Sleep, Pale Sister

by Joanne Harris

Book Overview

Before the sweet delight of Chocolat, before the heady concoction that is Blackberry Wine, and before the tart pleasures of Five Quarters of the Orange, bestselling author Joanne Harris wrote Sleep, Pale Sister -- a gothic tourde-force that recalls the powerfully dark sensibility of her novel Holy Fools.

Originally published in 1994 -- and never before available in the United States -- Sleep, Pale Sister is a hypnotically atmospheric story...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060787112
• ISBN13: 9780060787110
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A strange and sinister Victorian gothic...

London, 1870s-1881. Henry Chester is an artist and a devoted catholic. He paints eerie portraits based on his favorite poems and passages. He hires prostitutes as models. As much as he detests the aforementioned profession, he finds them somewhat acceptable for his paintings. That is until he meets ten-year-old Effie. Her platinum-blonde hair, pale complexion and sweet disposition move Henry so much that she becomes his favorite model. Then he marries her when she turns seventeen. But Effie is not the innocent he had once assumed she was. She is passionate, disturbingly so (at least to Henry), and Henry gives her laudanum and lords over her in an effort to break her spirit. Henry hides some rather sinister secrets, all of which are revealed in a series of bizarre twists and turns in which a prostitute-slash-gypsy and a smooth-talking player are involved. Sleep, Pale Sister is one of the strangest novels I have read. The eerie, gothic language drew me in at first, but the other events riveted me to no end. I literally couldn't put it down. So much so that, had I been a Victorian lady, I probably would have needed a dose of laudanum to keep from reaching out for the book in the middle of the night. I won't discuss plot details in this review. The story is too complex to write much without revealing something crucial. All I can say is that this novel contains the unexpected twists found in Harris's recent book Gentlemen and Players and the same dark language and deep contempt for the Catholic Church found in Holy Fools. But there is so much more. However, like I said, I won't spoil it for you. You'll just have to let the dark narrative and intricate plot guide you to the story's flooring conclusion. Some things I will comment on though, like Henry's piousness. The way his life is and his ironic contempt for prostitutes almost made me believe at first that this was a fictional account on Jack the Ripper. That is not the case though. And with all of the complexity and perversity in the characters' minds, this novel could also be categorized as a very clever psychological thriller. Also, none of the four main characters, with the possible exception of Effie, is likable. They are very selfish, dark characters. (Especially Henry. Dude is one sick SOB!) Joanne Harris has impressed me once again. She truly is one of the best literary authors of today. I like this one as much as Gentlemen and Players. As gothic as a classic Victorian novel and as ethereal as a Pre-Raphaelite painting, Sleep, Pale Sister is indeed a dream of a book.

Unexpected Joy

Sleep, Pale Sister / 0-06-078711-2 This is a spectacular read from an incredible novelist. Make no mistake about it: this is not just a great novel, this is a great Harris novel, which is a much higher bar to set. "Sleep, Pale Sister" grabs you from the first page and never lets go. As you are dragged through the lives of one pale victim and her three persecutors, you are shown by turns the motivations and inner thoughts of her tormentors, by the careful, compelling switches between narrative viewpoint. This is one of the hardest tricks to pull off in novels, yet Harris manages to make it look effortless. Each tormentor addresses themselves to us, explains their motives, their thoughts, urges that their view is the right one, the sane one, the correct one. As each villain "loves" our poor victim into the grave, we are touched with the deep sadness of the cruelties we can inflict on one another in our own deep selfishness. From the husband who hates his wife for being human, female, and an adult, and who punishes her for her own good to remove the sin from her; from the lover who hates his darling for being strong when he desires weakness and weak when he desires strength, and who torments her to break her spirit and satisfy his own desires; to the distraught mother who is so anxious to see her dead daughter again that she will hypnotize, drug, and abuse a sweet, lost stranger in an attempt to regain what she has lost... and engineer a terrible revenge. Deeper and darker than other Harris novels, "Sleep, Pale Sister" offers no hope - only a painful, terrifying look at how even the 'normal' amongst us can become so consumed with our own desires and pain that we become willing to inflict pain on innocent bystanders, even convincing ourselves in our enthusiasm that we are "helping", when in fact we are destroying their life, their mind, and their heart. I highly recommend this novel as a gripping, terrifying read. (My only complaint with this novel - and other Harris works - is that her interpretation of the Tarot is completely different from the one I have been taught. This makes for some confusing reading at times. Example, she seems to associate The Hermit with dark, unpleasant secrets and desires - she has used the card here and in "Chocolat" to identify murderers. However, to me and my teachers, The Hermit is a card of withdrawal, healing, and inner study. Another example, The Hanged/Hanging Man is frequently mistaken as a bad card - after all, being hanged to death is no fun, no? Yet, The Hanging Man is not hanged by his neck to die (as in Harris novels, like this one) - he is hanging upside down from a tree as a child would, by his legs, looking at the world from a new and different perspective. However, Harris almost always considers it, and its partner Death (a card of change and new beginnings, and not of actual death) as bad, evil omens. These misinterpretations are frequently seen among people new to the Tarot, who take the meanings

A Dreamy Drug of a Book!

