Beautiful Lies

Sep 20, 2012 Audra (Unabridged Chick) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Audra (Unabridged Chick) by: Sarah

Shelves: favorites, heroine-amazing, heroine-unusually-attractive, historical-figure-fictionalized, historicals, mood-bittersweet, mood-dark-and-twisted, mood-evocative, place-american-west, place-london, place-uk, secret-identities, skeletons-in-the-closet, victoriana

Words always fail when I'm really in love with a novel; a problem made worse when the novel in question is written in lush, lovely, dense, tangled, photographic, poetic prose. How do I compete?? Here's my try:

Set in the late 1880s, the novel follows Maribel Campbell Lowe, a stunning foreign beauty who smokes too much (in an era when only 'loose women' smoked!), is married to a radical Member of Parliament who supports socialism and reform, who yearns for the passion and inspiration that comes fr...more Words always fail when I'm really in love with a novel; a problem made worse when the novel in question is written in lush, lovely, dense, tangled, photographic, poetic prose. How do I compete?? Here's my try:

Set in the late 1880s, the novel follows Maribel Campbell Lowe, a stunning foreign beauty who smokes too much (in an era when only 'loose women' smoked!), is married to a radical Member of Parliament who supports socialism and reform, who yearns for the passion and inspiration that comes from an artistic life while performing her social obligations as an MP's wife.

Inspired by a real life couple, Robert Cunninghame Graham (who was the first socialist MP) and his wife Gabriela Cunninghame Graham, Clark's novel is hefty and rich, loaded with historical details about a Victorian London I'm unfamiliar with. Buffalo Bill Cody and his entourage are visiting, loaded with tons of gravel and rocks to replicate the Rocky Mountains in their performances. Queen Victoria's Jubilee is underway. The government and public are wrestling with suffrage, the right to assemble, the values they wish to embody -- and legalize -- while remaining safe.

Initially, I had a hard time getting into the book -- the novel opens with a game of charades, with our heroine and other side characters -- but within forty pages or so, I was hooked. Maribel has a secret, and I wanted to know what it was.

Clark's writing style is ... amazing. I'm prone to hyperbole, I know, and I'm pretty gushy in most of my reviews, so what do I mean by 'amazing'? The narrative is meaty, with flavor -- wry, sarcastic, dry, historical, detailed, emotional -- and the characters confusingly human. There's so much loaded into every sentence, but I wasn't aware of reading.

I was reminded of An Ideal Husband -- especially the lovely 1999 film version with Julianne Moore and Cate Blanchett (those dresses and hairstyles, the clever repartee and layers of secrets!) -- and I admit it: I want this to be a BBC miniseries stat. Maribel moves in Wilde's circle, so the connection was likely intentional, and I'm sure there's numerous nods to literary and artistic influences of the era that I missed but others might see.

This is historical fiction for anyone who hates romantic historical novels -- there's a strong current of love here, but it's not a bodice ripper -- and those who enjoy savoring strong women, strong writing, strong setting will be very, very happy to dig in.(less)

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Mar 08, 2013 Jennifer rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical

Right. The main character is a selfish, reckless woman who can't understand that her actions have consequences (and not just for herself). She disdains things that are "other" and wonders why everyone else isn't grateful and appreciative of her heartache.Most of her characterization is tied to her smoking, which could have been interesting if a)the details of it weren't so excessive (though I guess the cover of the novel foreshadowed this) and b) if it wasn't her only unique trait.

It may sound h...more

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Dec 03, 2012 Chaitra rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012, historical-fiction, set-in-1800s, set-in-england, based-on-true-events, literary-fiction, british-literature, great-cover-crap-book, book-at-wall, banging-heads-on-keyboards

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I admit that I was more than a little intrigued when I heard of this book. The cover was a killer. London in the 1880s, politician with a bad reputation and even worse bank balance, a newspaperman ferreting out any private detail and the politician's wife conveniently having one - makes for a compelling plot line. Or so I thought. The books runs on for 500 pages, and does touch upon all the above, but in a totally unsatisfactory fashion. Maribel is front and center of this book, and the reason t...more I admit that I was more than a little intrigued when I heard of this book. The cover was a killer. London in the 1880s, politician with a bad reputation and even worse bank balance, a newspaperman ferreting out any private detail and the politician's wife conveniently having one - makes for a compelling plot line. Or so I thought. The books runs on for 500 pages, and does touch upon all the above, but in a totally unsatisfactory fashion. Maribel is front and center of this book, and the reason the book is a failure for me. She's strong of course, the way women in women's fiction are strong, which means she is an arrogant opinionated harpy, but many people in the book "love" her. The only people who don't like her are unspeakably evil. Must be nice to be a woman in a book.

