Anya Seton. Dragonwyck. 1944; Mariner Books, 1971.

Dragonwyck is a gothic historical novel with a little something for everyone. Because of the twists and turns in the plot, it is hard to describe it much without giving the story away. Still, the story is not as plot driven as many other stories are. It would not be the tale that it is without its two main characters and its strong roots in real history.

Imagine Heathcliff if he were to the manor born. That is Nicholas Van Ryn, a patroon from Hudson, New York, and master of the Dragonwyck estate. Yes, he has a strong self-absorbed personality like Heathcliff with a strong will and good looks. But unlike Heathcliff, he is the heir to the Van Ryn patroonship, a holdover from the Middle Ages that was transplanted to America. His challenge is to keep it all in the family and maintain the high status of the Van Ryns. He has no rival.

Van Ryn rents out much of his large estate to tenants who pay him annual rent based on the size of their land and on the agricultural products they produce. Dragonwyck is the mansion he had built for his enjoyment. It has a staff of twenty servants for him, his wife Johanna, and young daughter Katrine.

The story begins around 1844. Anyone familiar with the history of Upstate New York may recall that this was the time of the Anti-Rent War (a.k.a. the Rent War). Tenants were beginning to object to the patroon-tenant system because it smacked of aristocracy in the age of Jackson. Van Ryn by force of will and condescension is able to avoid some of the conflict endured by other patroons, but he bends very little.

Still, he is handsome, very cultured, and a pillar of society even in New York City, where he also owns some property. Indeed, he has learned to buy property on the edge of the populated areas in the city because he knows the city will be expanding and he can make a profit in real estate even within a few years.

His distant cousin, Miranda Wells, an eighteen-year-old farm girl from Greenwich, Connecticut, is invited to Dragonwyck to be introduced to society and to tutor their daughter. Yes, Dragonwyck does have echoes of Jane Eyre. Even though the mansion is only about ten years old, it has secrets and is probably as close as anything in the United States to a castle. There is even a madwoman, though she is not a secret like Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre.

The first few chapters tell us of the Wells family and Miranda’s fish out of water experience in her new setting. She is a little like Jane Eyre except for two distinguishing features. Jane is considered plain, even unattractive. At one point she is compared to a toad. Miranda is a tall blonde and no toad. Jane and her employer Rochester end up falling in love as soul mates. Cousin Nicholas, on the other hand, seems distant and completely self-possessed. He is a hard person to get to know. Besides, he is married already. Yeah, Rochester was married, too, only here Van Ryn has no problem admitting the fact.

Rochester also is not physically attractive, either. The only reason the gentry ladies find him attractive is that he is rich. Van Wyck is probably richer, but he is also tall, dark, handsome, and strong. Without going into too much detail, there is some conflict, not unlike King Henry VIII, because Johanna cannot have a son. Like royalty and aristocracy, that is the wife’s main contribution—besides, of course, presumably having some noble ancestry herself to pass on to the male issue.

Miranda is more or less overwhelmed by it all. Although she seems to have had a personality back on the Wells farm, arriving at Dragonwyck she becomes much more passive. She has to learn how society does things. She learns fashion and how to make herself beautiful if not charming. Although she can read and play the piano, she has not been exposed to the latest in the culture. She is a naïf when it comes to the upper classes. She is dutiful when it comes to her older cousin Nicholas and his wife Johanna.

Seton gives us a great view of the 1840s. Though fiction and set in the Northeast, one can see echoes of The Year of Decision. Not only is there the Anti-Rent War, but America gets involved in the Mexican War. While railroads are beginning to extend through the country, steamboats are certainly the most effective means of transportation around New York, Connecticut, and the Hudson River.

We enjoyed this book because it is set in an area we are familiar with: Western Connecticut, New York City, the Hudson River, Hudson, and Catskill. Although the main characters are fictional, we meet some real historical New Yorkers including Herman Melville, Edgar “Eddie” Poe, James Fenimore Cooper, P.T. Barnum, and even a cameo by former President Martin Van Buren. Seton herself lived in Greenwich and clearly knew her way around both geographically and historically.

Seton is a very good story teller. Miranda may be the main character similar to a young lady in many romance novels, but this is not just chick lit. There are deaths, marriages, riots, violence, boat races, big parties and picnics, famous people, theater shows, museums, real ghosts, opera songs, and something for just about everyone.

At the center is the enigmatical Nicholas Van Ryn. At times kind and generous and considerate, at other times he is cruel and even violent. There is a little Brontë in Seton, a little Du Marier, and even some Henry James. As with Wuthering Heights, there is hardly a word out of place. Pay attention to details. As Chekhov said, “One must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it isn’t going to go off.” Anya Seton doesn’t.