An Interview With Jacopo della Quercia

A few weeks ago I gave a brief review of License to Quill, by Jacopo della Quercia. No, not the 15th c sculptor ; Jacopo is the pen name of a respected academic who is also a novelist and writes for Cracked.com.

Jacopo's previous book was The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy, a steampunk/alternate history/humorous adventure. License to Quill was a fun read following after reading Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 by James Shapiro which explored how political events (like the Gunpowder Plot) impacted the Bard's plays King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra.

I was contacted by Jacopo and was able to interview him.

Interviewer: How did you choose your pen name?
Jacopo: Since I was doing political work around the time I started writing for the comedy website, I had no choice but to publish under a pen name. 'Jacopo della Quercia' is one many nicknames I've been called my entire adult life due to my real name, Giacomo, being a bit of a novelty to most people. I love my real name, but I've lived my whole life with people having a hard time pronouncing it, never mind spelling it. 'Jacopo' is my name's Latin equivalent, and I love writing under it if only because it serves as a standard to what my writing is frequently about: history, with a sense of humor to it.

[I sure understand the problem of people not knowing how to pronounce your name; I grew up a Gochenour after all!]

Interviewer: What was the inspiration behind License to Quill?
Jacopo: I was still writing my previous novel The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy when Skyfall hit theaters and bombarded me with videos and articles celebrating the 50th anniversary of the James Bond franchise. This evidently rubbed off on my as I decided what book to write next! Once I learned that Shakespeare wrote Macbeth around the same time that the Gunpowder Plot took place, I realized that I had all the characters and components I needed to write a James Bond-esque spy-thriller starring the most famous Englishman who ever lived!

Interviewer: Your writing is an unusual blend of genres. I would like to know more about your choice of style.
Jacopo: I try to keep  my novels faithful to their respective eras in history, no matter how outlandish it sounds. If there are science fiction aspects to my story, I consult experts, historians, and research everything I can on science from that particular moment in history. When writing dialogue I read contemporaneous works, including letters and diaries, and use an etymological dictionary to avoid anachronisms and make the language sound real. When creating my characters, I search for real figures from history to cast in my story, even if just for a cameo.

It's a wonderful experience because it lets you leap across genres, which I find somewhat amusing since, in my view of it, this is what history has always been like. World War II was an action movie, a science fiction movies, a comedy, a drama, a full-blown horror, and even a love story for tens of millions of people at the same time. Most writers choose to focus on only one aspect of history in their stories: the adventure, the drama, etc. I find it all fantastic, so I try to include all of it.

Interviewer: What writers influenced you? What writers do you enjoy now?
Jacopo: I think it all depends on whatever I'm writing at the moment. Alexandre Dumas, H. G. Wells, and Edgar Allan Poe influenced The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy a lot more than License to Quill, which was ultimately more influenced by the life and works of William Shakespeare than by Ian Fleming's James Bond novels. I imagine I'll go on a Jane Austen binge at some point and write a book starring her. The same could go for Charles Dickens or Mark Twain, or maybe Dante, whom I am probably most indebted to as a writer.

[Austen? Dickens? Twain? I'm all for that! But imagine what he could do with Dante!]

Interviewer: What would you like readers to know about your book?
Jacopo: The first thing I would like my readers to know is "thank you." Thank you for taking this moment to give my novel a chance. It's because of readers like you that I can write books designed to make people of all interests and backgrounds more excited about history. License to Quill is a James Bond-esque spy thriller starring William Shakespeare and Guy Fawkes during the Gunpowder Plot. It is the product of years of research and a lifetime of love for William Shakespeare and the Renaissance. It is a thriller, an adventure, a mystery, and much more. I like my stories filled with surprises and License to Quill is no exception! I hope you like it!

Jacopo della Quercia

I thank Jacopo for taking the time to talk to us!

Read my review of License to Quill here. It is available from St. Martin's Griffin.

Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend

"What lasts? What lingers? What is snagged by the brambles of time, and what slips through and disappears?..Maybe all we do in life is just a race against this idea of disappearing."

Susan Orlean's  book about her childhood hero is a surprisingly a deep consideration of the need to hold onto something bigger than ourselves and the desire to immortalize our heroes. Her story is about the real Rin Tin Tin, the man whose life Rinty 'gave meaning to', and the people who worked to share Rinty's story as an example of courage and valor and goodness.

