Conceit (45 page)

The London Evening Post
2
JANUARY
1765

About ten days ago a large pike was caught in the River Ouse, which weighed upwards of twenty-eight pounds, and was sold to a gentleman in the neighbourhood for a guinea. As the cook-maid was gutting the fish, she found to her great astonishment a watch with a black ribbon, and two steel seals annexed, in the body of the pike; the gentleman’s butler, upon opening the watch, found the owner’s initials, J.D. Upon a strict enquiry, it appears that the said watch had been owned by a descendent of the old Dean of St Paul’s, John Donne, and was sold to a gentleman’s servant, who was unfortunately drowned about six weeks ago, on his way to Cambridge, between this place and South Ferry. The watch is still in the possession of Mr John Roberts at the Cross Keys, in Littleport, for the inspection of the public.

VALEDICTION

Warmest thanks to my husband, Orest, and to my writing partners June Hutton and Jen Sookfong Lee for their generous critiquing and encouragement over many years. Thanks also to Thomas Wharton, Cynthia Flood, Paul Headrick, Keir Novik, Karen Novik, and Lynne Neufeld for careful readings, to Langara College and Booming Ground for their support, to N.P. Kennedy for his wit, and to Alexander Novik for being a source of wonder and delight.

While writing this novel, I read seventeenth-century writers for inspiration, particularly John Donne, Izaak Walton, Samuel Pepys, Ben Jonson, William Shakespeare, Anne Clifford, Robert Burton, John Evelyn, Margaret Cavendish, and John Aubrey. I have consulted the usual scholars and biographers but, after all is said and done, this is
my
seventeenth century and I have invented joyfully and freely. The characters entered fully into the spirit of it, contributing in surprising ways to their own fictionalization, John Donne most liberally of all. Perhaps this is fitting, for he confided to a friend, long after becoming a priest, “I did best when I had least truth for my subjects.”

I would like to thank my agents Dean Cooke and Suzanne Brandreth and the enthusiastic team at Doubleday Canada, especially Maya Mavjee, Kristin Cochrane, Martha Kanya-Forstner, and Scott Richardson. Above all, I would like to acknowledge the guidance and encouragement of my editor, Lara Hinchberger, who has been
Conceit’s
champion from the beginning.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

MARY NOVIK was born in Victoria, British Columbia. She grew up in a large family in Victoria and Surrey, and now lives with her husband in Vancouver, where she is at work on a new novel.
Conceit
was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. It was a
Quill & Quire
Book of the Year, a
Globe and Mail
Best Book, and won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize.

Mary Novik’s website can be found at
www.marynovik.com
A reader’s guide is available at
www.bookclubs.ca

Copyright © 2007 Mary Novik
Anchor Canada edition 2008

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Anchor Canada and colophon are trademarks.

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Novik, Mary, 1945-
Conceit / Mary Novik.—Anchor Canada ed.

eISBN: 978-0-307-37338-0

1. Donne, Margaret, b. 1615—Fiction. 2. Donne, John, 1572-1631—Family—Fiction. I. Title.

PS8627.O9245C65 2008       C813’.6       C2008-901156-2

Published in Canada by
Anchor Canada, a division of
Random House of Canada Limited

Visit Random House of Canada Limited’s website:
www.randomhouse.ca

v3.0

Other Titles by Mary Novik:

Muse
 (coming in August 2013)

“A cross between Umberto Eco's
The Name of the Rose
and Margaret Atwood's
The Handmaid’s Tale
…. The sensational twists and turns of Novik 's plot, the rapid changes of scene, and the piling on of horrors, all compete to give this story a wide appeal. ”
BC BookWorld

Muse
is the story of the charismatic woman who was the inspiration behind Petrarch's sublime love poetry. Solange LeBlanc begins life in the tempestuous streets of 14th century Avignon, a city of men dominated by the Pope and his palace. When her mother, a harlot, dies in childbirth, Solange is raised by Benedictines who believe she has the gift of clairvoyance. Trained as a scribe, but troubled by disturbing visions and tempted by a more carnal life, she escapes to Avignon, where she becomes entangled in a love triangle with the poet Petrarch, becoming not only his muse but also his lover.