The Maze at Windermere: A Novel

by Gregory Blake Smith

Overview

Named one of the best books of 2018 by The Washington Post, The Seattle Times, and The Advocate

“Staggeringly brilliant . . . You’ll start The Maze of Windermere with bewilderment, but you’ll close it in awe.” —The Washington Post

“Pitch perfect.” —New York Times Book Review

When a drunken party guest challenges him to a late-night tennis match, Sandy Allison finds himself unexpectedly entangled in the monied world of Newport, Rhode Island. A former touring pro a little down on his luck, Sandy has nothing to stake against the vintage motorcycle his opponent wagers. But then Alice DuPont—the young heiress to a Newport mansion called Windermere—offers up her diamond necklace.
 
With this reckless wager begins a dazzling narrative odyssey that braids together four centuries of aspiration and adversity in this renowned seaside society capital. A witty and urbane bachelor of the Gilded Age embarks on a high-risk scheme to marry into a fortune; a young Henry James, soon to make his mark on the world, turns himself to his craft with harrowing social consequences; an aristocratic British officer during the American Revolution carries on a courtship that leads to murder; and, in Newport’s earliest days, a tragically orphaned Quaker girl imagines a way forward for herself and the slave girl she has inherited.
 
Gregory Blake Smith weaves these intersecting worlds into a rich, brilliant tapestry. A deftly layered novel of love, ambition, and duplicity, The Maze at Windermere charts a voyage across the ages into the maze of the human heart.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780735221932
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/22/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	481,126
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Gregory Blake Smith is the award-winning author of three previous novels, including The Divine Comedy of John Venner, a New York Times Notable Book. His short story collection, The Law of Miracles, won the Juniper Prize and the Minnesota Book Award. He has received a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University and the George Bennett Fellowship at Phillips Exeter Academy and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bush Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Smith is currently the Lloyd P. Johnson-Norwest Professor of English and the Liberal Arts at Carleton College.

Read an Excerpt

¥ Summer 2011 ¥
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "The Maze at Windermere"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Gregory Blake Smith.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Reading Group Guide

I have read somewhere that curators of antiquities have discovered that oftentimes parchments of the Dark Ages have underneath their present writing an older writing incompletely effaced, and that by careful investigation, the older writing can be read beneath the newer. Such a layering of writing is called . . . a palimpsest. Ah, to be able to read both the surface and that which is below the surface! (pages 69–70)

The Maze at Windermere takes us on a dazzling narrative odyssey across five intersecting stories, each set at a distinctive moment in the history of the renowned seaside town of Newport, Rhode Island.

In 2011, handsome and easygoing tennis pro Sandy Alison is surprised to find himself falling for Alice du Pont, heiress to the legendary Newport mansion known as Windermere. Alice does not look like the women to whom Sandy is usually drawn, and Sandy is forced to examine what his motives are in pursuing Alice. Does he love her, or the world that she is attached to? More than a century earlier, in 1896, a closeted gay man with nothing but a sharp wit and impeccable taste schemes to secure a life of comfort and luxury by marrying the wealthy widow who owns Windermere. In 1863, young Henry James, soon to make his mark on the world, discovers his muse in Alice Taylor and strikes up a friendship with her. His attentions, however, are misinterpreted as romantic pursuit, and James must make a decision about what he is willing to sacrifice for his art. In the midst of the Revolutionary War in 1778, an aristocratic British officer stationed in Newport is consumed by his desire to seduce—at whatever cost—a young Jewish woman. Finally, in 1692, an orphaned Quaker girl looks to find a path forward for herself, and the slave she has inherited, without losing her chance at love and happiness.

Beautifully written and unforgettable, these five interwoven stories reflect and refract one another, demonstrating both the ever-changing landscape of Newport across history and the enduring landscape of the human heart in all its love, ambition, and duplicity.

1. At one point in the novel Alice du Pont tells Sandy Alison that in France there’s “. . . a crime called abus de faiblesse. Which is exploiting someone’s frailty or weakness for your own gain. A kind of killer instinct” (page 60). Who is doing the exploiting in this novel, and who is being exploited?

2. In one of their early conversations Sandy and Aisha discuss money and motive: “When that kind of money was involved, that kind of privilege . . . could anybody really be sure of their motives?” (page 90). Do you agree with the idea that one’s motives can be obscure even to oneself? Beyond their stated motives, what do you think each main character—Sandy Alison, Franklin Drexel, Henry James, Major Ballard, and Prudence Selwyn—truly desires?