It was Rinty's permanence that intrigued Orleans. Movies and films made Rin Tin Tin a shared legend that crossed generations over the world. Rinty had the ability to convey emotion and was nearly nominated for an Oscar. He was one of the earliest and most successfully merchandised media icons. With The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin came Apache fort play sets, lunch boxes, even the Beyer figurine that Orlean vividly remembers sitting on her grandfather's desk.

In France during World War I America soldier Lee Duncan was in a bombed out town when he discovered a German Shepard bitch and puppies left behind by the Germans. As a child Duncan's mother had to leave him in an orphanage which gave him stability and care, for which he was eternally grateful. Lee empathized with the dogs and saved them, keeping a male and a female pup for himself. He named them Nanette and  Rin Tin Tin after locally made dolls that were worn by soldiers as good luck charms.

With the end of the war Lee was determined to bring his pups back to the States. "I felt there was something about their lives that reminded me of my own life," Lee wrote. "They had crept right into a lonesome place in my life and became a part of me."

Back in America, Lee nursed Rinty through distemper. He could no longer face his old job selling guns; they brought back memories of the buddies who didn't come home. He couldn't stand being indoors and took Rinty into the Sierras. He taught Rinty commands and tricks.

In the 1920s the German Shepard Strongheart was appearing in movies. Lee wondered if he could 'make his hobby pay' and developed a story idea for a film starring Rinty. He walked the streets of 'Poverty Row' in Hollywood trying to sell his movie idea.  A small studio, Warner Brothers, liked his idea and they made the first Rin Tin Tin movie which made Lee's and the Warner's fortunes.

When Rinty's movie career faltered Lee sold the idea of a television program to Bert Leonard and The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin was born. Bert later sold his rights to Naked City and Route 66, but held on to Rin Tin Tin still hoping he'd find another venue for the immortal dog.

Lee was megalomanial about his dog. His wife and daughter were second to Rinty. Bert turned down lucrative offers for productions he didn't think were worthy of the Rin Tin Tin image; he died impoverished. Lee's family packed up all the Rinty mementos and left them behind with friends. Daphne Herford who had bought several dogs from the Rin Tin Tin line tried to keep the legend alive. She and Bert waged a legal battle over the rights to Rin Tin Tin.

The book is a joy to read, at once a trip down memory land and an exploration of the human desire to create something lasting.

The Rin Tin Tin legacy was carried on by several dogs

Rin Tin Tin The Life and the Legend
Susan Orlean
Simon & Schuster

"I adored this book. It weaves history, war, show business, humanity, wit, and grace into an incredible story about America, the human-animal bond, and the countless ways we would be lost without dogs by our sides, on our screens, and in our books."  Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

New Hanky Finds: WWI Souvineers

At the Royal Oak Flea Market I found some hankies that had to come home with me.

 This souvenir handkerchief includes hand stenciled poppies and "Keep Smiling," "For Ever," and "Remember Me" slogans. It is silk with a machine attached lace edge.

 WWI soldiers sent these handkerchiefs home to sweethearts, mothers and sisters.

Remarkably fine embroidery of the flags of Great Britain, France, and Brussels grace this fine silk handkerchief.

I have a small collection of these hankies.

American Copper by Shann Ray

I won a copy of American Copper by Shann Ray from The Quivering Pen blog by David Abrams. When his review of the book posted, extolling the beauty of Ray's language, I set it on the To Be Read Next pile. Abrams wrote, "If I said just one book can, however briefly, change the way you look at both the natural world and human nature--if I said all that, you'd want to read this book, wouldn't you?"

American Copper is a story of racism and the evil in men, and it is a love story.

In the first decades of the 20th c, automobiles are seen in the Butte, Montana streets but rodeo competitions still run the circuit. Native Americans and Chinese are considered sub-human, and gangs are free to deal out punishments to those who step out of line. Copper has made immigrant Baron Josef Lowry not only rich but the most powerful man around, his arm reaching to Washington, D.C.  He is obsessed with wealth and controls everyone in his life, especially his son and daughter. After losing his wife he commands his children to never marry; he needs them he says, and he intends to pass his copper mines and wealth to their care.

