The Alchemist's Daughter

Reading fiction is for the holidays. Why? Because Mortimer Adler convinced me (in a non-fiction book) that fiction is best enjoyed in a large block of undisturbed time. This allows the reader to immerse in the fictional world. During the school year, non-fiction is suitable for a twenty or forty-minute block in the evening before bedtime. Weekends are when chores and other errands get done.

I kicked off winter break with The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss. My sister had recommended the book, knowing of my interests in settings where the distinction between science and magic was blurred. The setting is 1890s England. The protagonist is one Mary Jekyll. Readers of Victorian era literature will recognize the connection to The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.

The 2017 novel by Goss is a modern mash-up of fictional 19^th century literary characters whose own stories intertwine the strange and macabre of that era. A strange case requires a detective, and so Sherlock Holmes gets involved. The Whitechapel murders form one thread of the case. There is also a fourth-wall undercurrent running through the story that is slightly distracting and highly amusing at the same time. Sisterhood is explored in interesting ways, and the book has a breezy 21^st century feel – the plot keeps moving, and I won’t be surprised if this book gets adapted into a movie or miniseries.

I won’t give away the plot other than to say that a shadowy group of neo-alchemists are involved, although our protagonist needs to explore her way through the case to figure things out. The setting however is interesting. It presumes that the alchemists have moved on from the failed quest of transmuting the chemical elements. Thanks to Darwin’s theory of evolution, the new quest is the transmutation of biology. The mutants could be seen as 19^th century versions of today’s X-Men or X-Women. Science is the driving force in this case, similar to origin stories in many of today’s familiar comic book super-powered mutants.

Folks from the 19^th century would see today’s scientific tools for transmutation in modern biology as magical. CRISPR technology reminds us of the ethical issues debated over the last century as biochemistry and molecular biology have raced ahead in technology. Unfortunately The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter does not go into any scientific details, which I would have undoubtedly found interesting. But the book is still a delight to read. At 380 pages, it took me 4.5 hours at a leisurely pace since I read fiction slowly to immerse myself in that world. If any of the above sounds interesting, you might enjoy it too!