The Wayward Muse

By Elizabeth Hickey

Book Overview

"I apologize again for my boldness, but I must tell you that you're the most beautiful girl in Oxford. Maybe in all of England. I have to put you in my painting." With these words, the scandalous,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743273141
• ISBN13: 9780743273145
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Atria
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 1.0" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

A bittersweet Bronte fairytale

It is not "high" literature; it not quite "popular" literature. Trying to follow "The Painted Kiss" with something different, she succeeded. A brief escapist read.

Haunting

I really enjoyed this book - I felt it was particularly haunting at the end when I realized it was based on a true story (afraid I never took art appreciation). To me the story was appealing partly due to the "Ugly Duckling" beauty is in the eye of the beholder theme but tragic at the end in a sort of Gone with the Wind way too. I felt that the story was believable and interesting at the same time. I noticed that the cover art didn't match the content but just goes to show you once again that you can't judge a book by its cover.

Pre-Raphaelite Entanglements

Hickey is to be commended for trodding a road less traveled, focusing on the seldom-talked-about-in-popular-culture painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his favorite model, Jane Burden Morris. Told in third person from Jane's perspective, Hickey's story is well-paced and well-researched. She does what good historical novel authors should: start with the facts but veer into fictional territory in order to flesh things out. Her prose is lean and spare, which suits Jane's character. Most importantly, she does these colorful characters justice by capturing their essence. The fictional characters mesh convincingly with what we know of the historical ones. I read Painted Kiss last year, and thought Wayward Muse better. The author seems to have really found her groove with this one! Not the author's fault at all, but the publisher should have put a Rossetti painting on the cover.

terrific historical biographical tale

Jane Burden knows she is ugly having heard that from her mother as well as family, friends, and neighbors. She is too tall, with a freakishly long neck, arms and legs that belong on someone even taller, which leads to clumsiness and dresses that just never fit right. Adding to her being considered the ugliest female in the Oxford slums is that at seventeen she has no breasts. She expects to wed physically abusive Tom Barnstable as her mother reminds her that he is the best she will ever have. Everything abruptly changes when noted artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti sees Jane and thinks she is a rare beauty he must paint as his Guinevere in a mural. Her mother agrees to allow her to pose because of the fee Rossetti provides. Jane enjoys her short time each week with the painter and his colleagues. She soon realizes she loves Rosetti, but is heartbroken when he weds his ailing fiancée Lizzie. Jane accepts wealthy William Morris' proposal mostly because he as Rossetti's friend and protégé will enable her to remain near her true love. Over the next few years Jane gives birth to two children, but when Lizzie dies, Rossetti makes it clear how he feels about his Guinevere, which upsets her spouse William, who has always known he was a second choice. The key to this terrific historical biographical tale is the ability of Elizabeth Hickey to bring to life four real people from the latter half of the nineteenth century. The story line is driven mostly by the heroine who thanks to the artist turns from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan considered the ideal of pre-Raphaelite beauty and the muse for her spouse and the artist. Fans of period pieces will enjoy this deep rich Victorian Era tale starring real persona. Harriet Klausner

Rich writing well worth reading

(Historical fiction) The artiste world of 19th Century London is shown in lush colors, the brush strokes of Dante Gabriel Rosetti and his muse, a poor Oxford girl who is tall, willowy and plain according to her drunken mother. Rosetti discovers Jane Burden, and with the promise of payment, she becomes his model for a painting of Guinevere. His vision is that of Lancelot and the Holy Grail, the knights Galahad, Bors, and Percival receiving the precious Grail and Sir Lancelot in the Queen's chambers. Rosetti becomes enamored of Burden and takes her virginity while on the scaffolding in the Debating Hall. He proclaims his love and Burden thinks she shall marry him, but he leaves Oxford the next day for London because his first love is ill with consumption. This leaves William Morris to finish the paintings in Oxford. Morris is overweight, but Burden's mother, a town gossip, finds out he is wealthy and receives an allowance from copper mines. Morris falls deeply in love with Burden, but her muse-like powers exert themselves over him poetically. He begs for her hand in marriage and her mother gives her an ultimatum, marry Morris or you will be kicked out of the house. Still longing for her dark horse, Rosetti, she marries Morris hoping she will eventually love him. After two years they move to "Red House," a stunning brick home that Morris has built for his wife. Her life is full of artists of all persuasions: painters, tapestry makers, poets and others. Burden is the talk of London, designing her own clothes for her figure, and she often sits for Rosetti and his paintings. They begin an illicit affair that whispers its way through their circle of friends and those that find them interesting. But Burden is happiest in the company of Rosetti. As he falls into the throes of mental illness, Burden goes back to her husband, Morris, and takes care of her two children, maintaining a life-long friendship with Rosetti. A must read for the voluptuousness of Hickey's writing and the casualties of love and desire. Armchair Interviews says: A richly descriptive book of the life and times of the mid to late 1800s.