His daughter Evelynne is given everything she physically needs. Her father teaches her about the natural world and gathers her poetry for publication back east. After her brother's death, Evelynne's grief turns her into a recluse. Reaching womanhood, Eve longs to escape her ivory tower and searches for a man strong enough, or audacious enough, to stand up to her father and take her away.

The evil that inhabits men, and the capacity for love is explored in eloquent prose.

I am glad to have read this book.

The book cover blurbs include the marvelous Andra Barrett, whose historical short stories in Ship Fever and Servants of the Map I adore, wrote, "This grave, unusual novel unfolds with a beautiful evenhandedness, balancing the outer world and inner life, Cheyenne and white experiences of early 20th-century Montana.  Ray's feel for the heart and soul of Montana and its people--all its people--graces every page."

And Dave Eggers, author of the memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and  A Hologram for a King, called the book "Lyrical, prophetic, brutal, yet ultimately hopeful."

Others compared this first novel's writing to Cormac McCarthy's Cities of the Plains.

American Copper
Shann Ray
Unbridled Press
ISBN: 978-1-60953-121-8

1957: Men in Red

The December 1957 Good Housekeeping magazine featured fashions for men with a Christmas flare--all in bright red!

 Matching fashions for father and son.

 

Brothers love red

  My husband says the caption below is, "It was this big!" The fish, that is.

 One boy, five men. Who is that train set up for?

 Dad also needed a classic coat that wouldn't preclude money left for gifts.

 Women and men alike wanted those wool plaid shirts. Red, I am sure.

A Pink and Blue Christmas Circa 1957

The December 1957 Good Housekeeping magazine is full of Mamie Pink--and light blues. So perhaps Pantone's colors of the year for 2016, Serenity blue and Rose Quatz pink, represent a desire to return to the Eisenhower years! Consider their two page spread, "Our Christmas Table" featuring pink walls and curtains, and a pink table cloth and chair seat covers!

"We believe that a Christmas table is as important a part of the holiday season as the tree or the presents or the food. So each year we create a table setting to serve as a dramatic background for your loveliest silver, china, and glass. This year we chose a pink theme. For the cloth, we used two length of pink felt (72 inches wide), seamed together in the center and cut into a circle. We cut out green leaves and berries of green and red felt, glued them in a border around the skirt, and wreathed each plate with them. Then we made pink-felt seas covers for the chairs and tied the pale-green napkins as though they were gifts. A wreath of real holly and a tall mound of little gifts in an epergne form the center piece. On the sideboard, as a bright finishing touch, we used real fruit, colorfully wrapped."

Pink and blue show up in the ads.

Note the pink tree on the upper left of the ad, the pink bathroom on the lower left, and the pink drapes and couch on the lower right.

Pink dresses for little girls abound in the fashion ads and in product ads. Photo at right: (Left dress) :Daisies, velvet, and lace deck the pinafore that covers a sweet pink party dress of nylon; about $9, Youngland; (Right dress) Pleasantly Victorian, with its bell sleeves and lace ruffles, of washable bates cotton satin, also in blue; about $9, Sunny Lee. At Best & Co, New York." 

Photo below: (Left dress) "Blooming with bright flowers, this dress is festooned with a frill of lace, beading, and a black-velvet tie; of Pacific Mills polished cotton, also in champagne and blue, about $5, Tiny Town, New York. (Right Dress) A perfect bon-bon of a dress, attractively tucked at front and henline, is decked with dyed-to-match lace and has an attached organdy petticoat. Of Stevens wrinkle-resistant cotton. Also in lavender, about $8, Cinderella."

Photo below: "Girls and dolls are pretty little party-goers in matching dresses with gay side sashes in a contrasting color. Simplicity Pattern 2292. We used pink cotton organdy by William Lind." 

Photo below: Left dress: "An enchanting concoction of crisp pink, trimmed with creamy lace, has a gathered skirt and scoop neckline. Simplicity Pattern 2323. We used washable "Dacron" and silk by Mallinson." Right dress: "Richly garlanded with yards of dainty lace, this sentimental little dress has a Peter Pan collar, push-up sleeves, and a Bouffant skirt. Simplicity pattern 2322. We used pink cotton organdy by William Lind."

