The period atmosphere feels off, and some irritating older romance conventions intrude, but the sum of The House Of Kuragin is greater than its parts. There is a buoyancy to Constance Heaven’s storytelling and considerable freshness in the lovingly detailed setting which help explain why this gothic romance won RNA’s Romantic Novel Of The Year Award in 1973.
1819. The Weston family has lost its wealth and position, and the welfare of Rilla’s widowed mother and young siblings depends on whatever income Rilla can bring home. A well-paid position in Russia as companion and governess seems an adventure as well as a welcome escape from poverty.
Half a day’s journey by sleigh outside Saint Petersburg, the country estate of the Counts of Kuragin is marked by external splendour and internal unhappiness. Rilla’s five-year old charge, Paul, is neglected by his parents, Dmitri and Natalya, whereas his uncle Andrei stands accused of attempting to murder the boy. The simmering tensions include the taciturn estate manager, Jean Reynard, and the local school teacher, Marya. The arrival of Rilla, the outsider, upsets the invisible balance and secrets start to crack open. But is it for good or for ill?
Gothic romances share a narrow set of common tropes, which, if used thoughtlessly, render many of them very similar. Time and again a scene or character or plot element in The House Of Kuragin reminded me of Mary Stewart’s Nine Coaches Waiting, but eventually the author breaks away from what seems to have been a strong inspiration point to shape a different version of a familiar tale.
The House Of Kuragin is a novel of family secrets and the tension and malice that arises from them, sundering even those who genuinely care for each other. The measure of realism in these dynamics lends touches of true tragedy to what could easily have remained pure melodrama. None of the main players escape unscathed, each reaping the consequences of his or her follies, resentments, and ill-advised passions.
Another quality I appreciated was Constance Heaven’s immersion in the natural geography and the social history of Russia. Although the period evoked in the novel felt more Victorian than Regency to me, she creates a convincing picture of settings from the Grand Prinicipality of Finland to Saint Petersburg and beyond through references to agricultural life, superstitions, descriptions of the changing seasons, and plant details. Her touch is light and the result is both beautifully atmospheric and intriguing. Serfdom is treated as more than background to illustrate the vast divide between misery and luxury in pre-revolutionary Russia: the plight of serfs plays a substantial part in the plot and, in one horrific scene, even children are shown not to be able to escape barbarous cruelty.
At the same time, it is in describing an unequal society that the author most fails to deliver. As much as Rilla berates Russian noble landowners for their treatment of serfs (fortified in her sense of righteousness, no doubt, by British abolition of slave trade a decade earlier), and as much as Andrei Kuragin tells her not to judge before she has a fuller understanding of the situation, the debate cannot help but fizzle when, following a riot, Rilla concludes: “[The peasants] were like children – dangerous, vicious children – who could work themselves up to violence and would afterward weep at the damage they had done.”
Now, a look at some of the characters. The House Of Kuragin is one of those earlier romances where the heroine is repeatedly kissed but is never shown to reciprocate, other than shaking with the overpowering emotion the hero’s passion awakens in her. In the same fashion, typical of romances written twenty or thirty years ago, the hero’s ‘masculinity’ is asserted through domineering behaviour: again and again, Andrei ignores Rilla’s wishes, and instead of Rilla protesting or walking away, he is rewarded for pressing his will on her or “knowing better”.
I have mixed feelings about Rilla. Let me put it this way: besides her passiveness in regards to Andrei, never revealing her infatuation to him but always looking for proof of his attraction toward her, her intelligence is, to put it kindly, not the brightest. She is also headstrong - not a fortunate combination. On the other hand, she harbours few illusions about herself and she is well-intentioned. Despite nursing a secret wistfulness for the loss of her old, privileged life, she maintains a constructive attitude. Moreover, she stands up to opposition from one of her employers and demands the right to spend her leisure time any way she chooses. This includes making friends with both women and men, in particular Marya, the local schoolteacher, whose exact role in Andrei Kuragin’s life is for a while a painful mystery to Rilla.
In spite of the stereotypical traits to assert Andrei Kuragin’s “manly arrogance” (mentioned above) there are facets to his personality that make him both an interesting and an unusual hero. I doubt some of it would pass muster in the romances published today, and that is perhaps a pity. He is flawed, he has loved deeply before Rilla comes into his life, and the echoes of this past reverberate to the very end of the novel and cause suffering to more than one person. The author’s handling of it all makes for a rather abrupt resolution, however. I believe the love story between Andrei and Rilla would have benefited from a few more pages.
Natalya Kuragin is saddled with the unflattering task of providing the contrast to Rilla’s wholesomeness. The bored, pretty, young wife of an adoring but dull older husband, she seeks escape from the desperate tedium of her life in ways that grow increasingly destructive. Her bitter consolation is to wield her beauty and attractiveness to men like a whip. Her portrayal starts out rather two-dimensional, but she gains in complexity toward the end, becoming one of the most interesting characters.
The House Of Kuragin surprised me in many good ways. While some poorly aged aspects of the male-female interactions irritate and the social commentary falters, the energy of the storytelling, the dynamic plot, and the unusual and compelling setting make this gothic romance one of the most memorable I have read. If you love Victoria Holt or Phyllis A. Whitney's gothic historicals, or simply enjoy older style historical romances, definitely give The House Of Kuragin a try.
(Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc., 1972, page 126-7):
“It was deliciously cool under the thick shade of the oaks. We did not talk very much. I had it on the tip of my tongue to tell her about my dress and then changed my mind. I did not want to spoil the peace of the day by recalling that unpleasant incident. I lay back on the rug, seeing the warm golden dazzle of the sunlight through half-closed eyes, listening to the cool swish of the scythes, the steady hum of insects with the sweet, heady fragrance of the cut grass all around me.
I must have fallen into a light doze because everything faded into a distant haze, and I was aware only of sleepy contentment and relaxation of tension. A persistent fly buzzed around me. I put up my hand to brush it away, but now it was tickling my nose. I opened my eyes to find it was not a fly at all but Andrei bending over me and lightly drawing a long wisp of grass down my face.
‘You must have been enjoying a delicious dream,’ he murmured, ‘to be smiling so charmingly. Won’t you share it with me?’
I sat up abruptly. ‘I was not asleep. Where is Marya?’
‘She has gone to the children.’ He lay back beside me, stretching his arms lazily above his head. ‘How good it feels when every muscle aches with the sweet satisfaction of a job well done.’
‘Is it finished?’
‘All but the end of the field, and the men will do that. I have been out working since dawn. My back feels as if it will snap in two, and my hands are horribly blistered, but I haven’t enjoyed a day so much for years.’
I was terribly conscious of his nearness. He had pulled on a coarse white linen blouse such as the peasants wear, but it did not hide the brown naked chest with its light film of sweat. His head with the untidy dark hair was close beside me.
I said hurriedly, ‘Would you like a cool drink?’”
