I can’t in good conscience really review this book because I didn’t finish it! It was very slow & I honestly got bored & set it aside & never returned to it. It may have had a redeeming ending but the first half was excruciatingly slow. I give it 2 stars because of the interesting premise.

This is the partial review as posted on Goodreads:
Described by author Andrew Taylor as "both fascinating and infinitely strange", I completely agree! This was so strange, but I could not stop reading! The consequences for so many other than Warlow were significant and made for some compelling reading!

The ratings for The Warlow Experiment on Goodreads are fairly low so I went in with low expectations, and thought it probably wouldn't work all that well for me, but it was simply not the truth. I really enjoyed this one!


The full review is included in the link to the Literary Hoarders site below.

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2020 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2020/01/2020-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

At the end of the 1800s, gentleman Herbert Powyss decides to conduct a research experiment on what happens to the human psyche if a person is totally isolated from human contact for 7 years. He puts an ad out looking for a willing participant and semi-literate John Warlow is the only one to accept the offer. As the years of the experiment drag on, the impact of Warlow's isolation reaches much further than just Warlow himself and the unintended consequences cause lasting damage for all those involved.
The premise for “The Warlow Experiment” was very promising and I was excited to start reading it. Although I was highly engaged with the story, the writing itself I struggled with. I understand what author Alix Nathan was trying to do with following different characters and trying to give them a voice with the writing style, but ultimately it made the novel feel a bit disjointed and hard to follow. However, for the most part the story itself was an exciting examination of the human psyche and the vital role our relationships with other humans play in our mental health.

We all have times when all we want is to be alone, times when the presence of others is just too much for us to deal with. But even the most misanthropic among us has the occasional desire to see a face, to hear a voice, to interact with another person in some manner. How long could you go without that simple interpersonal contact?

And what would happen to you if you tried to find out?

Alix Nathan’s “The Warlow Experiment” tells the story of one such effort. It’s an evocative and atmospheric work of historical fiction featuring strong Gothic undercurrents and a relentless bleakness; a dark book packed with shadows both literal and figurative. The pull of the narrative is steady and strong, inviting readers into a world that will haunt their imaginations long after the final page is turned.

Inspired by a contextless advertisement from a real-life source, Nathan has imagined a vivid and unsettling place, one where the wealthy can indulge their whims without accountability and the poverty-stricken are willing to sacrifice everything for the perceived comfort money can bring. It is a tale of the power of isolation, the necessity of physical and emotional contact to the well-being of the social animal that is man.

It is the final decade of the 18th century. Herbert Powyss is a wealthy man living on a large estate in the Welsh countryside. His money is from those who came before; his is an inherited lifestyle. He has no wife and no children; aside from a scant handful of servants, he lives alone.

His passion, like many of those in similar situations at that time, is the natural world. Powyss fancies himself a gentleman scientist, with a particular affinity for botany. But aside from a few minor discoveries, he has failed to make much of an impact in the scientific community; his heart’s deepest desire is to conduct an experiment worthy of presentation to the Royal Society of London.

And one day, it comes to him.

Powyss decides to conduct an experiment on a human – specifically, the impact of enforced isolation on a man. And so, he seeks out a volunteer; in exchange for a lifetime salary of 50 pounds per year – life-changing money for that time – the subject will live in utter solitude for seven years. Powyss constructs an exquisite set of apartments deep below his manor house, furnished beautifully and packed with books and musical instruments. Food will be lowered by dumbwaiter three times a day; soiled linens and dirty dishes sent back up. There will be no social contact whatsoever.

Only one man, a semi-literate laborer named John Warlow, takes Powyss up on the offer. He is not to cut his hair or nails and is expected to write his thoughts in a journal each day. One evening in 1793, Warlow is sealed into his new home for the next seven years – he will not emerge until after the turn of the century.

At least, that’s the plan. It isn’t long, however, before the experiment spirals out of control. The dynamics begin to break down almost immediately, while out in the world, the political climate is charged with anger and violence. Powyss also finds his objectivity challenged by the relationships that emerge over the months and years that the experiment continues.

It turns out that being alone, truly alone, is a lot harder than any of them anticipated. And the consequences – for everyone involved – are far greater.

Part of what’s so fascinating about “The Warlow Experiment” is how utterly plausible it feels. That age was rife with self-styled scientists conducting wildly unethical and bizarre experiments on their fellow man; the experiment laid forth here certainly seems to fit in amongst them. And again, the book’s inspiration is drawn from a real ad placed in a real newspaper, asking for a volunteer to undergo just such an experiment. Since there is no record of how or even if the experiment was conducted, Alix Nathan came up with a story of their own.

And it’s an awfully good one, one that straddles a fine line between delicacy and harshness … and Nathan is always spot-on with regards to which side of that line to be on at any given moment. It’s rich and vivid prose to match the strange and surprisingly heartbreaking tale being told.

