Inside Out

YA novel number six finds us in 19th century London. Sixth in a series of fifteen.

Updale, Eleanor (2004). Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman? NY: Orchard Books. 232 pages.

Evaluation and summary: Montmorency is a petty thief, stealing petty things – food to eat, clothes to wear. Montmorency isn’t even his real name – it’s the name given to him by his jailers, taken from a label on his clothes. Montmorency not only begins the novel in prison, but in the prison hospital.  Montmorency was brought in half-dead,  after falling through a glass roof, and sewn back together over many painful operations by Dr. Fawcett. While in prison Montmorency conceives a plan, one that will take him far from petty thievery and into the highest – and lowest – parts of London society.

Montmorency was a required read for class and frankly I looked forward to it. I am in the minority of readership that really digs historical fiction.  A recovering history major with an interest in Victorian and Edwardian Europe, among other time periods.  Someone with a strong yen for adventure stories and pulp fiction. So I looked forward to Montmorency and for the most part was not disappointed. My only quibble  is with a shift in Montmorency’s character, one that occurs near the end of the book and and seemed a little sudden to me.  (Although it does set up the sequels nicely.) But this may be part of the what the book is trying to get at, this question of  how identities are formed.  The character Montmorency starts as  blank slate, a person with a name given to him by others with a vague plan.  His initial identity – the be accurate, identities – are created by his actions. Or are they?  Is Montmorency’s final metamorphosis, from thief to gentleman, the result of happenstance, or does the happenstance reveal an essential decency that was there all along?

Booktalk hook: Historical fiction is not a terribly popular YA genre, and understandably so. I liked Johnny Tremain but I was a weird kid. To sell this one, I might try emphasizing the adventure aspect of the novel, such as the part where Montmorency nearly drowns in the sewers.