海角大神

How did Miss Havisham end up in that wedding dress?

Charles Dickens never offered a backstory for his iconic character, the jilted bride who shut herself off from the world. We never even learn her first name in 鈥淕reat Expectations.鈥�

In his new novel, Havisham, Scottish author Ronald Frame examines how a brewer鈥檚 daughter might have come to don that tattered veil, with the remains of her wedding feast moldering perpetually on the dining table 鈥� her only aim in life to unleash her beautiful, cold-hearted ward, Estella, on men in revenge for the lover who jilted her.

From Tom Stoppard鈥檚 鈥淩osencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead鈥� to Jean Rhys鈥檚 鈥淲ide Sargasso Sea,鈥� literature offers a number of examples of authors who have taken minor characters from great works of literature and given them their own lasting settings. In fact, Frame isn鈥檛 even the first author to pluck a character from 鈥淕reat Expectations鈥�: Booker Prize winner Peter Carey鈥檚 鈥淛ack Maggs鈥� brought the convict who secretly adopted Pip roaring to life in 1998.

鈥淗avisham鈥� is an intelligently written prequel, and, for the first two thirds of the novel, Frame succeeds admirably. Catherine Havisham is a bright, spoiled, lonely little girl 鈥� alternately indulged and ignored by her father. Her mother died giving birth and Catherine鈥檚 father is determined that his daughter will climb as high as his money can fling her, buying her jewelry and an upper-class education. 鈥淢y father took advice where he could, but it wasn鈥檛 as straightforward as he might have envisaged, educating a daughter above her station,鈥� Catherine says wryly.

Her only friend is Sally, the daughter of a worker who was injured in an accident in the brewery, and the inequality of the two girls鈥� positions makes real friendship an impossibility. Meanwhile, the cook is remarkably unservant-like in her behavior and the cook鈥檚 son seems to have developed an intense antipathy to Catherine. (Frame alerts readers to what is going on long before the little girl, who frequently finds herself the subject of plots 鈥� some kindly intended, some not 鈥� but all of them manipulative.)

As a teenager, Catherine, who is possessed of a highly attractive dowry, is sent off to be 鈥渇inished鈥� at the house of an aristocratic family, the Chadwycks. There, she studies Dido and Aeneas, though at first she is put off by the Carthaginian queen. A young clergyman, however, explains his fascination with Aeneas鈥檚 doomed lover, saying that he has a fondness 鈥渇or tragic heroines.鈥�

鈥淲hy them?鈥� Catherine asks.

鈥淪uffering and courageous women who deserve their own immortality,鈥� he says.

Dido isn鈥檛 the only doomed heroine for whom Catherine develops an affinity. The Chadwycks love to put on tableaux vivants, and Catherine becomes famous for her portrayal of Mary, Queen of Scots 鈥� right before the ax descends.

But her father鈥檚 planning is for naught. Instead of attracting an impecunious baronet鈥檚 son, Catherine falls in with Charles Compeyson, a charismatic adventurer against whom the Chadwycks warn her. At this point, Dickens鈥檚 plot starts to overlap with Frame鈥檚 and soon, Catherine finds herself stepping into the white gown.

Compeyson is no Aeneas, which becomes problematic, since it鈥檚 hard to imagine his loss unhinging anyone for longer than it would take to shrug and maybe eat a couple of chocolates. But in compensation, Frame prepares several betrayals that cut through layers of Catherine鈥檚 psyche.

Frame includes Miss Havisham鈥檚 adoption of Estella and her plan to unleash her on all men 鈥� "all of the genus who conceitedly, smugly supposed that they were indispensable to a woman鈥檚 personal completeness, her felicity."

Miss Havisham realizes too late the cost that exacting revenge on an entire gender will have on both the little girl and herself. While Estella never quite gets her own personality, Pip is a welcome and full-bodied presence.

Frame also tweaks Dickens鈥� plot near the end, with his heroine 鈥渄isproving expectations.鈥�

鈥淚 sometimes thought that I disappointed him. He would have liked me to be more of a 鈥楳iss Havisham鈥� than I was. Had he been directing me in a play, he would have heightened the effects. I should have laid the whole house waste, and not just the dining room,鈥� Miss Havisham says of Pip, in a sly nod to the differences between Frame鈥檚 Satis House and Dickens鈥檚. 鈥淭here wouldn鈥檛 have been any retainers coming and going. He would have had chains on the front doors. Every room in the building would have been shuttered. I would have treated Estella as my prisoner and had her permanently under lock and key.鈥�

As Pip thinks later on, there are different versions of the story.

Yvonne Zipp is the Monitor fiction critic.