A lone blue dress!

A brighter pink dress, and blue, nearly turquoise in the table and chairs.

This pink kitchen is not as bright a pink, but it is paired with blue.

A blue vacuum.

This vacuum color is more turquoise. 

Bing Cosby has a pink and blue kitchen. Somehow I doubt he really spent any time in it.

Pink and blue, with brown and white, predominates this vintage fabric.

Mamie Eisenhower's inaugural ball gown, 1953, featured 2,000 rhinestones.

Breaker Boys to Break Your Heart: Coal River by Ellen Marie Wiseman

Author Ellen Marie Wiseman knew she had a story that needed to be told. Her new novel Coal River takes readers on a journey back a hundred years ago, revealing the brutal life of children who worked in the coal mines. It was before worker's rights, unionization, and the establishment of the Department of Labor in 1913. Read Coal River and see if your heart doesn't break over the life of the Breaker Boys.

For ten or twelve hours a day these lads sat on a wood plank over conveyor belts, With bare hands they reached down to pick the slate and impurities out from the passing coal. The coal was washed, creating sulphuric acid which burned their flesh. The boys' fingers bled, their backs ached, they breathed in the coal dust. And too often the children tired and caught body parts in the belt and lost a hand or an arm, a foot or a leg. Or maybe they fell in and were crushed.

Breaker Boys at work

The story is about Emma who at age nineteen is an orphan. She has come to Coal River to live with her maternal aunt and family. Her uncle works at the coal mine. The mine is a looming presence that is inescapable: mountains of slag, pervasive coal dust, the burning culm banks lighting the night. The workers' houses, company owned, are filled with impoverished and distraught families with children missing body parts. The women can't find enough money to feed the family. And when the breadwinner is killed in the mines the family loses their home.

Emma has citified, modern ideas and is used to nonconformity and independence; her parents worked in theater. She also has bad memories of her only other visit to Coal River, for her younger brother Albert drowned in the river after a run-in with the local kids. She disdains her relations' old fashioned values based on fitting in and their wealth made on the backs and blood of the workers.

Emma is moved by the injustice she sees and becomes a (figurative and literal) underground activist, culminating in entering the mines as a breaker boy to photograph the illegal conditions and underage workers. She sends the photos to the New York Times. She becomes involved with a pro-union mine worker and is courted by the local sheriff--who is in the mine owner's pocket but hankers for Emma's love. The climax involves a mine accident, a murder, and Emma's incarceration.

Most readers will be riveted by Emma's story and the descriptions of life in a coal mine before government oversight and unionization. I commend the author's bringing the breaker boys to attention. Readers learn about how the mine owners controlled every aspect of the workers lives, holding them in near slaver. The writing is competent, especially the visual descriptions.

Emma will appeal to modern readers who like their heroine feisty, headstrong, and fearless. Like most contemporary historical fiction, she is not a woman of her time (1912). But she does share traits with muckrackers like Ida Tarbell and Nelly Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman). Lewis B. Hines makes an appearance in the story. I wish he'd had a bigger role. Hine's photographs of working conditions for children spurred national interest and the establishment of laws to protect children. His work clearly informs the character of Emma.

Lewis Hines photograph of boy mine workers

The portrayal of the mine owner and bosses, and the good ole boys in the owner's pocket, was one sided: totally evil, despicable, and immoral. They take the law into their own hands, dealing out 'justice' that supports profits and the power structure. Emma's uncle is not only mean, a miser, abusive, and a drunk, he also goes after young girls. (Remarkably, the girl LIKES him. Must be his power.) The resolution was forced and too clever. Talk about deus ex machina. I was disappointed. But romantics will love it.

Read about the Breaker Boys and other children mine workers discussed in the novel, and see photographs by Lewis W. Hines, at the Department of Labor website Little Miners here.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Coal River
Ellen Marie Wiseman
Kensington Books
Publication Date: November 24, 2015
$15 paperback
ISBN:9781617734472

Winter with the Fairies

Lady Winter

Lady Winter clothed in ermine
On the North Wind gallops in,
Over crystal bridges bright,
Over carpets snowy white.

