The Adventuress of Henrietta Street by: Lawrence Miles

 

There was a temptation in writing this review to make an attempt in emulating Lawrence Miles’ style of writing The Adventuress of Henrietta Street.  Instead of a typical prose fiction narrative, this novel is presented as a non-fiction work as an attempt to chronicle mysterious, esoteric, and the often occult goings on in the year leading up to the marriage of the titular adventuress, Scarlette from recollection, public record, and speculation on the part of the author between 1782 and 1783.  As is typical with Lawrence Miles’ work, this novel is often obfuscating its normal plot in layers upon layers of commentary and intrigue and while it is perhaps the most difficult book by Miles to read, it has perhaps the deepest reflections on Doctor Who and essentially is one last goodbye, despite Miles saying he would never write for the universe again after Interference (apparently he needed the money for LEGO sets).  The difficulty in reading The Adventuress of Henrietta Street, at least in a physical copy, is not due to Miles, however, but BBC Books and their 288 page count restriction for their published books.  This means that the font size of the novel is incredibly small, which had made it physically difficult for my eye to follow the actual words on the page, especially when the format switched to reprinting interviews from the characters and other quotations further indenting the formatting.  Again, this is not due to Miles, yes he did have a book that was split into two for Interference, however, that simply wouldn’t have worked here as it would have split up a story that is meant to be experienced as one piece that is brought together.  It’s also something where the format means that not everything is answered and the unreliable nature of the narrator, not named but presumably an academic from Earth, adds conjecture and speculation to events.

 

The Adventuress of Henrietta Street described in one word is visceral, Miles’ prose brings the London setting to life with this sense of mystery and danger as the wedding of Scarlette and the setting of the house are mired with explorations of society and especially of the lives of the sex workers living in the house.  Some have said this is not so much a Doctor Who book, but a book with the Doctor in it and that is something I have to disagree with emphatically.  Miles is drawing on the absence of typical Doctor Who trappings and Doctor light stories that the New Adventures would do to explore what his view of the Doctor is in the novels post The Ancestor Cell.  The threat largely mounting is one of an Old One breaking through the threads of Time itself, unlocking the floods of creatures being held back by an authority that is now missing from the universe.  This leakage into the universe is also reflected in the occult and magical themes that The City of the Dead began which The Adventuress of Henrietta Street continues to explore with wonder.  The wedding itself is ceremony, there are thirteen parties invited, twelve accept, and the reception makes use of a thirteen-sided table.  The bride is a human, the groom is not, and in addition to the wedding it feels like a coronation, binding the groom to humanity as its lord and protector.  If you haven’t already guessed at this point, the groom is the Doctor and there is something utterly beautiful and fascinating about what his place in the universe is now that everything has changed.  Miles puts him in this unfamiliar territory and under responsibility.  For the first time, Miles’ anger at the revived series feels justified actually reading the book that is essentially a precursor to the emotional core of Series 1.

 

As this is a novel written in the style of non-fiction, and the Doctor, Fitz, and Anji are time travelers, we don’t get their direct perspective.  Both companions fulfill more minor roles in the novel, Anji especially being sidelined the most as Miles clearly doesn’t like her character, but this really isn’t their story, it’s the story of the house and the universe.  The many women of the house all live fascinating lives and have a role to play.  Scarlette feels the perfect compliment to the Doctor, both filling and transcending the typical ‘companion’ role, forming this understanding of who the Doctor is and providing the avenue to confront the babewyns.  Once again like The City of the Dead before it the emotions of the characters are highlighted through intimacy in a very tasteful way.  The mysterious nature of the actual events and characters, especially at the wedding, are also integral to what The Adventuress of Henrietta Street is doing.  This is the first time the character of Sabbath appears and is identified, being set up as the villain of the novel and he both is and isn’t.  Hypnotic is perhaps the best way to describe the character as it’s one of the many unanswered questions as to what he is trying to accomplish but the goal itself is motivated clearly.  The unanswered questions clearly have answers in Miles’ mind but they are intentionally left vague.  There is a man with a rosette who is one of the four surviving elementals and whose identity is obvious.  One guest never arrives or even responds to the invitations despite the other twelve arriving and its clear who this entity is.  And the book ends with Sabbath performing a surgery.

 

The Adventuress of Henrietta Street is not a novel to be read lightly and perhaps to be fully appreciated may have to be read more than once, but it is a statement on Doctor Who and really what it means.  It asks a lot of questions and the answers are there if you look very carefully.  It manages to be both typical and completely atypical given its paradoxical nature and one of the transcendent pieces of Doctor Who media that honestly changed trajectory of the franchise and the eventual show’s return.  10/10.