Maribel hates other women. She scoffs at the bad fashion of feminists. She thinks everything that she doesn't know is charlatanry, and people who do believe in those things as nothing more than fools not worth her time. She calls every person she goes to dinner with tedious and boring, never once thinking how smug and boring she herself is. She complains that it is too hot in London, but when she gets to Scotland it's too rainy and boring and village-y. She thinks politics has become boring now, because they talk about starving people in Trafalgar square while before they would talk about beauty and poetry. She contends that cigarettes makes her think and write, but the only things she comes up with are trite lines not worth the paper they're written on. In fact, cigarettes get their own 50 pages or so - the way Maribel goes on and on about them, you would think they are the holy grail and the fountain of youth. Cigarettes I think are a way to show she's strong, because she smokes in all places without respecting anyone's opinion. She smokes in the sick room of her best friend, even after her friend's husband has asked her not to. She smokes in the parlor of her sister, without asking for permission, while her sister looks on, shocked at the discourtesy. Why should she respect other people? They are beneath her superior intellect. Never mind that she's not so good at anything she does. It gets worse. She used to be a prostitute, but she contends she is shocked that some people would stoop so low as to sell a photograph to a newspaperman. Never mind that she only presumed this - the poor lady has only lent the photograph and is too poor to sue the newspaperman. She ran away from her family because she wanted to make it big on stage. She failed at that, and when she becomes a politician's wife, her family is careful to not cause any scandal for her even though she has not bothered that her disappearance has caused a scandal for them. She calls two of her sisters foolish leeches, whereas the sister in question that we see on the page is nothing but genuinely happy to see this witch. Her favorite sister takes pains to tell her that she does not want to see her, but typically Maribel does not care for that. Never mind that thirteen years have gone by without her making the slightest effort to inquire after this darling who now Maribel cannot live without. In the end, she leaves her alone not because of any sense of wrongdoing on her part, but because Ida is too stubborn to reason with.

I see this review is short on everything else, but that is also the problem of the book. I contemplated giving this two stars, because there are things I did like, but then I realized that everything else is a backdrop for the Maribel show. Subplots are introduced and dropped without a care, when it doesn't suit Maribel to remember them. The Wild West is a backdrop for Maribel to first complain, then photograph (nothing much comes out of it). The socialist politics of Edward is a backdrop for Maribel to first complain, then "Stand Staunchly For" without much sincerity. The riots of Trafalgar Square is another backdrop - it sends Edward to prison, but we are more concerned about the fact that Maribel foolishly faces off with her enemy (who she first flirted with, then he got too insane), and then to send her to Spain on a wild goose chase. Do the starving multitude get another penny's thought after that? Ha! She lost her son, who is supposedly roaming around her house as a spirit, but that's only to give her something to do in Spain. That's dropped too, as soon as she gets back to Britain. How could you drop something like that? Her best friend Charlotte supports her throughout her various real and imagined ordeals, and what does she get for her troubles? A fractured arm when she is heavily pregnant because dear Maribel was in a hurry to run away from an unpleasant meeting. Charlotte seems to have her own trouble she hides from Maribel, while she is moaning about something or other. But does Maribel care? Ha. She saunters off with the lightning strike realization that Charlotte too has secrets, and then we never hear from her again. Let's not even talk about Arthur Webster, much is made out of him - but he has zero depth. He's an unscrupulous man, a zealot. His father was a priest. He considers nude photographs of women art and attends seances. That's basically all we know or care about Webster. Talk about a cardboard cutout. There are so many dropped names - Blavatsky, Gladstone, Oscar Wilde! - none of them get anything more than a passing mention, because they cannot be allowed to upstage Maribel.

