Lesley McDowell uses three timelines to tell Claire Clairmont’s story but it’s the first that informs them all. In a cottage on the shores of Lake Geneva, eighteen-year-old Claire is staying with her slightly older stepsister Mary and her lover Percy; you’ll know them better as the Shelleys. They’re there because Lord Byron, whom they call Albe, is staying up the hill at Villa Diodati. We’re thrown straight into the chaos of the Shelley household and Byron’s stranglehold on it. He calls the shots and makes what rules there are.
We’re treated to a fly-on-the-wall view of the tangle of relationships. Also staying at the villa is doctor-poet John Polidori. He adores Mary but she’s devoted to Percy (Shelley). He is turn is in cahoots with Claire to attract Albe’s interest. McDowell paints even this younger version of Claire as complex and conflicted. She may be beguiled by Byron but she’s somewhat clear-headed too. But even with her self-awareness, Claire finds herself in thrall to this cruel man. This isn’t casual, thoughtless cruelty, though: Byron is manipulative and vindictive. Mad, bad and dangerous to know indeed. Both he and Shelley are expert gaslighters; Mary has her moments too.
The other parts of the book are equally interesting. A twentysomething Claire is a governess in Russia, her dreams haunted by her earlier loss. Twenty years later, she is living in Paris and still making decisions she’ll come to regret. Claire feels forever in the shadow of Mary’s light; people want to know her because she has known these geniuses rather than for herself. But she’s more than interesting enough to hold the centre of this gripping novel.

Clairmont tells the story of Claire Clairmont, the muse to both Lord Byron & Shelley.

Following Mary Shelley, her poet husband and Byron, we get a glimpse into 19th century radicals and thier strange and intriguing friendship.

Claire tells her story in 3 parts, the weeks in Geneva when the friends were together, when she is a governess in Russia and later in Paris when she is in her 40s. These chapters intermingle throughout the book but after the first 3 chapters, you quickly get into the rhythm and flow of the story.

I found it fascinating and read what is a substantial read, very quickly. I wouldn't say I liked the protagonist nor the other lead characters. They all had traits which were either shocking or plain awful. However, you do still find yourself rooting for Claire in a society that is dominated by men.

Overall, a great read that throws you into this strange, bohemian society.

The life of Claire Clairmont, the stepsister of Mary Shelley, has always been shrouded in some mystery—the name of her father, the number of her children, the relationship she had with Percy Bysshe Shelley—so it is no surprise that it attracts rewritings and rereadings. McDowell has an intimate knowledge of the primary sources surrounding the Shelleys and their families and circle, seen too in her previous novel about Mary's childhood friend, Isabella Baxter Booth. This latest novel carefully tracks Clairmont's entanglements with these famous literary figures while retaining a strong focus on her own inner life. As such, we are treated to a cross-section of Claire's stories, spanning several decades, that illustrate that even at the scale of a single individual, history doesn't quite repeat but often rhymes.

I found the first half of this novel quite slow, knowing (as I suspect many do) the historical facts of the relationship between Claire and Byron (called Albe almost exclusively here). Claire is at her least likeable in these earliest moments; her self-importance is almost obnoxious, so certain is she of how her place will be made in the world, and it bears real tragedy. I'd be willing to argue that the feeling of slowness, of dwelling unnecessarily on some of the earliest moments, is a reflection of the teenage Claire's own emotional state, ponderous and self-regarding, although this line of reasoning didn't make things go much faster on first reading!

Where Clairmont excels is in the acute descriptions and illustrations of the interpersonal politics at work in the world in which Claire and Mary moved. From a freethinking, blended family, the two middle-class women pose a challenge to Georgian and then Victorian society's expectations of women. Mary, ultimately, conforms; she marries and plays the literary widow. Claire never does. Defiant and resilient, but no heroine, she moves through society—in England, in France, in Russia—with an incisive understanding of how people relate to and interact with one another.

