Miss Havisham is one of the most famous of Charles Dickens's characters; jilted at the altar, she isolated herself within her mansion, wearing her wedding dress the rest of her days (until it catches fire, killing her). Using the few "biographical" clues strewn about Great Expectations as his outline, Ronald Frame turns this supporting cast member in Pip's story into a completely realized character in her own right--including a first name: Catherine.
In Havisham, she tells her story from the beginning. After her mother's death in childbirth, she is raised by her father, a wealthy Kent brewer. Young Catherine enjoys a privileged, if lonely, life, and forms a bond with Sally, a dead employee's daughter. Father watches over her carefully, raising her as a proud "Havisham," worthy of an upper-class life. To help foster this, he sends her to Durley Chase to live with Lady Chadwyck and her children, which Catherine loves; she feels like "a flower that's had a dark time growing, opening at last to the sun."
Durley Chase is a place of poetry, dances, balls, fine clothes--a life derived from books like The Vicar of Wakefield and Fanny Burney. It begins to turn Catherine into a bit of a snob. After a brief attraction to young "W'm" Chadwyck, she meets Charles Compeyson. He's always showing up at the same balls and masques; he's charming, witty and, unlike W'm, has a bit of the bad boy in him. Catherine falls for him--soon she's on a "silken halter." Compeyson loves to gamble and Catherine helps him with his many debts; he plays her perfectly. As readers of Great Expectations know all too well, the promised marriage never occurs, and Miss Havisham self-destructs. Years later, only Estella (and Pip) can "save" her ruined life.
Frame ably follows in the tradition of expanding upon a minor character from another writer's novel (as in Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea). The danger in this, of course, is missing the mark and merely riding Dickens' coattails. But Frame hits the bull's eye and provides much entertainment as we plunge into the believable "life" of this mysterious, forlorn woman. --Tom Lavoie
Shelf Talker: If you love Great Expectations, you'll bask in the light of Frame's detailed and atmospheric prequel focusing on the dark and tragic Miss Havisham.