{"id":1531,"date":"2026-09-18T08:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T08:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bangormetro.com\/?p=1531"},"modified":"2026-09-08T16:11:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T16:11:29","slug":"imperfect-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bangormetro.com\/?p=1531","title":{"rendered":"Imperfect Heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Historical Fiction Asks Timeless Questions<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

By Robin Clifford Wood<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Seraph,\u201d Jane Goodrich\u2019s second novel immersed in late 19th century history, was released in July 2026. When we met in Southwest Harbor before her book event, Goodrich shared a story about her earliest authorial output.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI vividly remember running to the lawn chair where my mother was sitting outside. \u2018Read my story!\u2019 I said. \u2018But you can\u2019t read yet, dear,\u2019 said my mother.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Little Jane was still too young to read and write, but she\u2019d made a bunch of random marks on paper that she \u201cread\u201d to her mother, word for word. Clearly the inclination to tell stories was born early in Jane Goodrich. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Running alongside Goodrich\u2019s love of reading and writing was her early love of history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I was 7 or eight 8 old, my grandfather took me to an auction. Everything was 19th century, and I thought it was all fabulous,\u201d she said. \u201cHe gave me a blue glass insulator. It was my first antique.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was the beginning of a lifetime love of historic artifacts. Goodrich\u2019s particular interests lie in the historic period between about 1870 and 1930. Both of her novels \u2014 which she wrote by hand with the same fountain pen \u2014 delve into lives from that period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arguably Goodrich\u2019s most ambitious project was unrelated to writing, though it led to her first novel. \u201cThe House at Lobster Cove\u201d is based on the story of an extraordinary late 19th century home called Kragsyde. After seeing a photograph of the old house, Goodrich was entranced. Years later, dismayed to learn that Kragsyde had been torn down, Goodrich and her fianc\u00e9 tracked down blueprints to the house. In a span of 15 years, the two of them \u2014 a master builder and a design specialist \u2014 built a reproduction of Kragsyde on Swan\u2019s Island in Maine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI drove the backhoe, I laid the blasting caps\u2026I did everything,\u201d Goodrich said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During those 15 years, Goodrich became intrigued by the house\u2019s original owner, George Nixon Black, whose philanthropic contributions were legendary and whose life was shrouded in secrecy. Black\u2019s story, and Kragsyde, lit the flame of curiosity for Goodrich, who spent years researching and writing \u201cThe House at Lobster Cove.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In \u201cThe Seraph,\u201d Goodrich puts her meticulous historical research into play again as she imagines details into the real life of Cora Page, a renowned 19th century spiritualist medium. At a time in history when women\u2019s voices were rarely acknowledged, Page\u2019s voice was heard by thousands who flocked to hear her speak in the words of \u201cghosts\u201d from the past in meditative trances on stage. \u201cThe Seraph\u201d explores the shadowy boundaries between fraud and authenticity, fact and speculation, right and wrong \u2014 concepts we continue to grapple with every day, 150 years later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goodrich\u2019s rigor in staying true to the historic period is reflected not only in her prose but even in some of its design elements. Incorporated into \u201cThe Seraph\u201d are several news releases from the time period, reproduced using the authentic typeset from each publication. Goodrich\u2019s evocative writing echoes the voice, vocabulary, and syntax of the past. She pointedly avoids reading other writers\u2019 fiction when she\u2019s writing a novel. \u201cI don\u2019t want to pick up someone else\u2019s cadence,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the deftness and beauty of her prose are provocative challenges to a reader\u2019s sense of conviction. Tapping into the best qualities of historical fiction, she examines the complexity of the human experience. None of Goodrich\u2019s characters is without flaws, and she leaves us to question. Where do right and wrong overlap? Where do they diverge? Goodrich slips questions with no clear answers into her characters\u2019 voices:<\/p>\n\n\n\n