The World Before Her

by Deborah Weisgall

A stunning novel about two women and two marriages -- George Eliot at the end of her life, and another woman a century later.

The year is 1880 and the setting is Venice. Marian Evans -- whose novels under the pen name George Eliot have placed her among the famed Englishwomen of her time -- has come to this enchanted city on her honeymoon. Newly married to John Cross, twenty years her junior, she hopes to put her guilt to rest. Marian lived, unmarried, with George Henry Lewes for twenty-five years, until his death. She took a tremendous risk and paid a high price for that illicit union, but she also achieved happiness and created art. Now she wants to love again. In this new marriage, in this romantic place, can this writer give herself the happy ending that she provided for Middlemarch’s Dorothea Brooke?

The parallel story of a sculptor named Caroline Spingold brings us to Venice one hundred years later, in 1980. Caroline’s powerful, wealthy older husband has brought her to the city against her will, to celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary. Having spent a perfect childhood summer in Venice with her parents, before her father left her mother, Caroline had vowed never to return.

In alternating chapters linked by the themes of art, love, and marriage, The World Before Her tells of these two women -- and their surprising similarities. In a city where the canals reflect memory as much as light, they both confront desire, and each assesses what she has and who she is. At the heart of this sumptuously and evocatively written novel lies the eternal dilemma of how to find love and sustain it, without losing one’s self.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Italy, Historical, Adult Fiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published May 13, 2008

Reviews

[Natasa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is alternating between 1880/1980, centering on George Eliot and a woman artist, it starts off interesting and well written. The novel provides a fascinating perspective of George Eliot’s personal life. 

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

People were saying now that George Eliot was conservative. It was true that she had always written looking backward over her shoulder. She looked back to throw the present into relief. She needed distance; it made memory bearable.

It is never too late to be what you might have been. ~~George Eliot



~~Venice at sunset

In The World Before Her , Weisgall introduces us to two women. Each chapter alternates between two different stories. First, we meet Marian, AKA George Eliot, in the last year of her life (1880). She is on honeymoon in Venice with her husband, John Cross. It is not a marriage of passion, but John cares for her deeply. Still in mourning for her long time lover, Marian can appreciate being cared for. Maybe it will even be enough.

The alternating chapters are set in 1980, and introduce us to Caroline Spingold. Married twelve odd years to Malcolm, they are celebrating their anniversary in Venice. The city is bitter sweet for her. As a preteen, her family went on one last family vacation in Venice before her father left her mother. Malcolm's choice is characteristic of their relationship. He thinks he knows what is best for her, and how to make her happy. His choices are superficially good ones, but below the surface Caroline is unhappy and unfulfilled. She's afraid that by complaining she will just sound like a spoiled "kept" wife. Malcolm has a high-powered career, and she left hers behind to be his helpmate. Will they be able to rekindle their love in Venice?

My two cents: Weisgall has written a lyrical novel. The prose is beautiful, but at the same time reading it felt like wading through quick sand at times. The jacket promises "the eternal dilemma of how to find love and sustain it, without losing one's self". One could argue that Marian *DID* find and sustain love, till death did them part. Her second attempt, while sanctioned by society this time, wasn't nearly as successful. As for Carolina, her story is more convoluted. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether she finds love, and whether you agree with her choices.

I am not a huge fan of split story stories. Like another reviewer, I am always tempted to skip ahead a chapter to continue to follow one story if I like it more than another. In this case, 100 years separate the two stories, making the novel feel somewhat bipolar. But while the story arc drags at times, Weisgall certainly knows how to write. At under 300 pages, this is well worth a library check out if you are fan of Eliot, a fan of Venice, or both. Given 3.5 stars or a rating of "Very Good"!!

Another good quote: "Stories arise from abrasion, from the conflict between character and circumstance, from teh volatile chemistry of emotion. You say we are evolving away from that, toward those uniform angels, who all sing the same song. Even hosanna a million times over might grow tedious. You know, I much prefer the depictions of hell."

Stuff I learned: A link to Encyclopedia Britannica 's page on George Eliot--https://www.britannica.com/biography/...
A link to Earth trekker's suggestion for 9 must do experiences in Venice--https://www.earthtrekkers.com/9-must-...

