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    The Phoenix
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    The Phoenix
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    The Phoenix
    Ebook458 pages6 hours

    The Phoenix

    By Ruth Sims

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    At fourteen, Kit St. Denys brought down his abusive father with a knife. At twenty-one his theatrical genius brought down the house. At thirty, his past—and his forbidden love—nearly brought down the curtain for good.

    A compelling Victorian saga of two men whose love for each other transcends time and distance—and the society that considers it an abomination. Set in the last twenty years of the 19th century, The Phoenix is a multi-layered historical novel that illuminates poverty and child abuse, theatre history in America and England, betrayal, a crisis of conscience, violence and vengeance, and the treatment of insanity at a time when such treatment was in its infant stage. Most of all it is a tale of love on many levels, from carnal to devoted friendship to sacrifice.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLethe Press
    Release dateMay 2, 2011
    ISBN9781452422329
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for The Phoenix

    4/5

    49 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      The Pheonix is a gay Victorian romance written by a self-professed cookie-baking grandma. Now that is cool. If I live to be a grandma, I want to be as cool as Ruth Sims. Her book is the story of a street rat turned famous actor, Kit, and a conservatively raised young doctor, Nick. The two of them meet at one of Kit's plays and embark on a relationship that lasts across the span of years and continents. By turns, they love each other, hate each other, fear for each other, comfort each other.I found The Phoenix to be a rich, sprawling novel. It's set during the Victorian times and I believed the setting-- I believed that Nick and Kit were products of their times and upbringings. In fact, all of Ruth Sims' characters were likable or believable, and I admire her tenacity to deliver a story that is three-dimensional with real pain and complexity, rather than "they had sex and lived happily ever after."With that said, the book had a few flaws. While I enjoyed how Nick and Kit's affair spanned several years, their initial coming together was a little too quick to be truly savoured. There are other abrupt moments in the story. And while I believed Nick and Kit's joys and frustrations, I didn't feel them like they were my own, which is what separates The Phoenix from the five-star As Meat Loves Salt. Still, it's a very good read and an enviably talented debut.
    • 4/5
      The Pheonix is a gay Victorian romance written by a self-professed cookie-baking grandma. Now that is cool. If I live to be a grandma, I want to be as cool as Ruth Sims. Her book is the story of a street rat turned famous actor, Kit, and a conservatively raised young doctor, Nick. The two of them meet at one of Kit's plays and embark on a relationship that lasts across the span of years and continents. By turns, they love each other, hate each other, fear for each other, comfort each other.I found The Phoenix to be a rich, sprawling novel. It's set during the Victorian times and I believed the setting-- I believed that Nick and Kit were products of their times and upbringings. In fact, all of Ruth Sims' characters were likable or believable, and I admire her tenacity to deliver a story that is three-dimensional with real pain and complexity, rather than "they had sex and lived happily ever after."With that said, the book had a few flaws. While I enjoyed how Nick and Kit's affair spanned several years, their initial coming together was a little too quick to be truly savoured. There are other abrupt moments in the story. And while I believed Nick and Kit's joys and frustrations, I didn't feel them like they were my own, which is what separates The Phoenix from the five-star As Meat Loves Salt. Still, it's a very good read and an enviably talented debut.
    • 5/5
      The Phoenix easily gives Romeo and Juliet a run for it's money! I am a huge fan of Shakespeare, as is the author if her (Kit's!) enthusiasm within the story is any indication. Yet, Sims' forbidden love between two men is more poignant. It resonates through our society, where such love is attacked as strongly now as it was when this story was set. I will not rehash the plot, as other reviewers have already done so. But, I will say Ruth Sims is an exceptional writer whose work should not be missed. If you are looking for erotica, or M/M romance, this may not be for you. There is sex, but it's not explicit. And, Phoenix does not have the contrived "happily ever after" ending that many romances have (which I also enjoy, and am not knocking here). If you ARE looking for a deeply felt, well-written novel of true love, then buy this book now. Nico and Kit love each other, but their lives, society, and their own insecurities get in the way time and again. Until, finally, they