The Well
Genre: historical fiction, gothic horror/romance
Setting: a fictional Northern English town in 1809. Think the setting of a Jane Austen novel
Themes: control – love – specifically the desire to be loved – manipulation – secrets – desperation – freedom vs restraint – order vs chaos
Marianne Skyler is an unmarried woman of twenty-four, who is determined to find herself a husband while she is still considered to be of marriageable age. Along with her friend and cousin Jane Hawberk, she searches the town of Cinemoor for a suitable match, falling first for the handsome dandy Alexander Penne, who seems completely unaware of her existence. Meanwhile, chemist Samuel East is desperately searching for direction in his life, but finding none. He is pulled, in matters of love, in what seems to be a thousand directions at once, and agrees to help Marianne in her search for a husband instead of dealing with his own problems. Not everyone in the town is so generous towards her, however, and soon a malicious overhearer spreads a rumor that instead of being in love with Alexander, Marianne is in love with his somewhat cruel identical twin brother, Thomas Penne. And then the trouble begins.
Marianne Skyler
The main character. A somewhat silly and dramatic young unmarried woman, she is desperately seeking love.
Jane Hawberk
Narrator who is a horrible person. She delights in manipulating people and seems to view most things as a colossal game.
Samuel Easton
Pathetic wet dog of a narrator. He’s very anxious about everything despite his intelligence and he just wants to be liked.
Alexander Penne
Marianne’s original love. A carefree dandy who doesn’t want to be weighted down by anything. Ye Olde Himbo.
Thomas Penne
Alexander’s twin, an artist with a significant mean streak. He doesn’t take kindly to thing he dislikes.
Victor Chandler
A businessman who Marianne is also somewhat interested in. Egotistical and somewhat cowardly.
Quincey Wilde
Samuel’s close friend, a poet. He’s arrogant and often comes off as callous. Is that the truth? We shall have to see.
Charlotte Scott
Samuel’s best friend. She’s haughty, aloof, and antisocial, and she seems to want control over everything in her life.
Joseph Vance
An artist who seems to the outside world slightly insane. He has a terrible reputation, but he’s perfectly civil, and Marianne’s good friend.
Samuel stepped back again, feeling that he was on more unstable ground. The first twin advanced, and he kept going backwards, until it lunged for him, and he put his foot right off the platform. He overbalanced, and fell down off the platform, into the abyss below, falling down, down, down, feeling like he was about to hit the ground at any moment, and make that tiff noise that the coin he had thrown into the well had, only much messier, and when he did hit the ground and make that same noise, everyone in the waking world would have forgotten him.
Chapter 13
Posts on this project and on any information relating to it will be in the The Well tag!
The Hermit Crab Tank 