Candlelit Menagerie

For fans of The Greatest Showman and Water for Elephants, The Candlelit Menagerie grabs hold and pulls readers into the dim halls of the exotic animal emporiums of London, over two centuries ago.  

Set in late eighteenth-century London, this haunting debut novel features Lillian, a freakishly tall woman who struggles to fit into society because of her size and desire to wear trousers. Each morning, she wakes in her tiny maid's room in a too-small bed to the sound of a lion roaring nearby, on the Strand. One day, she investigates the sound and discovers a candlelit exotic animal emporium. When she meets the lion, there is an instant bond. At first, Lillian is repulsed by the stench and squalor, but there, in the menagerie, Lillian finds her natural home taking care of and befriending wild animals brought from around the world, stolen from their habitats, misfits like her. The British empire had become the dominate colonial power, plundering resources across the ocean, including humans and animals, and bringing them to England's shores for the first time to the amusement of the public. The menagerie, under Lillian's management, becomes a successful attraction. It is her life's mission. She even marries the veterinarian's single-minded apprentice. But when her unborn baby dies in an accident, she is given a chimpanzee to raise as her own child, upending the order of even Lillian's unusual existence.

 

Told in a simple, mesmerizing voice, The Candlelit Menagerie is intensely atmospheric and transporting. This stunning debut will put Caraline Brown at the forefront of the list of new novelists to watch.  

Reviews

Praise for The Candlelit Menagerie:

“Vibrantly capturing the hustle and bustle of the era, Brown’s novel will appeal to animal lovers and historical fiction aficionados alike.” — Booklist

“Brown weaves the historical lives of menagerie owners, keepers, and animals into the fictional world of Grady’s Menagerie and its female keeper, Lillian. The Candlelit Menagerie is both illuminated by the past and a new, imaginative story of a life spent with animals.”—Christopher Plumb, author of The Georgian Menagerie

"A heart-warming story with as much pain as joy, and an utterly believable lead character, immersed in the real history of exotic animal-keeping in the late 18th century." --The Fortean Times

“This intoxicating novel drew me instantly in to the thrilling world of the first London menageries, full of the most exotic animals and birds ever seen. And presiding tenderly over them, a woman ahead of her time, the tall crop-haired Lillian, who immediately shot to the top of my list of fascinating, complex literary heroines. What a wonderful, unusual read!”—Beth Miller, author of The Missing Letters of Mrs Bright

“Brown has done her research, and each page of her debut novel is full of interesting details about living in London in the late 18th century. Every character is interesting in their own way, from Lillian, Grady, and Button, with whom we spend the most time, to the one-offs Lillian meets along the way.”—Kirkus Reviews