3. Major Ballard writes that he sometimes feels “as if I am standing outside the World and looking in, as if I am on the Edge of the world’s Orchard and I can see the Fruit hanging on the trees but am denied them” (page 116). Other characters in the novel share this experience of feeling that they don’t quite belong. Major Ballard’s impulse is a determination to “eat of the fruit of that Orchard, violently if that was what it took” (page 117). How do other characters respond to their experience of being on the margins of their world?

4. Certain phrases, themes, and places surface and resurface across the different eras in this novel. Did you notice any in particular? What is their significance? And, in general, what do you make of the way in which “. . . the rich past underlies the present” (page 69) in The Maze at Windermere?

5. Sandy takes Margo at her word when she offers to write him a recommendation. When Alice hears of this she laughs, surprised by his innocence, and tells him he should pass on it. “You don’t see it because it’s not inside you and so you don’t recognize it in others” (page 198). Is this an accurate assessment of Sandy? Is Sandy as innocent as others believe him to be? As he believes himself to be?

6. In part three the structure of the novel shifts, and we begin to switch more rapidly and fluidly between narrators. What is the purpose and effect of this?

7. As the author says in his Q&A, in each of the novel’s eras we are confronted with similar questions of culpability: Is Franklin Drexel’s scheme to marry a rich woman he can never love excusable because he lives in a world that has no place for him as a gay man? Should Henry James have seen sooner that his attentions to Alice Taylor might be misinterpreted? And is even the despicable Major Ballard redeemed by his beginning to love the young woman he had only meant to seduce?

8. There is some uncertainty as to what path some of the characters will choose to take as the novel draws to a close. Indeed, the author seems to be encouraging the reader to “step off the chessboard” of the novel and imagine how those paths will unfold. What do you see the future holding for each character?

9. And finally, consider the maze motif in the novel. In what ways do the characters find themselves in figurative mazes? Does the reader find him- or herself in a maze as well?

Editorial Reviews

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
A Washington Post Book We're Talking About This Summer
A Southern Living Book That We Can't Wait to Read
A LitHub Ultimate Summer Book
A Washington Book Review Best Novel to Read This Winter
A BookRiot Book You Should Mark Down Now
Winner of the 2019 New England Society Book Award in Fiction

“An intricate creation you'll happily lose yourself in.” 
—People

“Staggeringly brilliant . . . An extraordinary demonstration of narrative dexterity. Moving up and down through the strata of history, Smith captures the ever-changing refractions of human desire . . . The cumulative effect of this carousel of differing voices is absolutely transporting . . . Looking up from this remarkable novel, one has an eerie sense of history as a process of continuous erasure and revision. You’ll start The Maze of Windermere with bewilderment, but you’ll close it in awe.” 
—The Washington Post

“Smith sprinkles James’s distinctively fresh early style with just the lightest pinch of turgid fussiness—the language is pitch-perfect—and his insights into James’s character and mind are flawless.” 
—New York Times Book Review

“Once you read Gregory Blake Smith’s The Maze at Windermere, you’ll understand why Richard Russo calls it ‘a dazzling high-wire act.’ It’s a labyrinthine, layered novel that spans three centuries while following the exploits and experiences of a compelling cast of characters.”
—Southern Living

“The best of the year . . . [The Maze at Windermere] is historical fiction unlike any I’ve read. . . . Each narrative voice Smith invents is pitch-perfect, and the book offers huge formal pleasures as he peels back successions of communities like archaeological layers, connecting them in ways their inhabitants don’t necessarily register.”
—The Seattle Times

“Smith’s vibrant mix of beautiful writing, clarity of voices, flow of history and storytelling, and philosophical reflections had me slowing my pace to stretch out its pleasures.” 
—Star Tribune

“A modern-day epic spanning three centuries and five time periods. It weaves together multiple storylines set in the past and present, handing off each story from one era to the next. . . . The Maze features gay characters, freed and enslaved African-Americans, a Jewish-Portuguese immigrant, and a diversity of others mingling together to produce this dazzling novel.” 
—The Advocate

“It is timely, it is important, it made me cry and sit very still when I finished it, and it is among the best American novels I’ve ever read.” 
—Lit Hub 

“The Maze at Windermere is a dramatic and interesting look into the past of a town and the lives of those who’ve dwelled in it.” 
—New York Journal of Books