Bottomline of this long, tedious review: I hated Maribel, and since there is nothing in the book that does not in some fashion show her up, I hated this book. 1 star.(less)

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May 13, 2013 Leon rated it 3 of 5 stars

“A stirring and seductive novel.”—Economist

London 1887. For Maribel Campbell Lowe, the beautiful bohemian wife of a maverick politician, it is the year to make something of herself. A self-proclaimed Chilean heiress educated in Paris, she is torn between poetry and the new art of photography. But it is soon plain that Maribel’s choices are not so simple. As her husband’s career hangs by a thread, her real past, and the family she abandoned, come back to haunt them both. When the notorious news

...more

“A stirring and seductive novel.”—Economist

London 1887. For Maribel Campbell Lowe, the beautiful bohemian wife of a maverick politician, it is the year to make something of herself. A self-proclaimed Chilean heiress educated in Paris, she is torn between poetry and the new art of photography. But it is soon plain that Maribel’s choices are not so simple. As her husband’s career hangs by a thread, her real past, and the family she abandoned, come back to haunt them both. When the notorious newspaper editor Alfred Webster begins to take an uncommon interest in Maribel, she fears he will not only destroy Edward’s career but both of their reputations.

Inspired by the true story of a politician’s wife who lived a double life for decades, Beautiful Lies is set in a time that, fraught with economic uncertainty and tabloid scandal-mongering, uncannily presages our own.

Review

"Clark's fiction manages to maintain historical accuracy even as it indulges in great storytelling and lush prose. . . . Her central character, Maribel Campbell Lowe, is the beautiful, chain-smoking wife of a radical Scottish M.P. . . . She develops the story gently, with revelations about Maribel's past folded carefully into scenes from the present, yielding a complex tapestry of tales. A captivating fable of truth and memory." -- Andrea Wulf, The New York Times Book Review

"Beautiful Lies presents us with a couple who would surely be counted among our Beautiful People today. . . . .The whole novel is carefully constructed and full of wonderful details about the period. You can see that the Victorian Age is a mirror image of our own. And Edward and Maribel are touching, funny, brave, and sweet." -- Carolyn See, The Washington Post

"The charm of Beautiful Lies is that Clark breaks the usual Victorian moral code, exploring both the colorful world outside the drawing room and the depths of her characters' minds. A stirring and seductive novel." - The Economist

"Clark plays with the ideas of identity and image, while incorporating the Bloody Sunday riots, Buffalo Bill Cody's Will West Show, and the growing interest in Spiritualism. . . .Beautiful Lies takes its time to develop, but its portrait of a woman determined to decide for herself who she is and a society less stable and comfortable than it imagines is a rich one well worth studying." -- The Christian Science Monitor

Praise for Clare Clark:

"One of those writers who can see into the past and help us feel its texture." –Hilary Mantel, Booker Prize-winning author of Wolf Hall

"As a storyteller, Clark is endowed with verve and intelligence, but her larger gift, dazzlingly in evidence throughout both her fine novels, lies in the originality of her imagination. She gives us a world that feels alive and intense, magnificently raw."—New York Times Book Review

"Clark’s commitment to historical color is matched by the dramatic arc of an engrossing story." --Washington Post

"Clare Clark writes with the eyes of a historian and the soul of a novelist." - Amanda Foreman

About the Author

CLARE CLARK is the author of four novels, including The Great Stink, which was long-listed for the Orange Prize and was named a Washington Post Best Book of the Year, and Savage Lands, which was long-listed for the Orange Prize in 2010. Her work has been translated into five languages. She lives in London.

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Apr 06, 2013 Knitme23 rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well. My overall impression is that it is a carefully written book with a heavily historical "feel", but one that ultimately lacks a powerful plot or final impression at all. I expected that the story would revolve around the terrible newspaperman's threat to reveal Maribel's background OR something about Maribel getting involved in spiritualism, but it didn't. I'm not 100% sure WHAT it revolved around: Maribel's discovery of photography as a medium? Her husband's battle for human rights in Engl...more

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Sep 26, 2012 Sharon Galligar rated it 5 of 5 stars

Secrets, lies, deciet and love swirl throughout the life of a Victorian-era politician's wife in Clare Clark's mesmerizing novel, "Beautiful Lies."

