For himself, Lavoie was attempting not to show how the wealth of the room discomforted him. It always happened like that at the beginning of a new sitting–he’d spend an hour worrying over whether his subjects would notice the worn collar on his silk coat, before his work had the opportunity to speak for itself. It was difficult to feel self-assured in a room with so much gilding on the furniture, even though Lavoie had painted the baron himself six months ago.

I finished this one on audio yesterday and it’s a great slice of queer, feminist historical fiction! This is a harrowing historical novel set in seventeenth-century France during the Affair of the Poisons, where everyone is suspect and keeping secrets. It opens with a painter painting a noble family (Baroness Marie Catherine and her two children), while Marie Catherine, a talented story teller known for her impromptu fairy tales, begins a story to help the children hold still. While painting and story telling seem like relatively innocent arts, this is a time period when crafting illusion is both valued and suspected, with suspected sorcerers and witches being tortured in the king's witchfinders. There's a romance at the center of it--between Marie Catherine, a noblewoman and mother trapped in a miserable marriage, and the gender-fluid young relative of the king, Victoire, Mademoiselle de Conti--but this is not a romance, and no one is assured of a happy ending. (In fact, I had to skip ahead to the ending to make sure certain characters even survived.) There are traps, stories, and disguises everywhere. I was particularly taken with Jeanne, Marie Catherine's maid, but all the characters are engaging (which makes the threats feel even more real). I really wanted to love this book - the historical setting held much promise - but, unfortunately I really didn’t like it all. Bell’s stunning debut explores the meaning of love and the risks people will take to keep hold of it. . . . [her] writing displays a mastery of language and artistry parallel to a seasoned professional of the craft, setting the reader loose in the wild, untamed chaos of France in the 1600s.” The Disenchantment] explores the court of Louis XIV in 17th century France, where two noblewomen fall in love amongst dark magic and intrigue. From the most elite salons to the grittiest quartiers, Bell weaves a tale that is complex and compelling.”

Starting the book was like joining a story half way through - I felt no connection to the characters who felt bland and one dimensional, the plot was weak and the the writing was fussy and irritating. Serpent’s Tail has scooped a historical fiction debut and three works of translated fiction amid a raft of acquisitions for its main and classics lists, publishing in 2023 and 2024. Did you encounter anything unexpected or surprising while working on this book, whether in your research or in your writing of the story? I loved this novel. It’s difficult to talk about this book without giving too much away, but the twists and turns of this plot are completely gripping. Bell’s writing is immersive, and captures the atmosphere and drama of this plot so thoroughly that I was hardly able to put it down. Lesbian historical fiction is undeniably my favourite literary genre and this book did not disappoint. The Disenchantmentis well-researched, comprehensive, and draws on little-known moments of French history, expertly weaving fiction and fact together to create a wholly original novel. This book is perfect for fans of Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait(2022) or Emma Donoghue’s The Sealed Letter(2008).

I also find it disenchanting that the end of the story is a loose end. This must be because the author is going to write a sequel to the story-- otherwise, it's a very poor attempt at tying loose ends. What of Victoire after her talk with King's favored Mistress? What about Lavoie and Reynie after the chase? And Marie Catherine and her children? How did that play out on the night of her departure? And of course you cannot forget Jeanne and Henri. Was Henri ever punished? Did Jeanne make it to a better place with her treasure? I'm hoping the ending is not just a sloppy tie together. Of course there are.’ Madame de Cardonnoy raised her eyes to Lavoie and gave him another of those secret smiles. ‘That is, if you don’t mind listening to a children’s story, Monsieur Lavoie.’ The light in the room now was dim and golden, and the smell of the paints seemed to have intensified. Sharp, like freshly mown hay, and even, Madame de Cardonnoy thought for a moment, the rank smell of the sizing in the canvas. Jeanne herded the children away. Of course, darling.’ Madame de Cardonnoy turned to her lady’s maid. ‘Will you take them up to the nursery, Jeanne?’ The publication marks the first English translation publication of the Turkish work of autofiction, an account of one liberal woman writer’s fight to survive depression and carve out her own path in Istanbul in the 1950s and 60s. Özlü herself was born in 1943 in Turkey and lived in Paris, Ankara, Istanbul, Berlin and Zurich, where she died in 1986.

