Insider Secrets About Tennyson

Insider Secret No. 1

Aigredoux, the decaying family mansion in Tennyson, was based on a real plantation house in Louisiana called Belle Grove.  Although the house was demolished in the 1950s, you can see a picture of it above (the first photo in the row), missing some of its outer walls.

Click on the links in the “Plantations on the River Road” section on the right side of this page, to visit some of the other incredible plantation homes still standing along the Mississippi.

Insider Secret No. 2

While researching Tennyson, Ms. Blume stayed in a haunted plantation house called Nottoway, with no one but a terrible peacock named Napoleon to keep her company. 

Napoleon would stand outside the front door and scream until you opened it; he would also wait on a branch outside your window until you had *just* fallen asleep and then scream again.

Napoleon the peacock makes an appearance as “Bondurant” in Tennyson.  You can see his picture by clicking on the NAPOLEON THE PEACOCK link above.

Insider Secret No. 3

Tennyson is the only book of Ms. Blume’s that is not based on her personal family history.

Insider Secret No. 4

Tennyson was originally two chapters longer and contained a fictional 1950s article from New Orleans’ newspaper, The Times-Picayune, which detailed the fate of Aigredoux and many members of the Fontaine family.  At the last minute, Ms. Blume and her editor decided to cut these elements out to maintain the subtlety and mystery that defines the rest of the book.

Ms. Blume subsequently lost these chapters and the article in a computer crash, which is deliciously ironic considering that Tennyson is largely about lost, irrecoverable legacies.

Insider Secret No. 5

The fictional Fontaine family in Tennyson was partly inspired by Nutt family in Mississippi, who were building a spectacular mansion called Longwood when the Civil War broke out.  All of the workers fled to go fight in the war, and if you visit Longwood today, the workers’ tools are right where they left them 150 years ago. 

The Nutt Family lived in the basement of the unfinished house for generations, with ceiling plaster falling on them; a plank covered the crumbling front steps. 

Like Aunt Henrietta in Tennyson, Mrs. Nutt wrote to the US government for many years, trying to get the family’s fortune back. 

 

 

Insider Secret No. 6

Tennyson and her little sister Hattie were inspired by the young sisters featured in Sally Mann’s photography collection Immediate Family. 

Ms. Mann’s beautiful collection Deep South also inspired additional scenes and chapter titles (such as ‘The Bone Forest’). 

There are links to these books on the right section of this page.