Clark gives her readers a camera-lens view of the life of Maribel Campbell Lowe, who on the surface seems to be proper wife to her English politician husband. She entertains, she dabbles in amateur photography, she writes poetry - all the things a sedate lady would do. But Maribel has secrets, a web of lies and deciet that could possibly tear apart he...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Susan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arc-edition, historical-fiction

If Maribel had not smoked, I'm guessing that this historical fiction would have been a good 25 pages shorter. But Maribel smoked, and we read about where she got her cigarettes, how she felt before, during, after smoking, how the ashtrays overflowed, how the smoke and the tips of the cigarettes looked, much more than I ever wanted to know about this particular habit of hers. Not only did she smoke obsessively, the author described it obsessively.

Maribel was the wife of a late-19th century libera...more

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Dec 07, 2012 Jo rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: gave-up

A little disappointing.

I really like The Nature of Monsters, but gave up on The Great Stink, which I found really wordy with a storyline that kept going off on weird tangents. I think the building of the sewer system in London is a fascinating subject, but the concept was very much drowned in unnecessary fluff.

With that being said I was hoping The Great Stink was just a blimp in this author’s repertoire and that Beautiful Lies would again restore my love of this author and her take on Victorian...more

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Oct 11, 2012 Becky rated it 2 of 5 stars

To all who know them, Maribel and Edward Campbell Lowe are a loving couple with everything going for them. Edward has a great career as a Member of Parliament and Maribel is his supporting wife. But Maribel and Edward are hiding things. First and foremost is Maribel's background. Rather than the French-Chilean heiress she claims to be -- both parents deceased -- Maribel's parents are very much alive. And very English. In fact, Maribel isn't even her name. As Edward makes increasing waves in loca...more To all who know them, Maribel and Edward Campbell Lowe are a loving couple with everything going for them. Edward has a great career as a Member of Parliament and Maribel is his supporting wife. But Maribel and Edward are hiding things. First and foremost is Maribel's background. Rather than the French-Chilean heiress she claims to be -- both parents deceased -- Maribel's parents are very much alive. And very English. In fact, Maribel isn't even her name. As Edward makes increasing waves in local government with is radical ideas, Maribel tries her best to maintain the illusion she's built about her past. Unfortunately for them both, a local newspaperman with a habit of stirring up trouble has become quite interested in Maribel. Were the people around them to learn the truth, Edward's career could go up in flames and they'd both be ostracized from the society they've become a part of.

Oh, goodness! I struggled so much with this book. It seemed that we were not a good match in spite of my interest in reading it. To be honest, I trudged through the hundred page hurdle and still wasn't at all sure what was going on! In fact, it wasn't until after that point that the book really began to pick up and go somewhere.

In the author's note, Clare Clark talks about her inspiration for the book. The political and economic happenings of the 1880s and one couple in particular -- Robert and Gabriela Cunninghame Graham. Like the characters they inspired, Robert was an MP who's ideas weren't always readily supported by local government. And like Maribel, Gabriela also created her own identity. Amazingly, it wasn't until almost eighty years after her death that anyone found out the truth about Gabriela Cunninghame Graham.

Clark admits that much of Maribel's story is very different from Gabriela's. Perhaps most fascinating about Gabriela is that much of her real past remains unknown today, leaving Clark plenty of room to play with Maribel's tale.

I really love the inclusion of all the happenings of the time: Buffalo Bill, Oscar Wilde, spirit photography, and the mentions of Madame Blavatsky. Clark so carefully draws the reader into the time period that it becomes an all encompassing experience but it also makes the book a much more dense read as the pacing is greatly slowed by so much detail.

