Where in All the World
Harriet (Hattie) Watson is living on a farm in New Zealand in 1895 when she first meets two English gentlemen, Curtis De Courcy and John Holt, both of whom have been involved in discovery and development in Africa. But it is the more dashing adventurer Curtis who sweeps her off her feet while the quieter John remains a discreet observer. Against her family’s wishes, Hattie is determined to marry Curtis. Her father eventually relents, but only on the proviso that they wait until after he completes his next expedition to the Congo in search of a lost explorer.
While Curtis is away, Hattie travels to England, where she will shake off her colonial naivety and learn to negotiate her way in sophisticated society. Curtis returns triumphant, and they marry, but Hattie discovers, to her cost, that she may have chosen the wrong man in her “journey as an ingenue from the wilds of New Zealand, to the desperate, frightened, heartbroken wife [she] became in the brick-and-mortar wilds of the world’s greatest city.”
Inspired by the life of a real woman, this is a romance wrapped up in a broad tale of Victorian ambitions and of men driven by arrogance, greed and the need to control, counterbalanced with those who are more enlightened and see beyond the glitter of empire and into its dark heart. The historical background of the varied environmental and cultural settings in New Zealand, England and East Africa is excellent, and the narrative perfectly reflects the discourse and ethics of the age. The later chapters give added insight into the challenges women had to face when it came to asserting and defending their human rights against double standards in courts of law.
An exceptionally stylish novel that has been a sheer pleasure to read.
