Catherine Jinks: The Gentleman's Garden

By SUE YOUNGER

How wretched I am, here at the outer limit of the world," writes Dorothea Brande from Sydney Cove, New South Wales, in 1814.

Like George Eliot's Dorothea, she has made an ill-fated marriage. This is the story of her disillusionment with her officer husband and with the young colony. Gradually realising that her husband is vain and foolish, she finds herself alone in a brutal world. Even the comfort of having children is denied her as she is devastated by repeated miscarriages.

Too genteel to cope with the floggings and cruelty in the streets, she is effectively imprisoned in her home, where she establishes an English garden with her convict manservant, Daniel, the only other character in the novel with feelings as fine as her own.

Written in the style of a 19th-century novel, the finely observed historical detail makes The Gentleman's Garden an engaging read. The social inter-relationships and domestic minutiae are well drawn, and the romance is thrilling in an old-fashioned way. There is no touching, and it concerns a love so forbidden that Dorothea doesn't even realise the true source of her feelings until late in the piece.

There are flaws in the writing. The main plot event, which forces Dorothea to show some courage and resistance, comes too late in the book. Dorothea's letters to her sister are awkwardly used as a narrative device. The ending is abrupt and glib, depriving us of the most interesting part of the story. And don't expect to learn much about the garden - it is very under-used.

But it is an enjoyable romantic novel, with some interesting thought about social class and the role of women in a colony. Those who enjoy novels by Jane Mander, and fans of the film The Piano will find it a good summer read.

Allen and Unwin

$36.95

* Sue Younger is an Auckland documentary-maker.