Biography
David Lodge, Author, Author
With Author, Author, David Lodge departs from his usual, amusing, well-beloved stories, and writes a biographical fiction on a celebrated author: Henry James. I wasn’t supposed to read Author, Author. Like everybody interested in new fiction, I had read marvels about The Master, by Colm Toibin (which I have bought but haven’t brought myself to [...]
Anchee Min, Empress Orchid
Empress Orchid is based on the true story of China’s last empress. Orchid, a young girl from an aristocratic family, lives in poverty since the death of her father, a governor devoted to the emperor. To avoid an unattractive fate marked by a wedding with the simple-minded son of her benefactor and uncle, Orchid signs [...]
Susan Vreeland, The Passion of Artemisia
The Passion of Artemisia is a fiction based on the life and works of Artemisia Gentileschi, first woman painter to have earned her living with a brush, in seventeenth century Italy. Artemisia is taught to paint, from a very early age, by her father Orazio. Her father’s friend, Agostino Tassi, who teaches her as well, [...]