With a perspective that moves between scientist and subject, Nathan ably captures the repercussions felt on either side of the door. On one side, we watch the self-involved ambition of Powyss dissolve into despair; on the other, Warlow turns steadily inward despite an inner life that is largely nonexistent. Both are ensnared by the machinations that have been set in motion, unable to escape the mad gravity of what’s been done.

There are many different ways to be alone; what this book does so beautifully is juxtapose some of those ways against one another, forcing the reader to deal with some rather unexpected empathetic complexity and more than a few questions that aren’t easily answered.

“The Warlow Experiment” is captivating, capturing the spine and spirit of a particular place and time. It is rife with an aesthetic and attitudinal murkiness that wholly engulfs, pulling us into the deepest parts of the many shadows cast.

This book was well written and interesting, but it wasn’t exactly what I expected. There was a little bit of action that seemed out of place and really only there to say, “hey, I did my research.”. But I liked it anyway.

The premise of this book definitely interested me, but I struggled to stay interested in this book. I wasn't really a fan of any of the characters - or how they treated each other. It honestly made me kind of uncomfortable. I just wasn't a fan.

"An utterly transporting and original historical novel about an eighteenth-century experiment in personal isolation that yields unexpected - and deeply, shatteringly human - results.

Herbert Powyss lives in an estate in the Welsh Marches, with enough time and income to pursue a gentleman's fashionable investigations and experiments in botany. But he longs to make his mark in the field of science - something consequential enough to present to the Royal Society in London. He hits on a radical experiment in isolation: For seven years a subject will inhabit three rooms in the basement of the manor house, fitted out with rugs, books, paintings, and even a chamber organ. Meals will arrive thrice daily via a dumbwaiter. The solitude will be totally unrelieved by any social contact whatsoever; the subject will keep a diary of his daily thoughts and actions. The pay: fifty pounds per annum, for life.

Only one man is desperate to apply for the job: John Warlow, a semi-literate laborer with a wife and six children to provide for. The experiment, a classic Enlightenment exercise gone more than a little mad, will have unforeseen consequences for all included."

Don't you just NEED to know the consequences? I know I do!

Some readers may find this novel of a social experiment set in the eighteenth century a fascinating intellectual story, but I just found it tedious. An eccentric and wealthy landowner interested in all things scientific offers a relative fortune to anyone who agrees to live in a cellar and without human contact for seven years. The only man who applies is desperately poor; his journey of exploitation is a difficult one, even as he is contacted by servants and provided with material luxuries. Above ground, the story of his keeper is predictably problematic but also, alas, dull.

The author, in an afterward indicates that he had found an ad in the British Chronicles for the year 1797 looking for an individual to live a completely isolated life for seven years. This person would have no contact with other people for the period. If the seven years passed with no contact with the outside world and after obtaining a report from the person a stipend would be paid for life each year for as long as the individual lived. Mr Nathan could find no further information about the ad's results and finally decided to write a novel detailing possible results for both the buyer and the seller of this strange service.
That is precisely what is detailed in the book. Herbert Powyss in the interest of publishing the results of said experiment to present to the Royal Society in London hires John Warlow to live in three rooms in the house Powyss lives in. He is to live in complete isolation from the outside world. Food and other necessities would be delivered to Warlow via a dumb waiter and to relieve him of worries about his wife and children they would receive a cash allowance for the period of the experiment. Conditions would involve no contact with anyone other than receipt of the necessities sent silently via the dumbwaiter.
The novel becomes a very intriguing read in two ways. First, of course, is the actions of all the people involved in the account. Details are discussed for Warlow and Powyss as each begins to play their parts. Also, others involved including Warlow's wife, and the servants working for Powyss are major parts of the story. The period in which the novel takes place is during the French Revolution and the ensuing entrance of Napoleon and French militarism including war with England. These conditions play out in the background and have an effect on the personnel involved with the story. Second, and the most interesting part of the narrative are the psychological changes each participant undergoes. How does Warlow react through the complete loneliness he experiences. The feelings held by Powyss confronted by both the conditions created by him as part of the experiment as well as meeting with Warlow's wife every time she passes by to pick up the allowance she receives while her husband cannot work. The servants all have some obligation towards Warlow - readying his meals, sending books and other items contracted by him for the course of his confinement, cleaning his clothes and emptying the chamber pot used for waste disposal.


The novel is impossible to put down before completed. The world of almost 250 years ago is described and Mr Nathan brings in conditions during that time and how they influence what is happening in the novel. A different novel and one that is guaranteed to capture and keep the readers' interests.

I read about a third of this, and then I lost interest. It was intriguing at first, but it just didn't hold my attention after a awhile.