I really wanted to love this book, I just couldn't. I'd definitely recommend reading this one when you have a good while to devote attention to it. Personally, the weather's played havoc with my sinuses and made it hard to concentrate on much of anything at all this week. I may have enjoyed it much more had I not been fighting a distracting rhinovirus on top of diving into nineteenth century politics. To be completely honest, though, the cold wasn't the only thing stopping me from getting lost in this book. I started and stopped and started again after a bit of a break, to no avail. I'm not immune to the appeal of the story, which is why I trudged on -- it just never did hit my like I'd hoped it would.
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Sep 26, 2012 Susan rated it 5 of 5 stars

I don't know what to say about Beautiful Lies. It is so vivid, with Victorian images in the late 19th century, London. It played like a movie. I loved the author's style of writing. Her writing is so poetic. I could picture Trafalgar Square in London.

There is so much packed in this novel, it goes everywhere. At times I think it just is too much, what was the author thinking. But, it does works with Beautiful Lies.

There is lots of underlying mystery of smoking Maribel. What a scandal, a high soc...more I don't know what to say about Beautiful Lies. It is so vivid, with Victorian images in the late 19th century, London. It played like a movie. I loved the author's style of writing. Her writing is so poetic. I could picture Trafalgar Square in London.

There is so much packed in this novel, it goes everywhere. At times I think it just is too much, what was the author thinking. But, it does works with Beautiful Lies.

There is lots of underlying mystery of smoking Maribel. What a scandal, a high society woman working, as a photographer, and a chain smoker. Her husband, Edward, charming, sophisticated member of Parliament. Always thinking of trying to make the right of the hard working man in the industrialist England.

There is a political mess, that has been caused by Webster, a newspaper man. The best part of the book was the end when the roles were reversed. Webster, had the rug swept under him from Maribel. Now, he is begging her to have sympathy for him. I loved it. Because he was ruining her husband, Edward's political career, and reputation. Once you did that is very hard for people to forget. But, now the joke was on him. Sound familiar with the politics of today. Using the newspaper for his own benefit, of the poor, or any politics. Isn't that what all newspapers, and politicians do

The book as I was reading made me dizzy, too many things happening. There is suspense, mystery, scandal ~lots of them. There is even a wild west show, with Cody, and Indians, and the golden Jubilee celebration of the queen.

A family scandal that Maribel's family and herself would rather forget and not see each other. But, something happens that both sides have no choice but ask a favor. This opens up Maribel's memories to try to reconcile with her favorite sister, Ida.

Ida was always the understanding sister, and her other sisters were not so understanding when they were young. It is ironic later, on that Ida is stubborn and won't forgive Maribel.

I will say, originally there was just too much things going on in the story. It was a bit over the top. I was wondering what was the author thinking? But, for some reason it still worked in the story. I was thinking this was too ridiculous. I still enjoyed the ride very much.
If you love historical fiction, loosely based on historical characters, and lots of action going on you will enjoy reading Beautiful Lies. I love the time period. I was given this novel to review by TLC Book Tours and I would like to thank them for allowing me to review. You can follow me, and read the other's book stops at my blog at http://susansliterarycafe.blogspot.com

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Sep 03, 2012 Barb added it · review of another edition

Shelves: gave-it-a-try-and-then-gave-up, vine

I've read 'The Nature of Monsters' and 'The Great Stink' by Clare Clark and thought they were both excellent novels, both are well written, with engaging characters, believable relationships and plausible dialogue. I highly recommend them for readers who enjoy historical fiction.

I also tried to read 'Savage Lands' by Clare Clark and found myself giving up without finishing, which is what happened with 'Beautiful Lies'. I read over 200 pages of this book and wasn't compelled to continue. Part of...more

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Oct 04, 2012 Patty rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a novel based on fact and knowing that makes the reading all the more interesting. Edward Campbell Lowe is a member of Parliament fighting for the rights of the poor at a time in England's history where there is a great divide between the rich and the downtrodden. He is married to Maribel, a woman with a mysterious past. She is dabbling in poetry and exploring photography but in reality she is running from the demons of her true background that are slowly catching up to her threatening t...more

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Jan 15, 2013 P.d.r. Lindsay rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-mysteries

Now this is a novel with depth. A slow read, one to savour and think about. I was intrigued by the author's note at the end and how she based her novel on an actual incident of the recreation of someone's parentage and childhood. And it is always a pleasure to read about people in historical novels who are not royalty or m'Lord Greateness.

