FictionTo achieve literary fame through the phenomenal success of one book can be both a blessing and a curse. Tracy Chevalier's 1999 work Girl with a Pearl Earring made her a household name, but also set an exacting standard against which all subsequent novels would be judged. After the quieter successes of Falling Angels and The Lady and the Unicorn, Chevalier returns to form with this historical novel set in London in 1792-1793.
Twelve-year-old Jem Kellaway and his family travel to the capital to forge a new life after the death of his brother Tommy. Flamboyant circus impresario Philip Astley finds them work and lodgings in Lambeth, but the city fails to live up to their expectations: "The filth, the crowds, the noise, the indifferent, casual, neglected buildings - none of it matched the pictures they'd conjured of London back in Dorsetshire." Streetwise Maggie helps Jem explore the city's labyrinthine lanes and alleyways, revealing a darkly decadent world in which pox-ridden prostitutes are available on almost every corner.
Yet for all their fear of the big city, parts of London life are "burning bright" for the Kellaways. The nearby circus provides their mother, Anne, with a colourful escape from everyday life, and the children's horizons broaden unexpectedly when they encounter their neighbour, the "engraver" William Blake. From the novel's title to its final pages, Blake's exploration of innocence and experience - and the gulf between - permeates a narrative that emphasises the need for Blakesian compassion. Other characters insist that he must choose between monarchy and revolution, between good and bad, yet Blake believes in no such certainties: "If I'm on this side o' the fence, and you're on t'other, what's in the middle? We are."
But Blake is out of step with his time. With Louis XVI executed in France, the Astley circus packs up and leaves London, taking with it the bawdy, joyous behaviour of the first part of the novel. Humorous songs are replaced with patriotic ones as the sinister "Association" - responsible for an anti-Jacobin terror in Britain - attempts to force Blake to denounce his own beliefs and support the king.
Chevalier's characteristic love of detail - from the smells of the cattle market to a grotesque description of a man eating a pie - brings Georgian London vividly to life, while meticulous research allows her to weave fact and fiction into a convincing and persuasive narrative. Indeed, her vivid portrayal of the socio-political realities of the day - from the power of the mob to the hard lot afforded most 18th-century women - serves ultimately to vindicate Blake's warning that "fear of originality will stifle those who speak with different voices". In Burning Bright, Chevalier gives these people their voice.
Freya McClements is a writer and journalist
Burning Bright By Tracy Chevalier HarperCollins, 390pp. £15.99