McDowell captures well the grief caused by the nineteenth century's high levels of infant mortality, as well as the indignities and abuses of its patriarchal attitudes and norms. There is an acute painfulness to some of the cruelty of Albe, especially in our current post-#MeToo moment, such as the performance of Christabel, during which Albe assaults Claire, but also his drugging of her (and perhaps Mary too) with pennyroyal, an abortifacient. “Lying, meanness, cruelty and treachery,” as Claire herself says of his treatment, and these come to characterise too Shelley, whose friendship with Byron takes precedence over his sense of responsibility to and for Claire and Mary and also, we see, his maid.

This novel excels in its characterisations and presentation of a story at once notorious and obscure. A great addition to the neo-Victorian canon.

A slow if not intriguing read of the romantic era from the view of a woman often overlooked. Clairmont is from the pov of Claire Clairmont,
- writer and younger sister of Mary Shelley. From her view, the romantic poets such as Byron and Shelley are not enigmatic geniuses but men of their time who can be cruel, disloyal, insulting. Her complex relationship with Mary over the years in wonderful to read for they are both given the complexity that is often missing when they are discussed in the context of the men they loved.

Overall, a beautiful book - structurally, I wasn't a fan of the constant back and forth but that's just me!

This is quite a difficult book to review for me - in retrospect I think I enjoyed it more than I did during the actual reading. I found it very slow to get started and I had to really persevere to get to the end but I'm glad I did.

The story revolves around Claire Clairmont, stepsister of Mary Shelley, and concentrates on three intervals of her life - 1816, where she visits Lord Byron at Lake Geneva with Percy and Mary Shelley during the stormy summer that followed a volcanic eruption, a later period working as a governess in Russia in 1825 and later again in Paris in 1843 where she has settled. The impact of her affair with Byron in 1816, the child that followed, her complicated relationship with her sister and Percy Shelley are the heart of the story.

So far, so good, this is an interesting story and the author has researched it well. However, I had real problems with some of it. The story jumps around a lot between the time frames and this takes a while to get used to - as the book goes on it became less of an issue but I found it made the start quite hard to follow and it made it difficult to get fully invested in the story.

The bigger problem though was how unlikeable all the characters are. Each of them seems entirely self absorbed, quite sure of how special they are and showing little or no empathy to each other. The character of Claire seems highly unusual for the time and this does seem to have some historical accuracy but I never had any idea of why she was like that and what made her tick. A little further reading into the background of her and Mary Shelley makes more sense of it but it was never clear in the novel. Nobody in the novel comes out well and it's hard to care about people you just don't like.

Sticking with it did pay off, though, and once I got into the style of writing of the author, it became much easier to follow and I was interested enough to want to know what happened. It's not an easy read but it's an interesting subject and unusual, and ultimately worth the effort.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy in return for an honest review.

#Clairmont #NetGalley

There be none of Beauty’s daughters with a magic like thee...

So begins one of Byron's lesser known works, and the one that McDowell here gifts to Claire. This become something of a motif throughout the first few chapters before more or less being forgotten for the rest of the novel.
I want to preface this by saying that I was always going to enjoy Clairmont. Frankenstein is one of my favourite books, and I have always found the strange quintet that came together in Geneva and produced two of the most recognisable monsters of the modern age to be fascinating no matter what. And I did enjoy it. Although I found the start to be quite weak, and it did a poor job of setting Claire up - she comes across as both shallow and painfully stupid, which was probably supposed to read as youthful naivity - once it settles into itself, it's eminently readable. I disagreed with a lot of the characterisations, and especially the way that Mary Shelley is presented, but I also understood that as a novel from the perspective of her younger stepsister, Clairmont was not necessarily going to be sympathetic towards Mary. But, to be honest, Mary is why we're reading. If it weren't for the fame of her stepsister, Claire would be at best a footnote in biographies of Lord Byron.

If you are a fan of Mary Shelley, and how "Frankenstein" came into being then I'd urge you to read "Clairmont" by Lesley McDowell. This fictionalised life history of Claire Clairmont gives you an extra insight into those days when a carefree trio of Mary, Shelley and Claire travel Europe. It covers three periods of her life and I was grateful that it did flit between each of these periods as you begin to realise how awful some of these people were. Byron is depicted quite vile, and I'm appalled at how he took Allegra away from Claire. In fact, none of the characters really come across as overly pleasant. However, I did think it was a nice way to increase my knowledge of Mary Shelley's family.