See the North Wind, snorting, prancing,
Scare the leaves that, romping, dancing,
Cease their merriment and play
And hurrying, scurrying, run away.

Winter Sports

The children's coats are downy white,
And ruddy winter berries bright
Are tam-o-shanters warm and red
Upon each little golden head.

On sleds of holly leaves they coast,
Of silver skates they proudly boast
And snowball fights with tiny forts--
These are their jolly winter sports.

Mother Earth's Lullaby

Sleepy little flowers, cuddle down to rest,
Soft and warm and loving, close to Mother's breast,
Drowsy little flowers, snuggle close to me,
Whispering Winds, come hither and croon your melody.

Sleep, my little children, through-out the long cold night,
You shall be tucked under blankets snowy white,
Dream, my little children, in slumbers soft and deep,
Whispering Winds, come hither, and croon my babes to sleep.

*****

I hopes you enjoyed a year with the fairies!

The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by  Michael Coren is a good introduction to the man behind Sherlock Holmes. It is a brief biography that is cogent, succinct, accessible, and complete.

The preface states this is not a literary biography, but he does an admirable job covering Doyle's literary achievements from conception to public response. We learn about the men who inspired his characters and how he came to write The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Doyle's life is more adventurous and passionate than one would have supposed. He was a vital man who enjoyed challenging sports. Bored with his medical studies he signed up on a whaling expedition to the Arctic before he'd completed his degree. He had trouble establishing his medical career and tried his hand at writing stories. He discovered a facility in story-telling that was salable. Coren notes Doyle's strengths and weaknesses as an author.

Doyle was a champion of causes. Although a conservative, some of his causes were remarkably forward thinking such as his work toward fair divorce laws for women. He himself never considered divorcing his own wife when he fell in love with another woman; Doyle gave his ailing wife constant and loyal support, marrying the woman he loved after her death. Raised Catholic he later rejected religion but became deeply interested in spiritualism.

It is interesting to learn that in his later life he himself was involved with solving several crime cases.

The biography is a nice introduction.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a a fair and unbiased review.

Endeavor Press is the U.K.'s largest digital publisher.

The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
by Michael Coren
Endeavor Press
Publication Date October 9, 2015
Ebook
ISBN: 9780747526681

Read my blog post on The Immortal Sherlock Holmes here.

Thanksgiving with the Fairies

The Brownies' Thanksgiving Turkey

"Gobble, gobble," sang the turkey

Just before Thanksgiving Day,

Never did that turkey gobbler

Sing another gobbing lay.

"Goggle-Gobble, " sand the Brownies

As they viewed their vast repast

"This we know, that best they gobble

Who can gobble-gobble last."

The Chieftain's Song of Thanks

Ye rulers of the Year,
who do my tribe befriend,
To you, most plenteous givers,
my messengers I send.
Accept their songs of thanks,
their caroling of praise,
For summer and its aftermath,
the Indian summer days.

Our autumn crops are garnered,
our Indian corn is yellow,
Beneath the harvest moon
our harvest fruits are mellow;
With grains in plenty seasoning
in autumn's purple haze,
We have no dread foreboding
of winter's fearful days.

Jack Frost

Elfin pictures on the pane
Mean Jack Frost has come again;
Lace and fens and vines and flowers,
Snow-capped peaks and fairy bowers,

Castles gleaming opalescent,
Rivers flowing iridescent;
Jewels set in filigree,
All in crystal fantasy.

from A Year With the Fairies
Anna M. Scott
1924

The Real Traviata and the Men Who Loved and Immortalized Her

Marie DuPlessis at the theater

"...a young woman of exquisite demeanor...chaste, oval features, her gorgeous dark eyes shadowed by long lashes, the purest arching eyebrows, a nose of the most exquisite and delicate curve, her aristocratic shape that marked her out as a duchess for those who did not know her...by a wist of fate she was born a peasant girl in Normandy." from the obituary of Marie Duplessis written by Theophile Gautier

I became a Verdi fan in the 1980s. La Traviata was made into a movie in 1983 starring Placido Domingo and Theresa Stratas and directed by Franco Zeffirelli; the movie was my first encounter with the opera. Then I learned the Verdi Requiem while in the Mastersingers choir, the most exciting music I had ever sung.

