"You have nothing of your own. You are my wife. All that you have belongs to me. All that you are belongs to me."

After a slightly slow and awkward start (a framing narrative in the present that simply disappears), this is a wonderfully gripping and intelligent read. On one level, not much actually happens; on another, we have an intimate portrait of Lizzy Fawkes who traverses marriage and a kind of quasi-motherhood, emerging stronger, perhaps more cynical, but also enlightened by the end.

Set against a background of the French Revolution, the book juxtaposes questions of idealism vs. disillusionment and makes them play out on both a public and private stage. The revolution which is supposed to herald liberty, fraternity and universal suffrage (though, let's be clear, Tom Paine, an offstage character throughout, only applies human 'rights' to men, property owners, people of the 'correct' religion... but that's by the way and not in the book) descends into political rivalry, mass violence and unending bloodshed; while the idealising union of marriage also reveals its increasingly dark and menacing side.

Lizzy Fawkes' mother and step-father reminded me of Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, though Lizzy herself is no Mary Shelley. And one of the great strengths of the book is its refusal to offer up too patterned or neat a narrative. There are lots of 'issues' here (social equality, relations between men and women, marriage, love, violence, capitalism) but they feel natural and unforced, an intricate part of the story being told rather than hijacking the tale.

Dunmore's writing is graceful throughout, restrained and unshowy but always precise and controlled. And there is humour here, too, at the 'champagne radical' who talks of social justice while looking down on the maids and only using the best candles...

This isn't a long book but it is a rich one, with a grip that we don't always find in 'literary' fiction: 4.5 stars for a story which I gulped down in 2 sittings.