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I learned from this book? For starters, Deborah Weisgall is a new and wonderful world of an author. Then, I learned to love George Eliot as a person and author more than before. Ms. Weisgall makes an attempt to score an 11 on a 10 vault and lands it with no problem. One thread of the book begins with Marian Evans Lewes Cross on her honeymoon in Venice with her very virginal husband, twenty years her junior, who she calls Johnnie. Johnnie is virginal and married to an adored Mother surrogate for the usual reasons but his ardent wife looks for the same union of mind and body she shared for twenty five years with George Lewes. The passages which turn back to those years are the most lucious and moving. This author is a master of evocative setting combined with spot-on characterization: "In hot robes, priests weary from the weight of piety trudged across the gray paving stones." Her flights of fancy such as an imagined meeting between Eliot and James McNeil Whistler and between a jealous Mary Anne Evans and Clara Schumann are tantalizing and true even if they never occured.

Intercalary chapters treat of another artistic woman, Caroline Spingold, who has spent some of her childhood in Venice and flits back and forth to this paradise as the wife of a millionaire financial wizard (aren't they all?). It is a tour de force, a bold stroke to create a modern counterpart yet antithesis of Eliot. It would take me a short book to outline both the similarities and differences between the two stories yet one never felt any oddness because the artists (Caroline only a shadow of the Victorian novelist) struggle for acceptance from parents and society, but most importantly, struggle to find themselves.
The conclusions are vastly different but - and I am sending out a teaser here - both are profoundly happy.

What won't I forget about this book? The depiction of Johnnie Cross; the author's obvious love affair with "La Serenissima" which is also mine; Malcolm Spingold---whose name is a wicked pun on Rumplestilskin's; the ugliness of George Eliot ("but she had a beautiful voice") and the fashion model beauty of Caroline, also a terrible burden; then I loved Caroline's parents--a seedy Scott and Zelda.
Finally, thanks to the scene in which Mary Anne George Evans Eliot Lewes Cross excitedly shows her dullard young groom the fossilized remains of snails in the stones of Venice, I know I shall be peering at the pavements ardently when next I visit.

Oh, and should any woman think to marry a young man and deceive herself he has married her for her immortal beauty and is furthermore, mad with desire, the author includes a tiny scene where Johnnie has been annoyed by the pigeons and the Italian photog apologizes, " Pardon me, Madame, for disturbing your son." That's so true, it hurts.

[Judith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Since I would read a matchbook cover if it was about either Venice or George Eliot, the combination won me immediately. The book, however, alternating chapters between Eliot's visit to Venice with her new icky husband John Cross, and that of an immature American artist with her Madoff-like spouse, is inconsistently written. Because Weisgall has done biographical research, she packs her Eliot chapters with a huge cast of characters (Herbert Spencer, John Chapman, Liszt, Clara Schumann) whose relationships with GE are too complex for the short narratives. She does however give her Eliot a deep need for love, thus explaining her marriage to Cross, whom she portrays as neurasthenic and homosexual. The other story is just silly, fantasizing about life as artist/pampered darling, etc., Weisgall appends a chick-lit tale to that of poor unsuspecting Mary Ann Evans. Then there's a bunch of Jewish stuff - when a woman named Weisgall (yes, her father was the composer) married to a man named Throop Wilder romanticizes all her Jewish characters (except of course for the brutal Madoff husband who has destroyed his roots) and Jewish life in the Venetian ghetto, I always think she had better decide to take up Judaism full-bore, or forget it.

[Amy Webster-Bo · Rating 2 out of 5]

i was not impressed, more of a bio on the writer, then an actually story, really boring, no humor, no real interest in it at all, waste of time

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The World Before Her is really the story of two women, a century apart, and their stories of love and marriage. The novel opens in Venice in 1880 where Marian Evans has come on her honeymoon with John Cross. She has married a man twenty years younger than she in an attempt to assuage her guilt over living with George Lewes for twenty-five years without being married. Known to the publishing world as George Eliot, she wants to love again after the death of George, mistaking the offer of marriage to be romantically inspired. Instead she discovers John wanted to give her the title of Mrs. John Cross and assist in her writing. After learning of his duplicity, they cut the honeymoon short in Venice and return to England.
The corresponding story unfolding a century later in Venice tells of the marriage of sculptor Caroline Spingold to a wealthy older man who has brought her to Venice to save their deteriorating marriage of ten years. Having spent a perfect childhood summer there with her parents who have since divorced, she does not want to return. In a city where the canals reflect memories, the two women possess many similarities: both confront desire and question what she has and who she is.
As George Eliot wrote realistically about life, she has her female characters try to solve her own dilemma of how to find love and sustain without losing self. In 1885, John Cross published his biography of George Eliot and portrayed the proper and conservative lady he wished she had been. Not until 1968 was her true character revealed in Gordon Haight's version of Marian Evans. Her picture shows her to be unattractive and mannish, yet she yearned for love and companionship. Deborah Weisgall relied on journals and letters to flesh out her imagination of the woman known as one of the greatest writers of American Literature. Her novels include Adam Bede, Middlemarch, The Mill on the Floss, and Silas Marner. I love reading historical fiction that blends fact with imagination where you learn while enjoying a good read.

