The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins
The crime at the heart of this novel occurs in 1826 in London: Frannie Langton is accused of the brutal double murder of her employers George Benham, who is a famous natural philosopher, and his wife Madam Marguerite Benham. Frannie is immediately arrested as she is found covered in blood and lying next to Marguerite’s dead body. She has no recollection of events leading up to and including the murders and cannot say whether or not she is guilty. “For God’s sake, give me something I can save your neck with,” her lawyer pleads. And so Frannie, who, despite having been born into slavery, became adept at reading and writing, begins to write her life story at Newgate prison, where she is being held before her trial at Old Bailey. She writes in the form of a letter to her lawyer, John Pettigrew. The author has stated the defense Mr. Pettigrew decides to put forward (referred to as “the sleepwalking defense”) was inspired by her research into an American case in Boston in 1846.
In her letter, Frannie tells us that she was born on a Jamaican sugar cane plantation named Paradise; her mother is a black slave and her father, John Langton, is white and the owner of the plantation. Taken on as a house slave, she is not trusted by the other slaves, but in the house, she is still a slave to her mistress and Langton. Frannie is ultimately brought to London by her father to become a lady’s maid for Marguerite Benham. Technically free under English law, she becomes a new sort of slave in this household. Frannie writes of her relationship with her father and the transition from Jamaica to London:
I used to be called Frannie Langton before I was taken from Paradise to London and given by Langton as maid to Mr George Benham, who then gave me to his wife. It wasn’t my choice to be brought here, but very little in my life ever was. I was Langton’s creature. If I pleased him I pleased myself. If he said something was true, it was. But Langton was a man who’d named his own house Paradise despite all that went on there, and named every living thing in Paradise too. [Kindle Version, p. 16]
Sara Collins is a gifted writer. Included in Frannie’s narrative, are vivid descriptions of the Georgian times, including the trial proceedings, the fate of former slaves, daily drudgery of those in poverty, and the houses of the ill-repute. What makes this novel even more extraordinary, and an important book for aspiring writers to read, is the way in which Sara Collins pays tribute to the Gothic genre while bringing it into new territory. She regularly mentions literary references, particularly Gothic literature references to underscore the themes of the book. For instance, The Castle of Otranto, widely recognized as the first gothic novel, is given a nod, highlighting Frannie’s perilous state. The satire Candide receives multiple mentions as well, a reminder to keep optimism at bay. The author states that she feels “the gothic is an amazing form for writing about the hidden darkness beneath the surface of things and all the terrors that we’d rather not speak about.” The Confessions of Frannie Langton is dark, and unendingly grim, but unlike other Gothic novels, horror never appears in the form of the supernatural or paranormal activity. The realities of Frannie’s life are plenty brutal, tragic, and terrifying enough!