realize that one simply cannot live without the other. While our two heroes do end up together, it is only after much loss and pain, just as in real life. A bittersweet ending, but still sweet. This novel should be enjoyed by historical fiction fans, as well as M/M fiction fans. Even those who do not agree with the M/M lifestyle can appreciate the magic in the story and Sims' prose. The reviewer who quoted Kit, forgot one line (or it has changed in this revised edition): Without the sanction of Sociey Without the sanction of the Church Without the sanction of God, Without the sanction even of yourself I love you. Obviously, these words have touched a lot of people (me included). How else to explain so many reviewers quoting them here? And, the cover art is beautiful.
    • 3/5
      Jack lives in London with his twin brother Michael, his negligent mother, and his abusive drunk of a father. When his home life is thrown to even more tragic depths, Jack escapes with the help of a troupe of actors he has befriended, and is adopted by a kind, wealthy old man. Hiding his former identity, he takes on the name Kit and goes on to become an accomplished young actor and (somewhat secretly homosexual) heartthrob, yet still he is haunted by dreams of his tragic past. He meets Nico, a gay-but-fighting-it doctor from a strict, ultra religious family, and the two quickly fall in love and begin a tumultuous relationship.Evocative, lush, dramatic, sweeping, epic, moving. These are the sorts of words I've commonly seen used to describe this book. Though melodramatic Victorian sagas aren't usually my thing (I tend to prefer more tight, character interaction/relationship focused stuff, rather than character good-chunk-of-life-span and time-period focused), I get a little tired of how frivolous so much of the m/m romance I find is, and was hoping with this I'd find the artistry, complexity, and convincing emotional content it's hard to find sometimes in more contemporary-styled things and pure romances.Sadly I wasn't even able to finish this book, and it was not even my lack of interest in the genre that was the main detractor for me. It was that the book lacked the main thing I was hoping to get out of it: convincing, complex characterization, character development, and romance. Instead I found...Unconvincing characters: Kit is a self-centered jerk who cares more about easing his nightmares than his partner's feelings. The fact he had a tragic past does not make his adult self any less of a smug, shallow bore. Nico is better, but for someone supposedly so sold on his religion, he drops his beliefs for a hot night of gay sex awfully readily. Then he angsts about it later, and does it all over again. His inner love vs. religion turmoil is never convincing. Certainly, imperfect characters are what a story like this thrives on, but they must be understandable and at least a little more sympathetic.Unconvincing romance/relationship: Why do these two love each other? Even if they characters are self-admittedly unsure, should we not get some idea from watching them? First they were infatuated, then they couldn't bear to be parted. The only reason seems to be that for some magical reason sleeping next to Nico holds off Kit's bad dreams better than anyone else. I suppose that could be romantic, but it was discovered after one night of sex before they even had a real conversation with one another. We're told and told and told they make one another happy, but WHY? I'll admit this lack of desire to give a convincing reason for sudden love is something I've seen in other Victorian novels and some might say we should just write it off as the way of this style of story. But this romance was simply MUCH too central to this novel to be given that treatment.Utter lack of development in characters/relationship: Things happen, characters angst, characters deal. Repeat. The relationship was showing no signs of development, change, or becoming more fleshed out. The characters have disagreements, giving a prime opportunity to DO these things, however all that happens is that they somewhat resolve them, then do it all over again.To the novel's credit, the theater setting/background is an interesting idea. Still, I was so disinterested by the characters I failed to take interest in their potentially more interesting theater activities, and the details certainly still weren't enough to be compelling in and of themselves. The novel also has a tendency to suddenly do a lot of “telling” at certain times. This is the occasional way of Victorian novels I think, but the author's choice of when to tell vs show and the transitions were quite jarring to me. It seemed less in the style of better Victorian novels I've read in the past (if not overly loved) and more just the author's whims of which scenes they'd like to describe and which not. Indeed, after the two main characters meet, these sudden bouts of summarizing large amounts of events stopped almost entirely, at least for the rest of the book I read, suggesting to me the author was less interested in emulating Victorian