Immortality: A love story by Dana Schwartz
The cover of Immortality, with the view of a woman from above, her dress around her like the wrinkles of a brain, is just as eye-catchingly dramatic as the cover of its predecessor, Anatomy, with the skirt spread like the red chambers of a heart. This time the focus is not so much on the gaining of surgical anatomical skills as the pursuit of the chemistry of immortality. The second book in the Anatomy duology picks up the story of Hazel Sinnett, a young lady determined to become a surgeon and physician in Edinburgh in the early 1800s. At the same time she wants to learn more about the secret Tincture that supposedly gives immortality to those who dare to swallow it. Perhaps then, she will find out if her lost love, Jack Currer, is still alive, waiting for her somewhere in the world.
The frequent problem with sequels is the amount of time that has to be spent in the second novel explaining who the characters are and filling in the story until that point, and Immortality suffers from this drawback just as much as any other. In fact the first third of the book becomes a kind of rehash along with the introduction of several otherwise interesting characters who are introduced for plot purposes and then dropped with little to no reference to them again. It is only after that prolonged section of the book is concluded that the real story picks up as Hazell is given the role of physician to the Princess Charlotte of the Royal House of Hanover, a princess who seems to be cursed with a mysterious ailment that prevents her fulfilling her role as princess of England, and then ultimately mother to a future king.
It is only in the last third of the novel that we discover what happened to the dashing Jack Currer, the man who stole Hazel’s heart in the graveyards and theatres of Edinburgh. Will Hazel ever find happiness; will she be able to practise medicine alone as a single woman; or will she have to find some kind of compromise in a society that expects women to become wives and mothers?
Despite the plot flaws, Schwartz provides a good examination of the roles of women, corruption of the political world, the flaws of humankind, and the imaginative possibilities of immortality. This along with a good mix of macabre gruesomeness and gothic romance makes this book one that will be popular with young adult readers, especially those who were hooked into the excitement of the first novel and who may have felt a bit disappointed with its ambiguous ending. All the ends are neatly tied up by the closing pages of Immortality, so while some readers may be reluctant to finally set it down, I am sure that Dana Schwartz is up to beginning a new historical mystery romance that will be equally engaging.
Themes: Women, Medicine, Immortality, Court politics, Superior people, Intellectuals, Gothic fiction.
Helen Eddy
