A Still And Awful Red Review
“My mother blew out the candles and lay down beside me. The cottage was quiet and dark save for flickering firelight that cast deep shadows on the empty walls. Closing my eyes, I breathed in the familiar scents of peat and dried meat and fresh baked bread, hoping that the same moon now shining outside my dirty window would look bigger and brighter the next time I gazed at it from my room inside Čachtice Castle.” – Michael Howarth, A Still and Awful Red.
“A Still and Awful Red” is a gothic historical novel written by Dr. Michael Howarth. The story takes place in Hungary, 1609 and follows Maria, a seamstress, who is hired by Countess Elizabeth Báthory to sew three gowns for her by the end of summer. Maria believes working for the Countess will allow her to fulfill her dreams of living a more prosperous life but quickly realizes that the lavish life she dreamed of may not be what she hoped. Maria is plunged into the Countess’ world as she unearths dark truths and struggles to survive in the castle under the Countess’ watch.
Countess Elizabeth Báthory is a real historical figure. She was a wealthy noblewoman and the niece of the King of Poland, Stephen Báthory. In 1609, Báthory was accused of murdering at least 600 girls. A few of her victims were said to be noblewomen who she was educating which is why it gained the attention of King Matthias who had her cousin, Count Thurzó investigate. Báthory was arrested in 1610 and confined to Castle Csejte until her death in 1614.
While there remains debate among historians over the validity of the claims and testimony, several myths and folklore surrounding Báthory’s alleged crimes have arisen with the most prominent being that Báthory bathed in the blood of virgin girls to maintain her beauty.
A Still and Awful Red takes inspiration from this myth of Báthory bathing in the blood of servants and noble girls to preserve her beauty. During Howarth’s reading of the first few chapters at the USC Aiken Inter-Curricular Enrichment “ICE” event “The Spring 2023 Oswald Writer’s Series” on Mar. 16, he concluded the reading at the end of chapter two where Maria is arriving at Castle Čachtice and sees the punishment that a boy received for stealing livestock from the countess.
“The boy was beaten by the local magistrate, his back lacerated by a bullwhip, his face kicked in until he choked on his own teeth. I wanted to look away, but I had never seen anything so grotesque.”
When I first heard this section of the novel, I wondered if the ominous tone was to throw off the reader in anticipation of Maria and the Countess meeting for the first time and maybe there’s a small possibility the Countess is good. This turned out to not be a case of ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ and I really appreciate the author’s consistency and characterization of Báthory throughout the novel.
In the book, the countess is described taking her anger out on her servants who make the slightest mistakes like the scene where one of the servant girls accidentally drops the brush and the countess takes a pair of scissors and stabs the girl’s fingers with it in front of Maria.
Howarth’s descriptions are very detailed and vivid. The imagery does a great job at conveying the horrors of what is going on. There are also little details of foreshadowing that go a long way like Maria feeling a glance in the corner even though she didn’t see anyone specifically. It creates this unsettling feeling that puts the reader on edge because the servants and Maria are always being watched.
Maria is constantly on edge throughout the book and her condition has worsened in contrast to her hopeful disposition at the beginning of the novel. The slow deterioration of Maria’s physical and mental state is compelling and adds to the psychological horror. She has overworked herself trying to make a dress the countess will like on a strict deadline. Coupled with her not being able to sleep at night due to the screams of the girls being tortured and having nightmares of something bad happening to her, she becomes sleep deprived and has become thinner over the course of her stay at the castle even though they have a lot more food than what she did back at home.
While readers only spend two chapters in Maria’s home, she looks back on her life in the cottage and reminisces about her mom probably enjoying hot cider or has already made breakfast. Maria looking back on these simpler times throughout the book is a reminder of who she is and how despite the hardships she has had to endure, she is still the same person who is curious about the world and outspoken in a very endearing way.
There are several parallels between Maria and the countess. They act impulsively, although Maria does so to a less extreme. The countess was described as being very beautiful in her youth, while Maria is the picture of the beauty that the countess feels like she has lost. The parallel serves to enhance the story as well as how the author fleshes out the relationship between Maria and the supporting characters.
Overall, I highly recommend reading this book if you’re a fan of gothic literature and horror. I really enjoyed reading it.
