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The Somnambulist

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The Somnambulist

By: Essie Fox
Narrated by: Annie Aldington
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About this listen

 Every heart holds a secret...

But some secrets are better left buried.


The stunning Victorian Gothic debut from the Sunday Times bestselling author of CATHERINE: A RETELLING OF WUTHERING HEIGHTS.


When seventeen-year old Phoebe Turner visits Wilton's Music Hall to watch her Aunt Cissy performing on stage, she risks the wrath of her mother Maud who marches with the Hallelujah Army, campaigning for all London theatres to close. While there, Phoebe is drawn to a stranger, the enigmatic Nathaniel Samuels.

When offered the position of companion to Nathaniel's reclusive wife, Phoebe leaves her life in London's East End for Dinwood Court in Herefordshire.

But Phoebe is soon to discover that Dinwood Court may well be haunted - and holds the darkest of truths...

In her gloriously gothic debut, Essie Fox weaves a spellbinding tale of guilt and deception, regret and lost love.

'VIVIDLY COMPELLING, DARK AND DAZZLING.' Katherine Webb, author of The Legacy

Read by Annie Aldington

(p) 2012 Oakhill Publishing©2011 Essie Fox Fantasy Fiction Ghosts Gothic Historical Fiction Horror England

Critic reviews

Essie Fox transports us to the Victorian squalor of London's East End for a tale of illegitimacy, incest and theatricality with so many twists that you'll want to read it in one sitting
Vividly compelling, dark and dazzling (Katherine Webb)
I am currently reading THE SOMNAMBULIST, a novel which I am enjoying so much that I was up at six this morning to relish it in the peace of my still sleeping household. It has taken me to new worlds, is riven with suspense, has made my imagination wander, and my fingers itch to turn the last page (Jojo Moyes)
Paints a vivid picture of Victorian times
A tale of complicated thespian lives, old secrets and many a twist and turn...an absorbing read, well worth recommending
This is a gutsy page-turning novel with a delightful heroine... larger than life Dickensian characters and generous supply of plot twists and turns. But it is no pastiche. It is an affectionate and knowledgeable homage to the genre and a thumping good read
A gloriously gothic tale of guilt and deception, regret and lost love
This wonderful debut novel ... is well written with lively and believable characters ... I found this book difficult to put down and look forward to reading more from this very promising author
All stars
Most relevant
Every aspect of this book keeps you turning the pages. Great story and great narration.
You really feel like you are back in the 1800s both of which are a credit to the author and narrator.
I've lost count of how many times I've read this book now, I don't sleep great and I find certain books help me drift off at night, this is my number one, go to book for a bed time story. It's a combination of being absorbed into the story and the tone of the narrators voice that have me comfortable and relaxed in no time.

One of my favourite books.

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Phoebe has been brought up by a bible thumping mother and a carefree theatrical aunt. When her aunt dies, Phoebe is sent to be a companion to a rich man's wife in the country. Everyone comments on Phoebe's similarity to her aunt and to the man's deceased daughter. The butler appears to spend more time with the wife than her husband and the theatrical family know more about the husband than they are letting on. Poor Phoebe has to decipher who is telling the truth and where it leaves her.

Nobody tells the truth

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What did you like best about The Somnambulist? What did you like least?

The descriptions of place were good and the character pool was diverse but I could find little sympathy with most of them. Neither was there much in the way of Gothic in this 'gothic' novel. The titillating elements were rather jaded and the whole thing was a little on the limp side - much like the ubiquitous rose pressed between the pages of the protagonists step-mother's diary or ...ahem... the post-coital member of her step-brother.

If you’ve listened to books by Essie Fox before, how does this one compare?

This is the first and probably the last.

Did Annie Aldington do a good job differentiating each of the characters? How?

She did do a reasonable job and you could hear that her forte was the colloquial London accents; she did less of a good job with the noblesse and you could here the tell-tale short vowels in place of the upper-class drawling tones that one might expect of Victorian play-boys.

If this book were a film would you go see it?

If it was heavily abridged and re-written with more grandeur, drama and a less annoying main female character.

Any additional comments?

I should have read the other reviews before buying - they are generally as I feel: disappointed.

Could do better

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The Somnambulist is a beautifully written story and so well researched and detailed that it completely submerges the listener in Victorian life.

I was rooting for the protagonist Phoebe from the start and intrigued by every twist and turn the book took. Essie Fox has treated us to a wealth of characters that you either love or loathe, all of whom play a key part in the (unexpected) directions Phoebe's life takes.

A great read, both for lovers of historical fiction and lovers of a really good read.

An intriguing, beautifully written story

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If this book wasn’t for you, who do you think might enjoy it more?

I'm not really sure who would enjoy this although I see that it has some very positive reviews. I have previously very much enjoyed books by Sarah Waters ( Affinity, Tipping The Velvet, Fingersmith) , Jane Harris (The Observations, Gillespie and I) and more recently, Anna Freeman (Fair Fight). I thought that this may be in a similar vein but I was very much mistaken. This book is weakly plotted and characterised and cannot be compared to the others I have mentioned.

Would you ever listen to anything by Essie Fox again?

This was her debut novel and so her writing may have improved with time but I don't think that I would listen to any more of her work.

What didn’t you like about Annie Aldington’s performance?

I felt that the range of accents was insufficient to match the differing backgrounds of the characters. The London accents were well delivered but the characters requiring RP voices sounded too London inflected. One female character who was described as having a voice with a clear bell-like tone sounded more like Barbara Windsor.

What character would you cut from The Somnambulist?

To be honest, I couldn't really engage with any of the characters enough to make that judgement. I felt that they were all similarly weak.

Any additional comments?

I am sorry to be writing such a negative review as I am sure a huge amount of work went into writing this book. Unfortunately, I just didn't find it enjoyable to listen to or even that interesting and I wasn't able to finish the final third of the book as I felt that I had given it enough time to prove itself and that, if anything, the quality of the plotting was actually deteriorating as the book progressed. Beautiful cover, very disappointing listen.

A disappointment.

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