Anny in Love
As the grown, unmarried daughters of acclaimed novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, Anny and her sister, Minny, live a contented existence with their father, with Minny managing the household and Anny attending to her own budding career as a writer. Then, on Christmas Eve of 1863, 26-year-old Anny awakens in the family’s London home to devastating news: her beloved father has died suddenly during the night. With him gone and their mother hopelessly insane, Anny and Minny must forge new lives—and new loves—for themselves.
Known today primarily for her biographical studies and essays (and also as the step-aunt of Virginia Woolf), Anne Thackeray Ritchie was a popular novelist in her time, and it’s good to see her featured as a heroine in her own right. Anny in Love serves her well: the writing is excellent, as are the characterizations, although those looking for suspense and high drama won’t find it here.
Well researched and based on primary sources, Anny in Love is a feast for lovers of all things Victorian, with appearances by Lewis Carroll, Ellen Terry, Julia Margaret Cameron, and Alfred Tennyson, along with Minny’s future husband, Leslie Stephen. A look at Wright’s Amazon page shows that she is a versatile novelist, whose books feature diverse settings and time periods; I look forward to seeing where she next casts her net.