“Dazzling . . . an impressive achievement.”
—The Emerald City Book Review

“A breath of fresh air . . . Windermere succeeds in delivering a full-bodied portrait of the evolution of our very definition of status and what it really means to make it in the New World.”
—BookBrowse

“This novel is, in a word, excellent. . . . Beautifully drawn . . . Gossamer filaments connect these plotlines; duplicity in all its dismaying forms is a major theme, along with the brilliant contrast between substance and shadow, superficiality and depth. There are moments of wry humor, suspense, gut-wrenching human exchange. And through it all, an honesty—capturing life as people live it—that is made to appear easy, but is very, very difficult to actually achieve in fiction.”
—Historical Novel Society

“It is just so vibrant, so fun, so mesmerizing.”
—“Bill's Books” on NBC New York

“Gregory Blake Smith’s The Maze at Windermere is a dazzling high-wire act. I turned every page with a sense of wonder and excitement.”
—Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Empire Falls and Everybody's Fool

“The Maze at Windermere is thrilling. This novel restored my faith and made me laugh out loud. It’s rare that a novel comes along that is broad ranging, so very funny, profound, provocative, literary, and page-turning, and also word perfect. I went right back to the beginning when I’d finished, marveling again at the radiant mind of Gregory Blake Smith.”
—Jane Hamilton, author of A Map of the World and The Excellent Lombards
 
“Not since Beautiful Ruins have I read a novel with such breadth of imagination or depth of heart, nor a cast of characters so real, so varied, so compelling. In five exquisitely braided tales spanning nearly four centuries, Gregory Blake Smith illuminates the everlasting power of our passions and the hazard of our follies—in essence, the many ways we mortals strive and yearn toward the center of the maze we each call life. This book is a tour de force: gorgeous, suspenseful, cunning, and wise.”
—Julia Glass, author of Three Junes
 
“The Maze at Windermere is an astonishing book—prismatic, continually surprising, daring not only in structure but in its investigation of the human heart. Somehow it manages to be both ruthless and tender. On top of all that, it’s wildly, hurtlingly entertaining.”
—Leah Hager Cohen, author of The Grief of Others

“Compelling . . . The changing language, landscape, and mores of three centuries of American history are depicted with verisimilitude, highlighting what doesn't change at all: the aspirations and crimes of the human heart.” 
—Kirkus Reviews

“Intricately designed and suspenseful . . . Though references to James’ work, particularly The Portrait of a Lady, abound, readers don’t have to be familiar with his novels to relish the well-differentiated voices and worlds or to enjoy the way the novel’s five story lines subtly shift and begin to merge.”
—Booklist (starred review)

“Taken individually, each story is dramatic and captivating, but as the author makes ever-increasing connections among the stories and shuffles them all into one unbroken narrative, the novel becomes a moving meditation on love, race, class, and self-fulfillment in America across the centuries.” 
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Compelling . . . Award-winning novelist Smith moves nimbly among his tales’ various settings and diverse characters within the confines of Newport. . . . [An] intricate tale.”
—Library Journal (starred review)

From the Publisher

★ 10/09/2017
In his emotionally expansive new novel, Smith (The Divine Comedy of John Venner) spins out five narratives set in Newport, R.I., from its beginnings as a British colony to its later incarnation as the playground of the very rich. In 2011, tennis pro Sandy Alison falls in love with Alice du Pont, the crippled heiress of the Windermere estate, despite the machinations of Alice’s jealous sister-in-law and scheming best friend. In 1896, Franklin Drexel, a closeted gay man known as a lapdog of society ladies, tries to court the well-off Ellen Newcombe over the objections of her father. In 1863, a callow Henry James—yes, that Henry James—having decided to forsake his law studies to become a writer, comes under the spell of a young woman, Alice Taylor, forcing him to choose between art and life. In 1778, Major Ballard, a British officer charged with the defense of Newport during the Revolutionary War, becomes obsessed with a young Portuguese Jewish woman, Judith Da Silva, leading him to commit a shocking breach of military decorum. And in 1692, Prudence Selwyn, a Quaker woman whose father was lost at sea, strives mightily to make good matches for herself and her slave, Ashes. Taken individually, each story is dramatic and captivating, but as the author makes ever-increasing connections among the stories and shuffles them all into one unbroken narrative, the novel becomes a moving meditation on love, race, class, and self-fulfillment in America across the centuries. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 11/01/2017
In 2011, washed-up tennis pro Sandy Alison lands at the historic resort town of Newport, RI, and charms his way into romances with area heiresses and hangers-on. In 1896, society gadabout Franklin Drexel sets his sights on widowed Mrs. Newcomb and her considerable fortune. In 1863, future writer Henry James is 20 and a newcomer to Newport's business of flirtation. The spring of 1778 finds a British royal officer smitten with a merchant's daughter in the midst of a powder keg of revolution. In 1692, an orphaned Quaker teenager struggles to fend for her household while remaining true to her own heart. Cycling through these characters' lives, along with the common streets and landmarks of Newport, are themes of inequality, manipulation, and personal integrity. The narratives converge at the end as each tale speeds to its conclusion. All are equally compelling. VERDICT Award-winning novelist Smith (The Divine Comedy of John Venner) moves nimbly among his tales' various settings and diverse characters within the confines of Newport. Historical fiction buffs as well as those with romantic leanings should enjoy this intricate tale. [See Prepub Alert, 8/2/17.]—Jennifer B. Stidham, Houston Community Coll. Northeast

