story.  I
will say that the unexpected adds greatly to the pleasure of the book. I
found myself easily suspending disbelief and accepting things I would not
normally have swallowed.

Perhaps mercifully, Lidian glides over the time of her husband's mental
decline.  So if you want the Emerson who could no longer recall Thoreau's
name, or who had no clue of what was going on when Twain spoke at the
Whittier Dinner, you must look elsewhere.

The story's closest links to Twain's era come in a fine, all too brief
sketch of Louisa Alcott and in other glimpses of young folk who would
mature after the Civil War.

Mr. Emerson's Wife offers a convincing portrait of its time and
place.  It'ss provocative, and a good read.

Mark Coburn