Publishers Weekly
01/11/2016
American Samantha Whipple’s hopes for an uneventful university career at Oxford are soon dashed when she realizes that everyone already knows her family story: she’s the last surviving twig of the Brontë family tree. What’s more, someone is frightening Samantha by surreptitiously planting her late father’s copies of Brontë novels in Samantha’s dorm room. Samantha had thought these were destroyed in the fire that killed her father several years earlier, but they may be cryptic clues to the mysterious Brontë estate Samantha stands to inherit. Samantha’s maddeningly demanding (and handsome) tutor, James Orville, is no help—he flat-out refuses to discuss the Brontës. Lowell’s debut novel offers some intriguing speculation about Brontë family dynamics, particularly with regard to the life and work of lesser-known sister Anne; the repeated discussions of authorial intent, however, will likely be glossed over by all but the most dedicated English majors. Even without its attraction for Brontë-philes, however, this is an enjoyable academic romp that successfully combines romance and intrigue, one that benefits from never taking itself too seriously. (Mar.)
Jennifer DuBois
"Smart and surprising and fiercely funny. Catherine Lowell is a thrillingly original talent."
From the Publisher
Catherine Lowell’s terrific first novel is a mystery, a love story, and a very dark comedy with the Brontës, of all people, playing a role back there in the shadows. The book is about the traces that literature and our ancestors leave in us, and it is about memory as a token of love.”—Charles Baxter, author of There’s Something I Want You to Do and Feast of Love
“THE MADWOMAN UPSTAIRS had me hooked well into the wee hours; this book is absolutely addictive. Set in the most romantic parts of Britain, the story takes us on a clever present-day romp through the literary universe of the enigmatic Brontes and drills deeply into all their dangerous secrets. Catherine Lowell has such a unique, inspired turn of phrase that you’ll find yourself laughing out loud even as she lures you deeper and deeper into this delicious mystery that is destined to become the page-turner of the year.”—Anne Fortier, author of Juliet
“Catherine Lowell’s debut is a smart and funny literary mystery set among the dreaming spires of Oxford University. Lowell’s deft handling of her quirky characters and unpredictable plot twists make The Madwoman Upstairs a charming and memorable read.” —Deborah Harkness, author of the All Souls Trilogy
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
A smart, clever and properly Gothic novel....Deftly, Lowell combines a rollicking treasure hunt with a wickedly dark story.
Booklist
A thriller tailor-made for English majors… Lowell is an intelligent writer who bears watching.”
Elle
Part mystery, part picaresque, Catherine Lowell’s The Madwoman Upstairs is a smartly conceived first novel.
Vogue
"An enigmatic father’s legacy sets the scene for gothic intrigue involving the last descendant of the Bronte sisters in Catherine Lowell’s irresistibly clever, Oxford debut, The Madwoman Upstairs."
Library Journal
★ 01/01/2016
Since enrolling at Oxford's Old College, Samantha Whipple, the last of the Brontës, has been the center of a storm of speculation. The rumor that her family is hoarding a treasure trove of Brontë artifacts has long plagued her. Samantha dismisses this "estate" she's never seen, until her late father's possessions, which all burned in the fire that took his life, inexplicably reappear. Reluctantly aided by her maddeningly handsome and difficult professor, Samantha sets out on the grandest of scavenger hunts, deciphering the Brontë sisters' writing to locate her mysterious inheritance. Samantha's journey through sorrow and even a little obsessive madness, coupled with the reality of the love story she gets wrapped up in, are stunningly representative of a young woman's path to happiness and peace. Professor James Orville is the perfect Brontë leading man, as complex and passionate as his student. A supporting cast of dark figures enhances the experience. VERDICT Lowell crafts a first novel that is as enthralling as it is heartbreaking. Brontë aficionados and fans of Sloane Crosley's The Clasp will love this title.—Kristen Droesch, Library Journal
Kirkus Reviews
2015-12-23
A college student hunts for a lost Brontë artifact in this debut novel with academic overtones. Samantha Whipple, the last of the Brontës, has at last come into her inheritance. Her beloved father, Tristan, was descended from a cousin of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne's. Tristan died in a fire when Samantha was 15; a year before his death he told Sam she would someday inherit "The Warnings of Experience." Is it a lost Brontë manuscript? A painting? A philosophy? A joke? Now a prickly first-year student at Oxford, Sam meets a banker to receive her legacy, but the shoebox she's given contains nothing but a bookmark, the first clue in a treasure hunt. The quest takes her on a gentle jaunt through the major Brontë novels, highlights of critical theory, and Yorkshire in a storm. It makes for pleasant enough reading—Lowell has an agreeably sarcastic style and a way with similes—but poor estate planning. If you're bothering to give a banker a shoebox, why not put the MacGuffin itself inside? Hiding the object out in the world makes no legal or practical sense. None of the usual explanations for fictional treasure hunts apply: it's not as if rival heirs or supernatural forces are racing to get the thing first, and when Sam does eventually find it, she has no legal evidence that it belongs to her (not that Lowell seems to notice). Sam explains her father's puzzling behavior by appealing to pedagogy: "He was trying to teach me the right way to read." Also trying to teach her the right way to read is her professor, the handsome, brooding James Timothy Orville III, who insults her in private tutoring sessions; readers familiar with Jane Eyre will quickly see where that relationship is heading. Refreshingly, though, the novel draws its references most frequently from the work of the youngest, least interesting, and therefore least overexposed Brontë sister, Anne. This is an entertaining and ultimately sweet story, but it's best if you don't think about it too hard.