I bought this book on the advice of a member of my Tarot group. She said that there were several instances of Tarot readings and such. I'm very grateful that she recommended it because it was a fabulous read! "Sleep, Pale Sister" is a dreamy drug of a book, an ethereally written Gothic sort of ghost story that had me enthralled for several late nights. Magic, Tarot readings and a nice touch of the supernatural add yummy cayenne to this unique story of the wealthy artist, Henry Chester, and his young model, Effie, who becomes his wife at the tender age of 17, although she became his model many years before. Though Henry keeps Effie drugged with laudanum, she manages to find a cad of a lover in Moses Harper, a rival carpetbagger of a painter who introduces Effie to Fannie Miller, the occult madam of a brothel that Henry visits every Thursday. The characters are excellent as is the engaging plot. I won't give away any more of the plot, but let me just warn you that this book is not for the faint of heart. Try it, you might like it!!!

Great as usual

I love Joanne Harris's writing. She almost sounds like a poet at times and describes things so well. This book was hard to put down because there was always something happening and everything ties together so well. It's eerie and mystical.

Joanne Harris' best book - better even than Chocolat

This is a consuming Gothic novel by the author of Chocolat. What lies hidden in that later novel is brought to the fore here. Whilst Vianne Rocher has a love/hate relationship with the Tarot in Chocolat, the cards here form the divisions of the text, the stepping-stones we take to reach the conclusion. And it is possible to make a reading from these cards, unlike those of T. S. Elliot's Madame Sosostris. Henry Paul Chester is a Victorian artist, the owner of a deadly secret, which goes to the very depth of his heart and art. Here we seem to be on traditional Gothic turf: that of James Hogg and his 'Confessions of a Justified Sinner', for Chester postulates that he may well have a secret double. Joanne Harris obeys the literary conventions of the early Gothic here by making Chester a Catholic - Matthew 'Monk' Lewis' Ambrosio removed from his Abbey and placed into the art world. He is just as repressed and far back in denial as Father Reynaud is in Chocolat. Then there's a touch of Sheridan Le Fanu too, with the distressed maiden taking liberal doses of laudanum. However, 'Sleep, Pale Sister' is not just homage to old fictions. Joanne Harris is an excellent storyteller, with a quite distinctive style. The tales of Le Fanu and Stoker may have had their powerful, exciting moments, but Harris outshines them all with her excellent technique. Chester is obsessed with painting young, 'innocent' girls. Which leads him to spot the nine-year-old Effie in a park. For the price of a few shillings, Chester gets his perfect model. Effie becomes the star of a series of portraits of young, distressed children, such as 'The Little Beggar Girl'. After ten years, Chester marries his 'perfect' model, and this is precisely the moment when their relationship sours. She turns to one of Chester's rivals, the unscrupulous Moses Zachary Harper, for solace. But he is not about to lead her to the Promised Land. It is at a carnival that Effie finally heeds her calling, summoned by Fanny Miller, a brothel keeper who sees something of her dead daughter in Effie. With Effie under her spell, Fanny finally unlocks Henry Chester's dark secret. Together with Mose, she devises a deadly plan to expose and ruin Chester. But with the use of magic, there is always the danger of the unseen... In Chocolat, there's a delicious scene in which Harris refers to 'Alice in Wonderland', and it seems as though she could be hinting to Charles Dodgsons' suspected paedophilia. But there is also the example of the Pre-Raphaelite John Ruskin, whose name is often mentioned in this novel, as Chester seeks the art critic's approbation. Ruskin too married an Effie, Euphemia Gray. Ruskin's marriage was annulled after six years due to it being unconsummated, leaving Effie free to marry another Pre-Raphaelite artist. It's possible that Joanne Harris got part of her story from this source, from Ruskin's repressed sexuality. One also has to take note of the fact that Kate Atkinson has taken the name of Eu