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We meet Herculine on the road, with her mother. Herculine is five or six, she's not sure. It's very hot out, and they have been walking a long, long time. They come to a brook, and Herculine tries to help her mother drink. It is not a success. Her mother dies, blood pouring from her mouth. Her last words send Herculine to "the Stone". "The Stone" is a convent in the countryside of pre-Revolutionary France. Herculine lives there until she is in her late teens. She is a good student, and works hard at all the chores a scholarship student does to survive in a convent. She is perceived as different, not just by the nuns and the other students, but also by herself. With good reason, as we soon learn. There comes into the convent, and Herculine's life, a young woman named Peronette. Peronette is the niece of the Mother Superior, a woman whose position in the convent has been purchased for her. Peronette is a wild child, and the catalyst for all the changes in Herculine's life. Peronette instigates a prank which gets way out of control, fueled by the ambitions of Sister Claire, who covets the position and power of the Mother Superior. As a result of the prank and Sister Claire's machinations, Herculine is accused of being a witch. Amazingly enough, she is a witch. She is rescued from the convent by two ghosts (demons? witches?), Father Louis M____ and his lover, Madeleine de la Mettrie. They introduce her to Sebastiana, another witch. Herculine has been rescued, at least in part, because Father Louis and Madeleine need her powers in order for Madeleine to truly die. Herculine does finally accomplish this, and heads off to America. It takes over 600 pages to tell this story. One learns everyone's life story - Father Louis, Madeleine, Sebastiana, and at least one or two other secondary characters - in great detail. One also learns, in great detail, quite a bit about the history of witchcraft, the rivalries between various factions of the Craft, the state of France prior to the Revolution, life in Paris just prior to and during the Revolution, Herculine's "difference", Sebastiana's amours, and so forth. Mr. Reese has a healthy case of "Clancy syndrome": the compulsion to give the reader way more information about tangential aspects of the novel than the reader needs or wants. It's well written information, I'll give you that. Part of the jacket blurb on the back cover states that "Herculine will enter a fantastic, erotic world to discover her true nature - and her destiny - in this breathtaking, darkly sensual first novel." True. It's fantastic. It's erotic - in short, intense patches. It's breathtaking, especially if one has to read this in hardcover and hold it up for hours on end. It's darkly sensual - in patches. Mr. Reese has obviously done a lot of research, on wide variety of subjects. I did enjoy this novel, in patches. I will admit to skimming portions of it on a fairly regular basis, especially in the second half. I'll be donating this to my local library.
Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, March 2003
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