New in July!

US Release Date: July 21, 2009
Synopsis: Alfred Gibson’s funeral is taking place at Westminster Abbey, and his wife of twenty years, Dorothea, has not been invited. The Great Man’s will favours his children and a clandestine mistress over the woman he sent away when their youngest child was still an infant.

Dorothea hasn’t left her small apartment for years, and accepts her exclusion — until an invitation to a private audience with Queen Victoria arrives. The exhilaration of finding that she has much in common with the most powerful woman in England spurs Dorothea to examine her own life more closely. Her recollections uncover deviousness and the frighteningly hypnotic power of the genius she married, but also raise questions about her own complicity in her unhappiness. Questions that finally compel her to face her grown-up children and the two women she has long felt stole her husband: her own younger sister, Sissy, and the charming actress, Miss Ricketts. This remarkable debut is as wise in the ways of the human heart as it is witty and vivid in its depiction of the charismatic Alfred Gibson, and the habits, mores, and personalities of Victorian London.
I saw this on Amazon and it caught my eye, then read the description and it peeked my interest. Then I found this interview from the Guardian UK paper and I'm even more intrigued:
It was the most autobiographical of Dickens's novels, and Girl in a Blue Dress is another fictional take on an aspect of his life, albeit under the name of Alfred Gibson and set in the period immediately after his funeral. The central figure is his wife, Dorothea Gibson - alias Catherine Dickens - who is neither invited to the funeral nor favoured in the will. By the time of Dickens's death, aged 58, they had been separated (though not divorced) for 12 years. She had been given a home and an income, while the famous writer kept their 10 children and had more time to spend with his much younger mistress.

6 comments:

  1. I just put it on my list to buy first. I love the idea of it. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This sounds really good! On the wish list it goes. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I read this this past fall and really enjoyed it! I like the US cover, too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sounds intriguing! Thanks for alerting us to this upcoming book! :D

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts with Thumbnails
 

Passages to the Past
All rights reserved © 2013

Custom Blog Design by Blogger Boutique

Blogger Boutique