- Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Penguin (1 Aug. 2019)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0241984017
- ISBN-13: 978-0241984017
Synopsis
1826, and all of London is in a frenzy. Crowds gather at the gates of the Old Bailey to watch as Frannie Langton, maid to Mr and Mrs Benham, goes on trial for their murder. The testimonies against her are damning – slave, whore, seductress. And they may be the truth. But they are not the whole truth.
For the first time Frannie must tell her story. It begins with a girl learning to read on a plantation in Jamaica, and it ends in a grand house in London, where a beautiful woman waits to be freed.
But through her fevered confessions, one burning question haunts Frannie Langton: could she have murdered the only person she ever loved?
Review
The Confessions of France Langton is a compelling and interesting historical novel set in the early nineteenth century. The book opens with Frannie in the dock of The Old Bailey accused of murdering her master and mistress, George Benham and Marguerite Benham. Since her arrest Frannie has not spoken about that night as she can’t remember what happened. Whilst in her prison cell she writes down her confessions, her life story, in the form of a letter to her lawyer, John Pettigrew. It is this letter that makes up the majority of the book, with Frannie narrating her story from a young girl in Paradise, Jamaica to her becoming a maid at the Benham’s in London and the events of that terrible night. A deeply moving story, shocking in parts, this is an engaging and immersive read.
There is no doubt that Frannie is the heroine of this book, and one you can’t help but admire. As she tells her story you become invested in her, and as the plot moves towards the murder charge you will the outcome to be not guilty. Paradise was the plantation she was brought up on in Jamaica, but it was no paradise for her, the other slaves or in fact the owners. Frannie was a mulatta, her mother a black slave and her father, the owner of the plantation John Langton. This puts her in a strange position on the plantation, she is neither one thing or another. Taken on as a house slave due to her father she is not trusted by the other slaves, but in the house she is a slave to her mistress and Langton. This is a situation that seems to follow her around; at the Benhams she becomes a ladies maid to Maurgerite Benham where the other servants are mistrustful of her, but Mr Benham sees as a servant. Throughout her life she seems to occupy a grey area as she is educated by her father, an intelligent woman who can read and write, but ultimately seen as a heathen due to the colour of her skin. In every book there is a villain, and in this book there are two; John Langton and George Benham. As a child they used Frannie as an experiment to see if these heathens could be educated, and then used her abilities to help with their experiments, to their benefit.
Sara Collins has a wonderful writing style that makes this book flow beautifully and a pleasure to read. The historical detail is brilliant, and this detail is carried on to the very different settings in the book, the heat and dryness of Paradise to the cold, wet and dark city of London. The characters are richly drawn and have a gritty realism to them making them very believable, especially the rawness and honesty of Frannie. The tension is kept throughout as Frannie slowly reveals her story, and the build up to the murder and the huge question of what happened that terrible night and was Frannie capable of murder.
The Confessions of Frannie Langton is a rich and detailed historical novel, that is written with great thought and understanding. Frannie’s story is one of hardship, difference, strength, love and sadness, where she is treated as a commodity and a possession at the hands of white men. As a debut novel this is stunning and I can’t wait to read Sara Collins next novel; a wonderful read.
