The Shape of Darkness is a gothic tale full of references that let me know immediately I was in Victorian England. In an attempt to get to the bottom of the murders, Agnes consults Pearl but together they are frightened by what they discover. Their sickly father is dying from Phossy jaw (phosphorus necrosis of the jaw) as a result of working in a match factory and the girls are left to run the household as best they can.

Pearl is an eleven year old albino girl and spirit medium, and along with her half-sister Miss West, they hold seances to commune with spirits. When a sitter of hers dies, soon followed by another, Agnes worries she has somehow unwittingly caused their deaths. Left to provide for her mother and orphaned nephew, she works hard to make enough money from her trade of cutting shades to support her family. Her novel The Corset was one of my favourite books in 2018, so naturally I had high hopes for The Shape of Darkness.Īgnes Darken is a silhouette artist living in Victorian Bath struggling to make ends meet. The fact that Laura Purcell was the author to introduce me to a silhouette artist was more than I could hope for.

They were a cheaper alternative to painted miniature portraits but began to fall out of fashion with the introduction of photography. Popular from the mid 1700s, profiles of a person were painted or cut by hand from black cardboard in order to retain their likeness and often worn in lockets or mounted as gifts. In my years spent enjoying books, tv shows and movies set in the Victorian era (1837-1901) I can't believe I've never come across the art of shadow portraits and silhouette artists before.

The shape of darkness laura purcell