If I sometimes found the dialogue a little bit too modern, that's a minor point and preferable to gadzookery. The author's Victorian England felt right and whi...more

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Jun 11, 2012 Karen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The novel is based on a true story of a British member of Parliament and his exotically beautiful wife who lived in the Victorian Age. The liberal MP was instrumental in forming what is now the Labour Party in England. In the novel, his name is Edward Campbell Lowe and he, despite his wealth, is able to see the plight of the poor in London and moves to set it right. His party opposes him, but he never backs down, to the point of being imprisoned for taking part in a workers' strike and getting b...more

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Sep 21, 2012 Serena rated it 3 of 5 stars

Maribel Campbell Lowe’s Beautiful Lies (by Clare Clark) ensure that she is mysterious to the reader and London society from the beginning, but as the prose unfolds, readers get glimpses into her past as she attempts to navigate her life in the confines of a London society on the verge of change, in which seances and photography are gaining admirers. Married to radical politician Edward Campbell Lowe, Maribel is thrust into a society full of expectation and one that is changing, but her fateful m...more

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Apr 17, 2013 David Ebsworth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Just one of the beauties of this book is the way that Clare takes a series of real-life characters from the 1880s and "fictionalises" them. So Maribel and her secret former life, her radical husband MP, the journalist who seeks to destroy them all have an incredible ring of truth about them. As does the civil unrest which afflicts London at that time with all its echoes of the current economic crisis. Then there are the various historical characters that stalk Clares's pages - William Morris, An...more

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Oct 22, 2012 Cynthia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2012

Victorian History

I’m a Victorian fiction lover, both classic and recently written. Clare Clark has written a wonderfully researched semi-mystery in “Beautiful Lies”. I didn’t love it but I sure liked it a lot. I was reminded of the Anne Perry’s Thomas Pitt series both in Clark’s writing style as well as the setting and the unusual, for the times, marriage. The main characters are Maribel and Edward Campbell Lowe. She’s an aspiring poet and a somewhat successful photographer and he’s a radical me...more

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Oct 09, 2012 Katie/Doing Dewey rated it 5 of 5 stars

In Victorian London, scandal can so easily ruin your life. And Mirabel and her husband have a very big secret to hide! Dealing with a creepy newpaper reporter’s sudden interest in Mirabel and her abandoned family’s sudden reappearance in her life, Mirabel is an awesome, independent, heroine who refuses to conform to societal norms. She’s also an artist, with an artist’s fascinating observations on life and the meaning of art.

I know I said this already, but I’ll say it again for effect: I loved t...more

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Jan 09, 2013 Pamela rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book takes a good look at late 19th century politics in England. The main character Maribel Campbell Lowe and her husband Edward are modeled after a real couple, Robert and Gabriela Cunninghame Graham. Maribel Campbell Lowe is a reinvented persona, part French and part Spanish, who is actually a Yorkshire girl named Peggy. After Peggy runs away from home, she become Sylvia and follows a common path for women trying to survive. The past is hidden when she marries Edward, a struggling Scottis...more

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Jan 16, 2013 Natasha Masunaga rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime, historical-novels, victorian

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. At first I was content to simply hate the protagonist of the story from start to finish.

Then I read the Author's Note at the end and a few different thoughts struck me:

1.) Why had I even bothered to read the 400+ excruciating pages of regurgitated political history when I could have saved myself the grief by instead reading it faithfully recounted in the aforementioned note. That's 12 succinct pages against 482 meandering (at times standing upon the proverbial soap-box and at others Maribel bein...more

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Apr 27, 2013 Kate rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a fairly absorbing novel, but it has a couple of glaring issues that prevent it from being a great one. First, as historical fiction it is too heavy on the history, and too light on the fiction: as other reviewers have pointed out, although it is very well researched, the author introduces a few plot developments that are allowed to fizzle, resulting in a story that feels rather thin. Also the protagonist is annoyingly self-absorbed, with a tobacco habit that had me wondering - based on...more

