Misfortune: A Novel
One of the most auspicious debuts of recent years, Wesley Stace'sMisfortunefollows the rise, fall, and triumphant return of Rose Old, a foundling rescued from a London garbage heap in 1820 by the richest man in Britain. Lord Geoffroy Loveall, whose character has been shaped by perpetual mourning for a sister who died in childhood, seizes on the infant as a replacement for his beloved sister. With the help of trusted servants, he arranges for the child to be lovingly brought up at his ancestral mansion, Loveall Hall--to all appearances, his biological daughter and unhoped-for heir. No matter that the baby is not a girl.The story thus far is so engaging, and the details of Rose's childhood so playfully rendered (when she was first brought to Loveall Hall, the staff of 250 included a servant whose sole responsibility was to iron newspapers before their second reading), that it is with reluctance that the reader meets the inevitable rude, scheming relatives whose plotting will lead to the "misfortune" of the title.  Luckily, Stace (the given name of the musician John Wesley Harding) takes too much delight in Rose to dump her back on the garbage heap, or at least not for long.  The cross-dressing love child ofGreat Expectationsand A. S. Byatt'sPossession,Misfortunewill find you breathlessly tracking the movements of its principal players, and applauding the most ridiculous twists of fate.--Regina MarlerAmazon.com Bonus ContentBorn in  Hastings and educated at Cambridge, Wesley Stace is also known as the musician John Wesley Harding. Musical influences are on display in his gender-bending  debut novel,Misfortune, a historical tale set in 19th-Century England about an abandoned boy raised as a girl. Read on to listen to three original songs inspired by the book.A Message from Wesley StaceSongs  weave their way throughoutMisfortune--some are ballads, crucial to the plot and written by one of the characters, others are traditional songs sung at  various points of the narrative, others are folk songs from a collection in the Octagonal Library of Love Hall, the home of the central family.Songs aren't anything if they aren't sung, so I decided to match melodies and words and record some of them. I picked these because they were the first two. There will be afull recordof the songs ofMisfortune, performed by The Love Hall Tryst (myself, Kelly Hogan, Nora O'Connor, and Brian Lohmann) which will be released by Appleseed Recordings later this year.--Wesley Stace"Lambkin"From Chapter One: "For a moment, the laundress was unaware that there was anyone beneath. She began to sing as she worked and this is what finally breathed life into Pharaoh again. It was one of the old songs, his favourite of the many she sang: the story of Lambkin the builder who tortures Lord Murray's family when his note is refused. The purity of Annie's voice contrasted starkly with the words of her song and the street below:"'Where is the heir of this house?' said Lambkin:'Asleep in his cradle,' the false nurse said to him.And he pricked that baby all over with a pin,While the nurse held a basin for the blood to run in."She had sung it so many times as a lullaby that the horror of the story was somehow soothing."Listen  to "Lambkin""Lord Lovel"From Chapter Two: "Loveall recalled a previous Lord Loveall and the song that bore his name, and he sang it softly to the baby.  This ancestor had deferred his marriage for seven years while he went travelling. He returned after only twelve months, but as he rode home, he heard  the church bells ringing, "for Nancy Bell who died for a discourteous squire." He died too of grief, as he gazed on her corpse lying in its coffin, and was buried next to her. From her heart grew a red rose and from his heart a briar:"They grew and grew to the church steepleTill they could grow no higherAnd he pricked that baby all over with a pin,And there entwined in a true lover’s knotFor true lovers to admire."Listen to "Lord Lovel""The Ballad of Miss Fortune""Miss Fortune" is the song from which came the original idea forMisfortune.The Ballad of Miss Fortuneis a re-recording of this song from John Wesley Harding's album,Awake.Listen  to "The Ballad of Miss Fortune"Music from John Wesley HardingAwakeAdam's AppleHere Comes the GroomTrad Arr JonesConfessions of St. AceJohn Wesley Harding's New Deal--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.