This feels frenetic, chaotic and dramatic. Claire is written as a very jumpy character, who seems slightly unhinged and hysterical. None of the characters are particularly likeable people, but I think this somewhat reflects their true life counterparts, who if you know anything about them, seemed to be largely unlikeable themselves. McDowell has captured this well. A small amount of knowledge of the Byron, Shelley and Clairmont history would be useful for most readers, I had to refresh my own memory on some of the information, particularly in the first few chapters.

I read an eARC of this so thank you to Net Galley, the author and the publisher.

If you’re a big fan of Lord Byron then be aware he’s quite monstrous in this. His behaviour towards Claire is sickening. Rude, abusive, he is deeply unpleasant. In fact, I’m struggling to think of any of the adult characters who aren’t unpleasant in this. Claire is better than most but still can be manipulative.

I have quite mixed feelings on this book. I found it really well-written, evocative, compelling. The novel jumps between three separate times in Claire’s life, each one defined by a love affair with an unsuitable man. I found the time jumps confusing for the first three chapters but after that I had the shape of the narrative and it was fine.

Throughout the novel we are uncovering the story of what happened to Claire’s child. This defines her entire life. It is also deeply unfair. The behaviour of men towards women in this is horrifying. Women and their children seen as the property of men and the extreme cruelty shown. This is a historical novel so it’s reflective of the time period, but it’s still deeply uncomfortable to read.

I had some prior knowledge of Byron and Mary Shelley but I knew very little of Claire Clairmont so much of what happened was a surprise to me. No-one comes off well in this book. Mary Shelley who I’d always thought of a positive figure is frequently portrayed as selfish and manipulative.

I did think this was very well written and I was fully engaged with this story. My mixed feelings come from how bleak it felt. I struggled to find any points of hope or brightness. It was tragedy after tragedy, littered with cruelty and injustice. While most likely very accurate it did make it a hard read emotionally.

I would recommend this for being a well-crafted, interesting and engaging story. It’s not for when you want a light hearted read, but if you’re in the mood for something darker, emotionally challenging and unnerving then this is worth a read.

As brooding and atmospheric as the writing of those at the centre of events, this is the intriguing story of Claire Clairmont, stepsister of Mary Shelley, and how the actions of Byron and Shelley and their entourage one stormy summer in the Alps reverberated throughout the lives of all involved. Told from Claire's point of view, the novel deftly paints a picture of the social constraints of the nineteenth century, whether in Britain or on the continent, and the difficulties faced by those who tried to challenge them: women in particular. Full of passion, cruelty, jealousy and complex family relationships, this is above all a story of maternal love, the pain of loss and the spirit of a woman who refused to be defeated.

The unphilosophizer ★★☆☆☆

Told in three timelines, the story of Mary Shelley’s stepsister Jane “Claire” Clairmont is a complex tale of love, despair, and jealousy.

Centring on Claire’s affair with Lord Byron, we are thrown into the strange world of the Shelleys’ radical circle.

Byron is erratic and cruel, Percy is the renegade lover who adores Mary yet has an unnatural closeness to Claire, and Mary is surprisingly proud and straight laced given her views and her teenage elopement with still-married Shelley.

The two sisters are bitter rivals all their lives yet share the same keen losses and keep being pulled back together.

Between the multiple timelines and points of view, Claire’s bitter secrets, the odd and often drugged nature of the characters, which is felt in the dialogue, and the sister’s push and pull relationship, the narrative is both slow and difficult to follow.

A complex dreamy narrative which exposes the darker sides of Byron and the Shelleys.

Clairmont by Lesley McDowell - 3/5 ⭐

Unfortunately, I had to DNF Clairmont. Although the writing style was amazing and McDowell done a great job in her descriptive writing I just couldn't get into the story. I made it 28% before calling it a day. I was confused by the layout of the story and the peoples POVs.

Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for allowing me to read this ARC - this is an HONEST review from my own personal opinion.