I knew that La Traviata was connected to the Alexander Dumas fils book The Lady of the Camellias (La Dame aux camelias) but I didn't know there was a real woman behind the stories, Marie Duplessis, born Alphonse Plessis.

The Real Traviata: The Song of Marie Duplessis by Rene Weis reveals the woman and the men who loved her and presents a history of the transcendent art that has made her immortal. Alexander Dumas fils was one of her lovers; his novel inspired by Marie's short life arrived soon after her death. It became a play, and that play inspired Verdi to throw out his nearly completed project to write La Traviata--all within four years of Marie's death.

The book, play, and opera met with resistance getting past the censors. Marie was a courtesan, one with class and style and regal bearing whose lovers included men from the highest ranks of life. Marie's protector had her educated, paid for her housing, and availed himself of her love even while knowing she had at least one other lover on the side. Some courtesans of the day were quite wild and profane but Marie had the bearing, soul, heart and generosity of a high born lady. Dumas loved her but was too poor and had to give her up. Liszt was on concert tours and couldn't bring her with him; he left the first woman he ever loved behind in Paris.

Impoverished Girls Preyed On by Men

Weis takes us into the disturbing history of prostitution and child abuse in the early 19th c. Marie's childhood was tragic and horrifying. Her drunkard and abusive father forced Marie's mother into hiding for her life, leaving her two daughters with family. Marie's surrogate family could barely feed themselves and when Marie was ten she was told she had to find her own food. At some point she was trading sexual favors for food.

She was a beautiful girl with skin like Camellias, and with dark eyes and hair. Starved for food and love, Marie later confessed that she had enjoyed the attention of the men. After her father found and reclaimed his daughters he himself abused Marie and when she was thirteen sold her favors to a local pedophile. Shortly afterwards she had her first menses. Weis cites an 1857 study by Ambroise Tradieu who first revealed the pervasiveness of sexual child abuse and rape. Men from the highest classes picked up teenaged girls and indulged themselves without thought.

Marie as Pretty Woman

That Marie, like other young girls who were abused and raped, became a prostitute was ordained by such a childhood. She was smart; to avoid the dangers of the streets she sought a protector. At age 16 she found her protector in Morny, a Bonaparte. Just six years before she was starving; now had a home of her own, enough to eat, and lovely clothes to wear. Her lover paid for her education--reading and writing, piano, dancing, everything needed for her to move among the highest classes of society. (Think Pretty Woman or Pygmalion or My Fair Lady.) Her protector even fell in love with her. At age 17 Marie gave birth and was sent to her country hometown to recover; Morny took the baby, who died. Marie didn't learn of her baby's death until a year later.

Queen of the Night

Morny left Paris for a position with the government and his friend took his place keeping Marie. By then she was a real trophy mistress. She had a series of generous lovers, protectors who paid for her upkeep while seeing other men. Marie lived the high life abroad and at home, enjoying the opera and gambling and waltzing through life. Then Marie met Edouard de Perregaux, a serial womanizer, romantic and feckless. He became the man immortalized as Alfredo, Violetta's lover in Verdi's opera. Their affair had ups and downs, marriage and estrangement.

Edouard saw that Marie was a 'pearl lost in vice', a kind and romantic woman. He moved her out of Paris to keep her to himself for a while. He had his own checkered past and was involved with another courtesan and actress. They idyll didn't last.  Back in Paris Marie had to juggle the man paying for her keep and her lovers. She had to think of her future when her older protector would die; any of these lovers could be taking his place. Although Edouard may have loved Marie he was in debt and his family pressured him to give her up.

Marie was an exceptional woman, especially considering her profession and childhood. One day a woman and with her son struck up a conversation with Marie. The ladies hit it off but Marie felt the need to confess she was a courtesan. The woman had seen Marie's soul and remained a lifetime friend. Marie donated money for an orphanage and raised even more from her friends.

Marie eventually became involved with a 'manager' and had men lining up at her door.  She lived in splendor and it took a lot of money to keep up appearances. Her most notorious love affairs at this time included Alexander Dumas fils and Franz Liszt. Dumas was the first to note symptoms of T.B. in Marie.

