Michel Faber: A Trojan horse novel

Canongate is investing major hopes this autumn in Michel Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White (3rd October, £17.99, 1841953237), a massive historical novel set in Victorian London. It will have a first print run of 38,000 copies, and a strong promotion; US publication is simultaneous, and Harcourt will print 75,000 copies, with Faber departing for a US and Canada publicity tour soon after UK publication.

The Crimson Petal and the White, which Canongate has produced very handsomely, is radically different in scale from Faber's critically acclaimed previous works, all from the same publisher: the short story collection Some Rain Must Fall (£6.99, 0718); the début novel Under the Skin (£6.99, 0947), shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award; and two sparely written novellas, The Courage Consort (£6.99, 2265) and The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps (£9.99, 1994).

The new novel comes out at more than 800 pages: lushly written, it is the piercing and evocative story of Sugar, a young prostitute at Mrs Castaway's brothel who specialises in providing the services others in her profession are reluctant to offer. Sugar becomes an object of obsession for William Rackham, the well-heeled heir to a perfumes empire and husband to the ailing Agnes. Keen to monopolise her services, William installs Sugar as his mistress, first in a private house and then within his own home, as governess to his neglected daughter.

Although set within a carefully researched period landscape, The Crimson Petal and the White reads as fresh and contemporary: amid frankly written sexual encounters, Faber contrasts the starkly different perspectives of his characters. William's attitudes--blinkered and complacent, though not entirely morally bankrupt--jar against the fierce sufferings of Sugar, introduced into prostitution by her mother from childhood and well versed in the necessary art of flattering to survive. Faber also powerfully describes the downward slide of fragile Agnes Rackham, teetering on the edge of mental and physical collapse.

Faber, who says he felt great kinship with the character of Sugar, admits that he has started to feel a little self-conscious about the extent to which his writing is suffused with the female perspective. "I used to have convincing answers for why this had to be so--the character of Isserley in Under the Skin had to be female for the plot to work, etc--but in the end I realised that these were rationalisations and I really don't have a clue why I prefer the female 'voice'. I was a very hard-line feminist when I was younger, very disgusted with maleness. I've since become fonder of the male sex."

Faber--who was born in the Netherlands, but moved in childhood to Australia, and now lives in the Scottish highlands--began the novel in 1981, when he was still at Melbourne University. "Thankfully I never submitted it, so by the time Canongate got hold of it I was 20 years older and a much better writer, and the book had been substantially rewritten twice."

He makes light of The Crimson Petal and the White's historical setting--"All novels are historical novels in that they're all artistic re-creations of a time and place that don't really exist except in the author's spirit"--but concedes that the book is something of "a Trojan horse" for readers who consume historical novels as a genre.

"Anyone who imagines it will give them a romantic excursion in period costume is in for a shock. It's a terrifyingly explicit book about child abuse and sexual politics. And yet, on the other hand, those who think it's going to be a walk-on-the-Victorian-wild-side will find their expectations challenged when Sugar gives up prostitution and the action shifts to the intimacy of mothering and the place of morality in human affairs."

Faber says he is as interested in the Victorian religion as with its sexual terrorisms; another strong character in the book is Emmeline, a staunchly Christian volunteer with the Rescue Society, which aims to save fallen women. "The religion in this book is quite 'hard-core' too. Our postmodern, cynical take on religious faith makes the fervent and absolutely genuine Christian belief of Emmeline quite difficult to digest. Christian fervour makes many people more uncomfortable than extremes of sexual behaviour, and I'm fascinated by our culture's fear of moral sincerity."

Benedicte Page

lCanongate has sold 55,000 copies of Under the Skin. The book was translated into 22 languages.

lA substantial publicity campaign for The Crimson Petal and the White includes: Daily Telegraph magazine interview (21st September); Independent magazine (27th); BBC Radio 4's "Start the Week" (30th); reviews already commissioned for Sunday Times, Guardian, Observer, Independent on Sunday, Spectator.

l UK bookshop events include Hootananny's Café, Inverness (27th September), Borders in Oxford Street (1st October), Pan Bookshop, Fulham Road (2nd).