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May 07, 2013 Linda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a long book - over 480 pages - and it wasn't until the end that I fully realized how good it is. That sounds odd, but there were times when I was reading it that I wanted to get it over with and I did get a bit bogged down in the British political scene, but it was really an interesting and well written novel. It is based on facts discovered about a rebellious, aristocratic politician in London in the late 1800's, and more enticing, the double life of his exotic wife. I found all of the...more

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Oct 08, 2012 Stephanie Ward rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: for-review, owned, will-trade

'Beautiful Lies' is a work of literary/historical fiction that chronicles the private life of Maribel Campbell Lowe, her family's hidden past, and a scandalous newspaper editor that threatens to destroy Maribel and her husband.

Clark did an impeccable job with this novel. Her writing style flowed effortlessly and I was transported back in time alongside Maribel from the very first page. The descriptions of the time and the various settings of the novel were done in such a way that I could simply...more

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Oct 13, 2012 Vera rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Beautiful Lies by Clare Clark is a sprawling novel based on the first-ever Socialist member of UK Parliament, Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham, and his wife Gabrielle, who hid her true identity for decades. Meticulously researched, Beautiful Lies is as much the story of Maribel as it is the story of London on the brink of disaster, rife with class tensions and the poor masses tired of being ignored.

Clark does a wonderful job with descriptions and adds in events and figures to round out the time...more

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Nov 18, 2012 Timothy Phillips rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I enjoyed reading this book, which is based on true stories from the 1880s in Britain. The plot is inventive and the characters appealing - both the heroes and the villains. Clare Clark clearly has an eye for attractive detail. She also has a strong moral compass, which I found added to my enjoyment of the book without ever becoming preachy. It is, in many ways, a book about socialism and social activism.

The reason this is a four- and not a five-star review, then, is Clark's rendering of late-n...more

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Nov 26, 2012 Geordie Korper rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: nobody

Shelves: novabooks-book-club

Like many third books this could have used major editing. Ms. Clark probably thinks she doesn't need one and the editor probably thought well she's already written a couple books so she must know what she is doing. Sadly this is not the case.

Approximately 1/3 and probably 1/2 of this book should have ended up being thrown out. There were passages that were not crucial to the plot that went on for pages and crucial elements which were given but a single paragraph.

There is no way I would have fini...more

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Jan 20, 2013 Jean rated it 3 of 5 stars

Enjoyed the book at first, when I thought she really was from Argentina. and then some of the period details were nice. But there were passages, as other reviewers have noted, that went on interminably and caused my eyes to glaze over. And the smoking, my god, the smoking! why did this woman not have cancer by the end of the book. There were some typos in the book I had. Oops. I thought Maribel/Peggy would have been much more fun if she had had an affair with the photographer's assistant, Thomas...more

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May 04, 2013 Diane rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An entertaining book about the wife of an up and coming Member of Parliament. Her mysterious past and the possibility of being exposed, as well as his liberal politics, threaten her husband's career. My reaction to the premise was that it was totally impossible - until I read that the book is based on a real person whose true identity was never known until long after her death. Except for this basis in reality, all other details of her personal life are completely fiction. The character is enter...more

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Apr 06, 2013 Nancy Seaman rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the newest book by the author of the Great Stink. Times are still tough in Victorian England, but this one is not so bleak. I didn't like the heroine, but she is a determined woman who tries to create the life she wants. That means lying about the past and grieving for what had to be left behind. She marries a Socialist politician which makes hiding her past a particular problem. I think the book is really well written and well plotted. The characters are real, I just didn't like them. M...more

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Nov 24, 2012 Bethany rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Beautiful Lies is not quite "there". Clark attempts to amuse her readers by including 21st century humor in Victorian language... which just does not work. As such, it is quite disconcerting and provides for inauthenticity in her third person limited narrator. Additionally, I was never able to fully support Maribel, despite hearing her thoughts, wishes, and justifications of her actions for nearly 500 pages. I have a difficult time enjoying a book when I can't trust the narrator. As such, I did...more

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title link	preview: Beautiful Lies
avg rating	preview: Beautiful Lies Goodreads rating: 3.05 (219 ratings)
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