Lesley McDowell's writing style is absolutely magical; it captures the lyricality of Byron's works, just like the little Byron-Shelley group this story revolves around. The author evolves each character beautifully and there's this magnetism created about them that so easily draws readers in, at least for me.

The fluctuating relationship between Mary and Claire is so, so complex and twisty but so incredibly real at the same time. There's this whole trove of resentment lying between them, and I think the author does a great job of exploring why, how, and why it can never really be resolved.

Claire, by herself, is a fascinating mix of seductress and dreamer which makes for an extremely intriguing story as she navigates life before and after Byron. I adored the recollections, and how deftly the writer crafts the ghosts of her past. It was definitely an adventure, with all the new people met; all the risks and dangers and of course, Miss Trewin of Galitzin dishonour. That chapter with her appearance was quite revitalising, in that it provided a clear, lighter difference to the sombre, emotionally-charged events.

Along her journey, there were snippets of what life is like within each society she progresses into; the typical English society of that time; the Russian nursery, Russian home, for instance. I think that McDowell has managed to flesh out each of these places, plus make each introduced character so much more than simply plot devices to facilitate Claire's development.

It was a lovely read, and highly recommended for fans of mystique-charged eighteenth century England!

It is difficult to enjoy a book where every character is depicted as being thoroughly unpleasant, and so I cannot say I enjoyed Clairmont. I did , however, find I wanted to continue reading it as it shed, for me, a new light on Shelley, the poet and his wife Mary and their coterie of friends, in particular Mad, Bad, Baron.
The main character, however is Claire, Mary's step sister and mother of Byron's illegitimate daughter. I had no idea of the tragic story surrounding this little girl and it would seem no one comes out of it blameless.
I learned much as I read on, but the storytelling seemed quite disjointed and this, together with the lack of sympathy for any of the protagonists, made for a hard read.
If you love Shelley's poetry, or admire Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, keep your illusions intact and don't read this novel, but, if you want to cement your view of the vain and arrogant Lord Byron, then this one is definitely for you!

Clairmont has an incredibly interesting premise with intriguing characters but sadly this was not for me. I couldn't gel with the writing style and felt confused in a lot of places. However I do think a lot of people will love this unique historical fiction.

I’m afraid I had to give up on this, I wanted to love it as I was really intrigued by the real life characters but the jumping around in time with no explanation of who people were or their relationships was just too confusing. If I’d been gripped I might have persevered but I really couldn’t follow it. This is not necessarily a criticism of the writing, it just obviously wasn’t for me.

This was an interesting read, in that it told the story of an unknown character who was intimately entwined in the lives of three of 19th century Britain's most famous literary stars. This book prompted me to read a bit more about these four people and their rather sordid histories and that was fascinating. Despite the heartbreak inherent in a story of this kind, the narrative did feel lacking somewhat in depth. I have not read Booth, but I don't understand the comparison to Wolf Hall and Hamnet. Overall, the premise is a good one, but the execution could be better.

It's interesting to read this novel in conjunction with Emma Donoghue's forthcoming novel about an even lesser-known historical character, Eliza Raine.

I liked Clairmont. But I liked it because (and this no doubt dates me) I am fascinated by the whole Shelley-Byron circle; and I completely agree that Clair Clairmont deserved attention of her own. You do need to know about them all - this novel relentlessly assumes, I think, that the reader will be familiar with the historical 'reality; I'm not sure it would work without that. Which means, in slightly Philistine fashion, I'd have appreciated a bit of a biographical note at the end even as someone who knows about them all.

I enjoyed reading it, though.

I was excited to read this book, being a fan of the old poets, but I found the writing very clumsy. It was almost like reading something a teenager would have written for a school project. Sadly I had to DNF it as I just don't have the time to read books that don't grip me. Its such a shame, as the cover really drew me in - but you know what they say about books and covers! Maybe I'll try it again at some point, but for now, it's not a book I can continue with. Giving two stars because the cover is beautiful, but the content is not.

Loved this. It was easy to read and I didn't want to stop. I didn't know much about the original story but this has made me want to read more.