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

The World Before Her is that rare book on my reading list: one that I found on the shelf at the library, with no recommendation from a friend, blog or newsletter. It started well enough, but didn't deliver enough on the themes that held promise.

The book alternates between a tale of George Eliot during the months of her marriage late in life to a much younger man and the story of the marriage of a young sculptor to a financier. As a friend of mine pointed out, this is a difficult style of book to write. One tale almost always tends to be more interesting than the other, which leaves you wanting to get back to the more interesting story when you are with the other. While I didn't find that to be the problem with this book, it was, for me, lacking in execution.

The stories were ripe for exploring interesting themes: modern marriage, how much women and men need (or don't need) each other, what one spouse should expect of another and the role of art in society.

Instead, the story took an easy way out and never really adequately addressed any of the myriad themes available for exploration.

So should you read this book? If you're a particular fan of George Eliot, you might want to read this book. I've never read an Eliot novel, but this book made me want to give one a try. If you love historical novels meshed with modern day tales, this one might be worth a read. Otherwise, there are many other books far better that I could recommend...

[Ellie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was torture....so slow and painful. It didn't seem like there was a plot....just a stream of consciousness for both women and time periods. Reading this felt like a chore and not a pleasure. Don't bother reading it!!

[Rita]

Have just started this but am slow getting into to it. Hope the pace picks up.

[Kristy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Utterly painful to get through. Frankly, one start is pushing it. Really not my cup of tea. I found the story strange, the characters were not likeable and above all the language was convoluted.

[Toni · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice find at Goodwill. Very well written, if a bit politically correct. This is really 2 stories, one about a fairly contemporary marriage (1980s) and one about a Victorian marriage (1880s and George Eliot). The part about George Eliot’s brief, end-of-life marriage was interesting and made me want to go back and read Middlemarch. I never got beyond the 8th grade abridged version of Silas Marner with her. It was cool reading about Venice, always a nice setting. The rich, oppressed NYC housewife doesn’t get much sympathy from me.

[Kimberly Westrope · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having just read a biography of George Eliot, I really enjoyed the parts of this books that were about her honeymoon with john Cross in Venice. This part of the story included many interesting characters, and many wonderful views of Venice. I almost felt as if I were there.

However, the second story, about a couple visiting Venice a century later, was quite boring, lacking in many areas, and the characters did not draw any interest from me at all. I really struggled to finish this book.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd say 3 1/2 stars but because it's Venice four!

[Jan Cornell · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was hard to finish. The writer was all over the place and I found that confusing (aside from the fact that there are two women's lives a century apart in this book.

[Tfp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very difficult to understand (though descriptions are first rate). I had thought the 20th century character would somehow link more directly to the 19th century character George Eliot .

[H.L. Gibson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Godless women trying to figure out why they're unhappy and blaming it on the men in their lives and society. Haven't we beaten this dead horse enough?

[Naomi Price · Rating 4 out of 5]

With this better understanding of Marian Evans life, lives, and great determination, I need to read/reread George Eliot's many wonderful books.

[Neona · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I found it boring and did a lot of skimming to get through it.

[Lillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started out so brilliantly that I was convinced it was going to end up being one of my favorite novels. Weisgall re-imagines author George Eliot's honeymoon in Venice following the death of her longtime lover George Lewes and her subsequent marriage to a young admirer. What made this premise intriguing was the contrast between her new relationship and the old, underscored by Eliot's memories of her past visit to Venice with Lewes. Eliot had shared a joyful relationship with George Lewes, who was clearly her intellectual and sensual match, but she had to endure the ignominy of being in an illicit affair since Lewes was already married. Eliot's new husband, the handsome and much younger John Cross, offered her his devotion and the respectability of being in a sanctified marriage but ultimately could not fulfill her in more ways than one.

The opening scene of the book, in which painter James Whistler spies George Eliot across the Piazza San Marco, is one of the most satisfying revelations of character I have ever read. We get to see the layers of this remarkable woman unfold through Whistler's thoughtful eyes. With her back turned to him, from the way she speaks and carries herself, Whistler first imagines Eliot to be a great beauty, only to be taken aback at her ugliness when she finally turns around. But as he continues to watch her marvel excitedly at the sea snail fossils embedded in the stones of San Marco square, he finds her magnetic and begins to identify the nuances of her beauty. Clearly, he "gets her" in a way that her dunderhead of a husband never will.

