Pale Shadows

December 18, 2023
Canadian writer Fortier returns (after Paper Houses) with a muddled novel about the aftermath of Emily Dickinson’s death in 1886. Following the funeral, Emily’s younger sister, Lavinia, who is the family’s matriarch, discovers a treasure trove of her unpublished writing. Over the next few years, an artist named Mabel Todd, mistress of Austin Dickinson, Emily and Lavinia’s older brother, embarks on the painstaking editing process that produced Poems by Emily Dickinson in 1890. Fortier tells the story in short chapters, mainly focusing on the family members’ grief. There are bright and enchanting moments, such as the appearance of Mabel’s intuitively perceptive young daughter, Millicent, whom Emily knew as a little girl. Fortier also portrays animosity between Lavinia, her sister-in-law, and Emily’s best friend as a result of Austin’s infidelity. Unfortunately, Fortier dances around the nuances of these characters’ relationships and their impact on Dickinson’s legacy, choosing instead to fill the narrative with Lavinia’s ghostly projections: “No matter where she goes, Emily’s ghost follows her, when she doesn’t precede her. Diaphanous and evanescent in middle age, her sister has become the most lively of spectres.” Even Dickinson diehards will be puzzled.