Open the pages of The Escapades of Tribulation Johnson and be transported to the bawdy, smelly, noisy streets of Restoration London. In 1679 Tribulation Johnson is cast out by her vicar father for her tempestuous tongue and is sent to stay with a cousin in London. The cousin is no less than the writer, Aphra Behn.
Brooks tells a rousing story of the politics and tumult of the theatre scene at that time, with companies and venues to be closed down on the whim of King Charles II, with actresses regarded as little more than whores, and women who wrote for the theatre doing so under assumed names.
Aphra Behn was one of the many real historical figures in this novel, with a list at the end of the book denoting those who had lived at the time, and those whom Brooks created, including Tribulation Johnson.
It’s an odd name for a woman, but all is revealed before the story ends. While Tribulation is the star of this book, it is Aphra Behn who leads a really interesting life. She ‘writes for bread’, as she tells her young cousin, having to move to cheaper lodgings when her income lessens. Her output includes plays, poems, tracts and public letters, attracting awe as well as disapproval.
This Hobart-based author evokes the language and politics of the time, the so-called Popish Plot, and the King’s succession in a London that readers can almost smell and hear.
Reviewed by Jennifer Somerville
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Karen Brooks is an Australian author, columnist, social commentator and academic. She writes fantasy novels for children and young adults, under both Karen Brooks and Karen R. Brooks and has also published short stories and non-fiction works.
Karen’s first novel, a young adult fantasy, It’s Time, Cassandra Klein, was published by Lothian in July 2001. Her second, The Gaze of the Gorgon was released August 2002, followed by The Book of Night in 2003, and The Kurs of Atlantis in 2004. One reviewer in Melbourne, Ray Sherriff, going so far as to describe Kurs as being “technically superior to any contemporary text I have read in the past few years. The research, experience, planning and prudence throughout its preparation have allowed the progression of the narrative and plot to incorporate its complexities organically. The result is a very entertaining, speedy, atmospherically lucid and enjoyable story.” Karen’s fifth novel, The Rifts of Quentaris, which is part of the highly successful Quentaris shared world series of Michael Pryor and Paul Collins was published in February 2005.