What kept this book from being one of my favorites was the ending--though I can't really fault the author, can I? After all, Weisgall stayed true to the facts of Eliot's life. But having fallen in love with George Eliot, I wanted a better ending for her.

Interspersed between the chapters about Eliot is the story of another character in Venice, a modern day woman married to a wealthy and controlling older man. Perhaps Weisgall gives her the happy ending that she would have wished for Eliot.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have heard mixed things about this book (including one friend who passionately explained why I should skip it). As I had already selected it for a book club, I was sort of stuck reading it (for this bookworm at least, one of the worst feelings in the world is having someone tell you you’ve subjected friends to reading a horrible book).

I think I read a different book.

This is an enchanting novel about two women at different points in their lives, marriages, and careers. One is set in 1880, the other in 1980. The common theme is that both stories begin in Venice, Italy and both characters are artists (one being real-life author George Eliot).

I’m wary of dual plots. Too often, they are sickeningly cutesy and convenient (Really? You both stumble on the same diary in the same hidden room? And then you both meet a handsome man with a secret? No way!). Or one story is much stronger than the other (see Sarah’s Key with Entitled Rich Woman problems squaring off against a child uprooted by the Holocaust).

But this one works. The plots are simultaneously dependent and independent. There are parallels (Venice, unhappy marriage) but they never overwhelm the book and there’s no point where I feel like Ms. Weisgall was beating readers over the head while screaming “LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT HOW CREATIVE I AM AT TYING THESE TWO STORIES TOGETHER!”

But let me get back to the writing: the words make this story. The plot is simple, if slow and rough in places, but the prose transfers this story into something special.

Honestly, I feel like an illiterate elephant in trying to elaborate on the beauty of Ms. Weisgall’s writing. The best I can say is this: I’m sick of characters in creative professions (it’s so overdone, especially novelists – writers, please give your characters a goal other than your own, thank you), but the prose in The World Before Her is so lyrical that having the main characters as anything other than an author and a sculptor would have been jarring.

This is a lovely gem of a novel, and I hope more people will come to discover and appreciate it. Highly recommended.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book starts with Marion Evans and then each chapter alternates thereafter. I thought that would be confusing but the length of the chapters is perfect. Just enough information about the woman and her particular situation before pausing for the other woman's installment.
Although these women are separated by 100 years, they are experiencing the same situation. Their marriages have 20 year age differences, and both have learned things about their spouses that causes them to reflect on their lives and choices. A great deal of introspection and reflection on their joyous pasts, both of which include a previous gloriously happy trip to Venice. Not so this time around.
In Marion's story, we learn tidbits of her life with George Lewes, which include hanging out with Clara Schumann and Liszt. We also get a glimpse of her marriage to George, and the consequences of that union. With respect to Caroline, we witness her growing up in both her thought process and actions. She learns to see the world as it really is, and acts accordingly. Something Marion could never really do given the constraints of Victorian England.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The writing was lovely and the chapters were done perfectly. The descriptions of Venice and its beautiful treasures of art were excellent and transported me to both 1880 and 1980.
I could smell the canals.
I must admit I did not know who Marion Evans was, and my feelings went out to her. Caroline too, but more so for Marion because she was trapped in her situation. Middlemarch was already on my tbr, but I will be moving that up. All in all an excellent book, which completely surprised me.

My Rating:97/100 I really liked it.

[Marian Deegan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a hard time resisting novels set in Venice; this, combined with a parallel story line evocative of Byatt's Possession, and a recommendation from a dear friend, prompted me to open The World Before Her.

I was fascinated by Weisgall's recreation of George Eliot's late marriage and last years. However, despite the author's captivating imagined recreation of a literary luminary, I found this novel to be a disappointment. Weisgall contrasts the lives and choices of two women; one historic, and one modern. Yet, for Weisgall, women appear to have come no way at all, to borrow the old Virginia Slims slogan. I have sympathy for the historic constrictions Eliot faced; under the laws and mores of her time, financial and social independence were almost impossible for a woman. This is no longer true in the western world of the 21st Century, yet Weisgall's contemporary character, Caroline, has made choices to be just as financially dependent on her husband as Eliot's circumstances forced her to be. Like a vacuous (but more beautifully written) Sex in the City plot, Weisgall presents Caroline's dilemma as a choice simply between which man she is going to choose to care for her. Caroline's wider range of modern options for emotional and financial independence are given a sort of cursory lip service, but are never seriously considered.