Library Journal

The complex plot of this literate, deeply satisfying audiobook has a different narrator for each of five periods overlayed in a palimpsest. The novel starts in present-day Newport, Rhode Island, with a handsome tennis pro courting an heiress (and she him), then reels back to the Gilded Age, then the Civil War, the eighteenth century, and, at last, the Colonial period, five stories told in rotation, cannily echoing each other. Each plot reflects abiding American issues of racism, anti-Semitism, social climbing, wealth, and poverty, echoing through time. The storytelling is artful and fresh, and the four male narrators are wonderfully effective, each in different ways. Caitlin Davies is weaker, her voice too contemporary and her delivery singsong, but that’s a minor defect in an arresting, affecting production. B.G. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

MAY 2018 - AudioFile

The complex plot of this literate, deeply satisfying audiobook has a different narrator for each of five periods overlayed in a palimpsest. The novel starts in present-day Newport, Rhode Island, with a handsome tennis pro courting an heiress (and she him), then reels back to the Gilded Age, then the Civil War, the eighteenth century, and, at last, the Colonial period, five stories told in rotation, cannily echoing each other. Each plot reflects abiding American issues of racism, anti-Semitism, social climbing, wealth, and poverty, echoing through time. The storytelling is artful and fresh, and the four male narrators are wonderfully effective, each in different ways. Caitlin Davies is weaker, her voice too contemporary and her delivery singsong, but that’s a minor defect in an arresting, affecting production. B.G. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

MAY 2018 - AudioFile

2017-10-09
Five parallel stories, from Colonial times to the present, set in Newport, Rhode Island.The maze of Smith's (The Law of Miracles, 2011, etc.) title is a feature of a Gilded Age estate that appears in two of the five narratives wound together here, as do other links, like women named Alice, allusions to Henry James, opportunists, closeted gay characters, chess moves, and more. In 2011, we meet a tennis pro named Sandy who is riding on his muscular physique, pleasant personality, and a vintage motorcycle he won in a bet to keep himself going among the rich of Newport. Quickly his complications include sleeping with both a du Pont heiress and another member of her household at Windermere. In 1896, on the same spot, good looks and charm are also the stock in trade of one Franklin Drexel, a secretly gay man who is hoping to butter up a rich widow and score himself a propertied marriage. In 1863, a budding writer who turns out to be Henry James himself is dallying among a similar crowd, but his concealed purpose is not matrimony but rather material for his writing. In 1778, we follow the attempts of a British officer billeted at what is left of occupied Newport to get the attention of a 16-year-old "Jewess" he's obsessed with. Due to his repugnant anti-Semitism, he plans only to wrest her from her father's protection, deflower her, and cast her aside. In 1692, Prudence Selwyn is just beginning to accept that her father's ship is not coming back and that she and her little sister, Dorcas, are orphans. She's 15, her only asset is a young female slave, and their options look very grim indeed. What seems overly complicated at first becomes quite compelling by the end, when the stories alternate in ever shorter flashes toward resolution—though, oddly, only one of them comes to what feels like a satisfying ending.The changing language, landscape, and mores of three centuries of American history are depicted with verisimilitude, highlighting what doesn't change at all: the aspirations and crimes of the human heart.

Kirkus Reviews