“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers.” (Emily Dickinson)

/ madamebibilophile

This week as part of Kaggsy and Lizzy’s #ReadIndies event I’m looking at book published by Taproot Press, “an Edinburgh-based publisher committed to presenting challenging, contemporary voices from both Scotland and beyond.”

I was keen to read Hope Never Knew Horizon by Douglas Bruton (2024) as Susan’s review and Kaggsy’s review were both glowing. It sounded truly inventive and unlike anything else I could remember reading.

There are three strands to the story, united by the theme of hope. It opens in 1891 with the Wexford Whale, beached off the coast of Ireland, caught and ultimately sent to the Natural History Museum. One of the locals is sure there is money to be made, but his love interest is sceptical:

“And all Ned Wickham’s spittle-words slap against the walls of the Wexford Arms like the sea in a breached harbour, and they fall back on Ned Wickham and wash over him, and soon enough he slumps in his chair and falls into sleep. And if you lean into the sleeping drunk and listen sharp as pins, you can sometimes still hear the man talking, all his words sluiced and slopping”

The second strand follows Emily Dickinson in the 1850s, through the eyes of her housekeeper Margaret. She sees what no-one else seems to, that Emily is in love with her sister-in-law Susan:

“If I delayed in passing the letter on to Miss Emily it was only briefly and only so I might have something of that love to myself a while.”

The third strand is set in 1880s London, narrated by Ada Alice Pullen, model to famous artists of the day and stage actress under the name of Dorothy Dene. She is painted by Frederick Leighton for the most part, and enters into a Pygmalion-type relationship with him (there is an amusing scene where they are visited by George Bernard Shaw who apparently did base the famous play at least partly on their experience):

“How could I not love the man who made that possible, who took me to the highest point of the world and showed me what was to be conquered – now that I had conquered his heart?”

But it is George Frederic Watts who will capture her as Hope forever.

Bruton is so good at evoking the various voices in his tale. Cheeky, knowing Ada; reverential Margaret, and the various voices that make up the whale strand, which runs up to the twenty-first century, where the whale skeleton has been cleaned and repaired and reinstated at the Hintze Hall. Throughout the bones’ history, people have heard their “hopeful song”:

“Do not think for a moment that the bones in those boxes sat quiet and still […] and if you asked that museum assistant what that sound was he would shrug and say it was like the shushing of the sea, the same that you hear when holding a seashell to the ear, and it was the kick and kick of water and a moaning sound, like music that is wayward and wordless and wild.”

Historical fiction can be hard to pull off and in this short novella Bruton avoids info-dumping. The historical details emerge organically from the narratives, keeping the various stories’ momentum throughout. Similarly, his beautiful prose style never weighs the stories down. There is stunning imagery but it always serves the characters voices.

He also manages the issue of fictionalising real people and events adroitly, not only through an epilogue but also in Margaret’s acknowledgement of her narrative’s shortcomings:

“She din’t actually say that about her heart surely breaking but in what she did say was the sense of what I have written or the feeling anyway.”

“I have perhaps invented a life for her that is more to do with my hopes than hers.”

Which of course aren’t shortcomings at all. We all have faulty memories and we all interpret. Margaret’s story may be hers as much as Emily’s, and it is so moving in her love and hopes for her mistress.

The narratives are united by a theme of love as well as hope. Ada and Frederick’s relationship is filled with love even when not expressed; the whale strand ends on a very moving evocation of the love of teaching and learning. The various parts are finely balanced and I found Hope Never Knew Horizon immensely moving across all three timelines.

What Bruton shows is that hope is an enduring and fundamentally human experience. We live with uncertainty and while there is uncertainty there is hope. He demonstrates that hope can exist alongside the realities of the life that has to be lived. Hope Never Knew Horizon is a gentle, compassionate book to be treasured.

Hope the Whale

“Hope” is the thing with feathers by Emily Dickinson

Hope by George Frederic Watts

22 thoughts on ““‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers.” (Emily Dickinson)”

  2. I read this last month and absolutely loved it; I think you have captured its beauty and the evocative prose really well. This was my first Douglas Bruton, but I have since also read Blue Postcards and I’ve just finished With or Without Angels. I was worried that these would be disappointing as I had loved Hope so much. However, even my high expectations were met with these books too; they were similar in concept without being at all just variations on a theme. He has another one coming out very soon too – Woman in Blue!

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  5. The three strands sound so different from each other that it’s quite some achievement if he’s managed to pull them together into one coherent whole. Quite a mixed bag on the quotes too —some of the writing is a bit too “creative writing” for my taste but in other places it seems much plainer and therefore more appealing. Thanks for the introduction – I appear to be the only person who’s never heard of him!

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  10. I have been away for the past three weeks – seeing my daughter who now works and lives in Seville (that’s where the sun goes to spend the winter apparently!!!!). Just wanted to say thank you for this sunshiney review of my wee book, ‘Hope’. I am so thrilled that you liked it and that you took the time to review it on your blog. Thank you so much – I can’t tell you what it feels like to find people who like what I have written. x

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    • Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and leave a comment, that’s really kind of you.

      I hope you had a lovely time in Seville – some winter sun must be very welcome! I’m definitely enjoying the lighter days that are finally arriving with us.

      Hope is such a beautiful book, it was a pleasure to read and post about it here. Wishing you every success with Woman in Blue!

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  11. Pingback: Novella a Day in May 2025: No.3 | madame bibi lophile recommends

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