Book Review: His Unburned Heart by David Sandner

“There, in the charred lump of his unburned heart, in its impossibility, my story lies. If you will know it, you must know it with the unsayable left in; the excess, like his heart, abides.”

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His Unburned Heart opens in Tuscany, Italy, in August 1822 as Percy Shelley’s body burns upon a beachside pyre. Attending his cremation following his untimely drowning are prideful, hot-tempered Lord Byron; dishonest, pagan ritual-performing Edward John Trelawny; publisher and supposed friend Leigh Hunt; and other locals, including Mary Shelley, forced to disguise herself as a male servant in order to attend. For Mary, the sight of Percy’s post-mortem figure is chilling and horrifying, as is the strange occurrence of his heart, pillaged from his cracked chest by Trelawny after it fails to burn.

From there, the storyline moves back and forth in time, always with the burning day as the focal point, chronicling Mary’s furious revolt against period-standard misogyny and personal betrayal, the most pointed and grating of which involves Leigh, who claims Percy’s heart and tells Mary point-blank that she doesn’t deserve it, and who attacks her lifestyle, gender, and credibility and undermines her love and devotion, leaving her infuriated and determined to claim what’s rightfully hers.

The novella then progresses into The Journal of Sorrow, “Mary’s Shelley’s epigraph to her new journal,” begun in October 1822, an account of Percy’s fatal sea journey and Mary’s feelings of regret and culpability. The text also includes 12 imagined versions of the ill-fated voyage, where the men aboard the ship fail to thwart death and destiny, their demise interwoven with supernatural elements and private musings.

Through smooth and moving prose, the story immerses the reader in the early 19th century while resurrecting a literary icon, laying bare lower class humiliations, female tensions and challenges, Mary’s intense internal struggles with grief and self-regard, and her resolved quest to reclaim her true love’s heart. As the real details have been lost to history, this historical gothic horror work reimagines what may have transpired, producing a startlingly clear, morbidly fascinating peek into a much-lauded life — an expertly crafted, in-depth examination and a powerful tribute. Both heartfelt and compelling, it’s a deeply resonant read and a haunting meditation on the monstrously finite and fickle enigmas that are man, existence, and mortality.

Thank you to NetGalley and RDS Publishing/Raw Dog Screaming Press for sending this book (which hits shelves on May 9, 2024) for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

❤Amanda