Cahir O’Doherty has given Becoming Belle a great review in the US’s Irish Voice. Full text below.

Becoming Belle by Nuala O’Connor – Cahir O’Doherty

29^th July 2018

Oppression is usually at its worst when it’s called tradition. Often it just means that over time inequality has calcified into the law. Achieving justice against such a formidable opponent is very rare indeed history teaches us, but not impossible.

Step forward Belle Bilton. In Becoming Belle, author Nuala O’Connor tells the story of the real life Victorian era Anglo Irish feminist who bravely fought against every kind of oppression she encountered, in the process of just stepping into herself.

At a time when British culture was still training young women how to be subordinate homemakers, she was passionately pursuing her own independence, artistically, spiritually and economically.

It was inevitable, given all that, that she would create a huge stir (and within four years she was talk of the town and the toast of its music halls). But tradition isn’t dispensed with so quickly, so her rise and self reliance made her a subject of increasingly vicious slander in the tabloid press.

Smart, funny, talented and beautiful, she captivated almost everyone she encountered, but her rise was not the stuff of fairytales. She married a titled Earl and became a Countess through a fast but heartfelt marriage, but her latter days were far from idyllic.

What O’Conner excels at is her characterization, she takes you where Belle went and makes you feel what her heroine feels. Her attention to period detail is meticulous and her rage at the social nets that try to bring her heroine down helps drive the narrative.

It’s Belle’s determination to live her life on her own terms and in defiance of her times that makes her such a fascinating subject for the author and the reader. In an era were braying men are trying to reassert the dominance she’s a touchstone from the past to inspire in the present.

19th century London was a center of empire and about as corrupt and complacent as that implies. O’Connor brings it all back to life and places another bohemian Irish rebel in its midst. You’ll cheer for the young heroine in this David versus Goliath tale that leads to that most unexpected result, a happy ending.

Bookist Review by Margaret Flanagan

O’Connor wrote about Emily Dickinson in Miss Emily (2015); here she vividly reimagines the life of another nontraditional historical heroine. Though certainly less well-known than the poet, Isabel Bilton nevertheless leaves an indelible mark on the Victorian-Edwardian world she inhabited. The daughter of a middle-class military family, she chafes against both the familial and societal expectations that decidedly restrict the breadth and scope of her life. Making her way to London, she claws her way to the literal and figurative top, as she morphs herself into Belle Bilton, toast of the London stage and object of fancy to a bevy of well-heeled admirers. Falling hard for William Trench, Viscount Dunlo, she must overcome the objections of his disapproving father as well as those of society at large. Defying both class and convention, Belle engages in a magnificent spiritual battle that pits her desires and emotions against the restrictions placed upon her gender and her social status. Grounded in real-life characters and events, this passionate tale of ambition and love has cross-genre appeal for fans of historical fiction and romance.

BECOMING BELLE
Author: Nuala O’Connor

A late-19th-century music hall artiste dares to assail class boundaries in a novel based on a sensational court case. Isabel “Belle” Bilton, daughter of a military officer and a frustrated actress, leaves the barracks town where she was raised to seek her fortune on the London stage. Theater buffs, hoping for an insider look at the antecedents of today’s musicals, be advised: There is very little backstage drama and even less about Belle’s day-to-day challenges as a singer, dancer, and actor. Billed as the Sisters Bilton, Belle and her sister Flo are an instantaneous hit—although O’Connor tells rather than shows readers that the sisters’ talent is not just skin-deep. Flo quickly settles for a safe but dull marriage, but Belle frequents bohemian nightspots like the Corinthian Club, where she succumbs to the blandishments of Alden Weston, a self-proclaimed baron, who is later convicted of fraud and imprisoned. Pregnant by Weston, Belle is helped by her only true friend, wealthy antiques merchant Isidore Wertheimer, who, as a gay Jewish man, inhabits a demimonde of another sort. After farming her infant out to a wet nurse, Belle soldiers on with her career. Her romantic zeal is reignited by William, an Irish viscount who takes up with her in defiance of his father, the Earl of Clancarty, who threatens to disinherit him. They marry in secret, but the Earl sends his son to Australia almost immediately thereafter. Isidor again shelters Belle as she anxiously awaits William’s return—only to hear that, despite the occasional fervid love letter, William has petitioned for divorce. The ensuing jury trial is the most compelling portion of the book, which has thus far languished without much of a plot. Belle’s characterization is anemic: Is she naïve? An opportunist? A gold digger? A slave to love and/or lust? Her emotions, traits, and intentions are duly cataloged, but Belle’s essence remains decorative and unknowable. Despite the novel’s faults, the period setting comes alive thanks to O’Connor’s lively prose and dialogue.