The Red Queen - Margaret Drabble

This novel in three parts consists of the tragic story of an Eighteenth century Korean princess, the experiences of a contemporary female academic at a conference in Seoul, and a curious postmodern epilogue that introduces the character of Margaret Drabble.

There is plenty of interest here in the relationships between the two stories. It is clear that the ghost of the princess has somehow chanelled her story through the modern woman and the resonances between the two gradually reveal themselves and are resolved in a surprising conclusion.

Some of the writing is surprisingly cliched, particularly in the present-day strand, and there is occasionally the sense that the story has become rather static.