Death and Transfiguration

Marie's tuberculosis claimed her life in 1847 when she was only 23 years old. She had been estranged from Edouard and wouldn't let him see her. She wouldn't ask for help from friends. She spent her last days sitting at the window in her empty suite. Her possessions were sold at auction. Dumas purchased back a necklace he had given Marie; his daughter wore it to her grave. She was buried in a temporary unsanctified grave until Edouard had her reburied with a tomb. He insisted on opening the coffin to be sure it was Marie. His last image would be her already decaying face.

Alexander Dumas, the son

Almost immediately the low-born courtesan was turned into an angelic soul, starting with her obituary. Dumas wrote The Lady of the Camellias; he revealed the seamy side of Parisian society, an unflinching look at the world of the prostitute and the men who frequented them. After getting past the censors he turned the book into a play. It too was unable to pass the censors until Marie's former lover and protector used his governmental power to approve its performance. And then Verdi attended the play and immediately starting writing the music of La Traviata, even before he had a libretto.Verdi was not married to his companion and understood social prejudice; they too had tried to hide in the country. Verdi had lost a wife and children and understood grief. The opera allowed him to deal with his personal losses.

The story of the abused child who inspired one of our most beloved operas is fascinating and disturbing. While reading the section about the opera's performance history I was able to find clips on YouTube and other online sites. The book is illustrated showing the people and places of Marie's history. It was a fascinating read.

[A] superbly readable and meticulously researched biography...It is hard to think of a more dramatic life, from a horrific childhood to the glamour of high society, and Weis tells it with operatic pathos. The Sunday Times

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Real Traviata: The Song of Marie Duplessis
by Rene Weis
Oxford University Press
Publication November 1, 2015
$39.95 hardcover, 38 B&W photos, 2 maps
ISBN: 9780198708544

Learning to Conduct Life's Storms: All of Us and Everything by Bridget Asher

On a dark and stormy night in Ocean City, New Jersey in 1985 Augusta gave batons to her daughters Esme, Liv, and Ru, and while playing the Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique taught them how to conduct the storm. Augusta knew there were people who loved storms, people who feared them, and people who loved them because they feared them. Augusta wanted to teach the girls how to control the uncontrollable, for even the appearance of control can make one feel really in control.

All of Us and Everything is about a dysfunctional family of sisters who grow apart into lives they can't control, all believing the roots of their problem lie in growing up without knowing their father. Did their mother sleep with strangers? one questioned.

Augusta wanted to keep the girls safe, just the four of them, not needing anyone else. Liv wanted to find out for herself if being like other people was good. She grew up to be a profiteer though marriage. targeting rich engaged men she deemed desperate and feeling trapped. Esme couldn't wait to escape, desiring an Ivy League education. She marries safe Doug, who leaves her for a dentist he saw while in France. And Ru, the youngest, memorized the whole family drama that would someday inform her novel; she is also a perpetual runaway bride.

August had told the girls what they thought was a story: Your father is a spy.

In 2012 Hurricane Sandy floods Augusta's home and the girls, all at impasses in their personal and professional lives, return home--together for the first time in years. Esme brings her troubled daughter Atty, who Tweets every minute of her life to thousands of strangers. Each is looking for something.

The storm has dredged up a packet of letters that are delivered to Augusta. The contents change her perception of the past and her understanding of the present. And the last member of the family is invited back, the father the girls have never known. The lost are found, the separated are reunited, things taken apart are put back together.

I loved everything about this novel. It is hilarious, wildly funny. It is unbelievable and it is real. It is humane, forgiving, and hopeful. I read it in twenty-four hours and wanted to read it again. It is rare to find a book so witty, a plot line so crazy, characters so eccentric, that is also well written, literary, and insightful.

I thank the publisher and NetGalley for a free ebook in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

“Charming, original, and impeccably written, All of Us and Everything is a spirited romp through the lives of an unusual family of women. When I wasn't laughing out loud or eagerly turning pages to see what happened next, I was marveling at Bridget Asher’s ability to tell a highly entertaining, fully engaging, and deeply insightful story.”—Cathi Hanauer, New York Times bestselling author of Gone

All of Us and Everything
Bridget Asher
Random House
Publication Date: Nov 24, 2015
$15 paperback
ISBN:9780385343930