style and more in somewhat clumsily rushing through parts she wasn't interested in in order to get to the main part she was after.Still, in my usual rush to point out flaws I feel aren't mentioned enough by other reviewers, I've made the book sound considerably more horrid than it is. Though not with the artistry I'd hoped for, and ignoring the bouts of “telling,” the prose is a bit better than the average m/m romance I've picked up. The plot seems as if it may have been decently done and eventful. But my inability to buy the characters and their relationship in this novel completely ruins its readability for me. While I'd been nursing the idea of continuing to see if things get more convincing, I was able to find another review that held the same opinion of the first part as I, and it sounds as if the latter half is if anything even more irritating. It looks like I will be giving up here.
    • 3/5
      Traditionally, historical love stories are set against a backdrop of war or political intrigue (think "Gone With the Wind" or any of Mary Renault's many epic novels). As I'm more interested in culture than politics, I've never been much of a fan of this literary genre. That's why it was with surprise and delight that I discovered Ruth Sims's "The Phoenix." This is a sweeping historical romance that plays out against the theatrical goings on of nineteenth century London and New York. A veritable feast for the true culture maven. The book's main story concerns the love affair between Kit St. Denys (né Jack O'Rourke), a bright light on London's theatre scene, and Nick Stuart, a goodhearted doctor running a small clinic on the wrong side of town. The reader watches each man painfully wrestle with the demons of his tormented past, Kit as the son of an abusive, alcoholic father and Nick the son of a fanatically religious small town doctor. Acknowledging their forbidden love for one another is only one of the many complications that threaten their happiness. They must also contend with the law, professional triumphs, financial setbacks, long separations, tumultuous relationships, personal loss, even a bout of insanity. The novel, told in a compulsively readable, straightforward narrative style, is generously populated with engaging, believable characters - some clever inventions, others real life denizens of the nineteenth century theatre scene. I found Sims's detailed depiction of the Theatre Trust, a group that had a stranglehold on the fin de siecle New York theatre world, as particularly fascinating, in light of the parallels one can certainly find between it and the twenty-first century's media conglomerates that all but control our modern airwaves. As they say, the more things change... This is a book that's difficult to put down. It's informative, romantic, (tastefully) sexy and just rollicking great fun. Plus it has enough twists, traumas and surprises to keep even the most jaded reader on the edge of his seat. The only fault I can find is that some of the book's many characters were not given enough face time nor were several of the secondary relationships fleshed out to my satisfaction. For example, after the death of Nick's fanatical father, he is reunited with his mother from whom he was forcibly estranged. We are only given a brief glimpse into her new life as a widow in London and her renewed relationship with her son before the story's focus shifts back to the uncertain fate of the romance between Kit and Nick. But this complaint is only a testament to my interest in everyone and everything in the story. All the characters and their lives held me in complete thrall. Summer's coming, folks. Definitely make room for "The Phoenix" in your beach tote this year.
    • 5/5
      With or without sanction, this book is destined for greatnessThose of you who have read my reviews know I have a special love for novels that demonstrate the adversity of homosexuality in a historical setting. So discovering Ruth Sims’ romantic Victorian tale was like finding a rare gem. It’s been a long while since a book resonated this deeply in my soul. It’s with loving care that the author seamlessly weaves the tapestry of true historical characters and events with authentic fictional counterparts. The rich narrative comes to life and envelopes the reader with its vivid Victorian atmosphere. In style, it reminded me of the movie “Wilde”, and coincidentally, Oscar plays a minor role in this story. It also evoked the memory of another film “Stage Beauty” in that it wonderfully recreated 19th Century theatre life in both London and New York. (Although “Stage Beauty” was set in the 17th Century.) The story is near epic in its span of twenty years and I was never able to predict what direction it would take. I stayed up all night reading the final 100 pages because I was so mesmerized (or to put it another way: it really had me by the balls!) I must commend Ruth Sims for the extraordinary amount of research she must have done to bring such realism to the historical and psychological elements of the book. In my opinion, THE PHOENIX is a masterwork.