The Disenchantment

They’re just children’s stories,’ Madame de Cardonnoy said. ‘Mother Goose tales. There’s nothing to take credit for.’ The villagers were afraid,’ she said, ‘for none of them had ever seen such magic, but for the first time they felt some hope in the face of their fate, and so they dressed the stone woman in a gown of red silk – the best that any of them had, the best their daughters had left behind – and they combed and plaited her white stone hair, and put slippers on her feet, and then the oldest of the men took her by the hand and led her to the forest’s edge, where he thanked her and left her in the shadow of the trees.’ A shimmering, sexy, thrilling tale of intrigue and desire, and the dark paths we walk to keep our secrets safe. Bell has written a shining debut' Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Dance Tree If you like,’ she said, ‘I’ll tell you a story to make the time pass faster. But you must stand perfectly still.’ Don’t forget to look at Monsieur Lavoie, Sophie,’ the baronne said. ‘The story I’m going to tell you is one that you haven’t heard before, but my mother told it to me.’

Everyone connected to the court of Louis XIV has something to hide. For the Baroness Marie Catherine, it is the pleasures she seeks outside of her unhappy marriage, indulging in a more liberated existence of decadent salons and discussions with writers and scholars. At the centre of her illicit freedom is her lover Victoire Rose de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Conti, the androgynous, self-assured countess. Mary Catherine was a beautifully written character with a fierce love and determination. And this was a debut!!!! It is known (probably from my review of The Empty Room) that I'm not the biggest fan of omniscient POV in novels. This was no different, though obviously, I liked this novel a lot more. Marie Catherine is an interesting character, but I feel that the omniscient perspective made it difficult for the reader to know her on a deeper level. Though, perhaps using the omniscient POV is actually quite clever, as it seems that Marie Catherine does not give her full self to anyone. Another character I really liked and sympathized with was Jeanne. If the POV just flipped between the two of them, it would have been a lot more focused, though I understand that other characters' POVs (I will not name names in case of spoilers) are important and even necessary to the story.Propel[s] us into the epicentre of a 17th century Paris where breaking out of the prison of arranged marriage is only one of the many challenges confronting women.” —Lisa Appignanesi, author of Everyday Madness He would soften the light around her face and draw it through the expertly arranged fawn-coloured curls on her head, returning to her some of the glow that she would have had as a young girl. Now, in her early thirties, she was still lovely, in a slightly creased, pensive way that Lavoie would have liked to paint. But the baron would be happier if Lavoie made her look like a teenaged shepherdess. She might even appreciate that too, if she was sensible to flattery. Publishing as a lead debut in February 2023, the novel is a "gorgeous" historical novel that follows two women in 17th-century Paris who are drawn into a sinister situation following a bid to keep their love affair a secret.

Marie Catherine and Victoire were characters I loved and believed in, and Bell captures their unique and sometimes warring motivations. However, Bell doesn’t only pay attention to upper-class perspectives in this novel, and the text is a much wider examination of Parisian society in this period. This novel felt like a mix of genres in the best way—part literary fiction, historical fiction, crime fiction, mystery, and Gothic. It kept me guessing until the very end and felt like a thoroughly original, gorgeous historical portrait. I highly recommend The Disenchantment for fans of queer historical fiction and/or literary fiction. This is undeniably one of my top queer reads of the year. Look,” said the sculptor to the villagers. “I have made you a woman to give to the ogre. Send her to him and he will be satisfied, for she is made of cold stone and cannot be harmed by his appetites.”’ Celia Bell’s debut novel, The Disenchantment(Pantheon 2023), is a stunning example of queer historical fiction at its finest.

Bell’s inventive debut. . . . excels at creating a hothouse atmosphere in which depravity, sensuality, and duplicity reside side by side . . . a rousing feminist fable. It’s a bold and inspired mix ofLes Liaisons DangereusesandThe Crucible.” Is that a secret, Madame? You gave your mother the credit when you began.’ The painter had stored his paints away neatly in his box. The easel he moved near to the wall, where it would stand, to avoid smudging the paint as it dried. The canvas showed a series of blurry forms coming into being – the green shadows of Madame de Cardonnoy’s dress, ribbons and lace just a vague suggestion of shadow. Her face he had worked more completely, and she saw herself younger, pink and pale, as if she was looking into a smudged mirror. He’d painted her with her lips a little parted, as if in the moment before she was about to speak. A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.