There is an insidiousness in Weisgall's vision of perpetuated female dependence that does a grave disservice to the historically frustrated longings of Eliot, the expansion of women's rights over time, and to the integrity of the female gender.

I loved the portrait of Eliot, but Weisgall's broader view of women makes my skin crawl.

[Reagan Ramsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was convinced i would like this because it is partly biographical of Marian Evans (who wrote as George Eliot), and her latter day trip to Venice. But i didn't like it. For a very interesting premise, it read terribly pedestrian and predictable. The premise, then: There are two stories that flip back and forth, Marian Evans as an older woman when she finally "legitimated" her life by getting married...unfortunately to someone she wasn't remotely in love with.
the second story was 100 years later (sort of "the hours"ish...which seems promising, right?), about a woman who unwillingly travels back to Venice with her wealthy husband after avoiding the city since her father left her mother 30 years before.

There were redeeming parts; both were intelligent, interesting women, I loved hearing about the art and architecture of Venice, and I did enjoy learning more about the life of Marian (or Mary Ann?) Evans...i just get tired of characters whose life happiness is determined by the degree of romance in their lives/marriage. Not to imply that romance isn't important, but they all look back to this one great love that was so passionate and so perfect...and now there life will never be the same, so they resign themselves to being miserable forever. I get that marriage is hard, and alot harder if you feel that you've married the wrong person, but isn't it a bit of a cop-out that you blame it on the man you married and stop trying to make it better? My two cents.

[Sherry Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

AMAZON
From Publishers Weekly
Two women in Venice, separated by a century, search for love and identity in the latest from novelist (Still Point) and memoirist (A Joyful Noise) Weisgall. It opens as Marian Evans—aka Mary Ann Evans, aka the novelist George Eliot (1819–1880)—is on her 1880 honeymoon in Venice with Johnnie Cross, who is 20 years her junior. Evans is trying, after a long and scandalous love affair with fellow author George Lewes, to have a normal marriage. One hundred years later, in the same city, Caroline Spingold travels with her husband, Malcolm, on his business trip aimed at revitalizing the Venetian economy. Caroline is a sculptor with a childhood history in Venice, financially supported by Malcolm, who is 20 years her senior. Malcolm does not share many of Caroline's perceptions, and she grows increasingly weary of her stale marriage. Weisgall shares the stories of Marian and Caroline in alternating chapters, sensitively developing their similarities in artistic and sexual ambition. Both face the deaths of men from their pasts, making love to their memories while their current partners struggle to beautify their lives and aid them in their work. Weisgall's well-researched historical fiction is dense, romantic and provocative. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[Carol Jones-Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've chosen to read this book a second time, as the first was not a very good experience. Will provide more feed back when I'm done. Book club read. I changed the rating from two to three, and I enjoyed it more than I did the first time. It seemed to make more sense. I still have issues with dual plots, but I got it better this time than the first time. I dove right in after finishing Milo and told myself I can't read anything until this book is finished, and glad I did. Thanks for your encouragement Lauren.

This book has been a serious struggle for me. I've never liked books very much that have have dual plot lines, and that isn't the only reason I haven't liked it much. It kind of drags, the characters whom I thought I'd just love I didn't, and really scraped to finish it.

There were redeeming parts: they were intelligent, interesting women, I loved hearing about the art and architecture of Venice, and I did enjoy learning more about the life of Marian Evans...I just get tired of characters whose life happiness is determined by the degree of romance in their lives/marriage. Not to imply that romance isn't important, but they all look back to this one great love that was so passionate and so perfect...and now there life will never be the same, so they resign themselves to being miserable forever.

[Nan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent novel with parallel stories of the marriages of two women, both artists, who visit Venice 100 years apart. In 1880 Marian Evans Cross, better known to the world as George Eliot, is on her honeymoon. She has, to the world's surprise, married her much-younger financial adviser relatively soon after the death of her longtime partner, George Lewes. In 1980, Caroline Spingold is in Venice at the behest of her much older and controlling husband, Malcolm, who is afraid she is reclaiming her identity as an artist (she is a sculptor) and moving away from him. The women's stories are as different as the times and circumstances in which they live but both are enthralling. This novel would be a good choice for people who liked The Hours -- for people who want to know more about George Eliot and her love life, I highly recommend Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages

[Cate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A moving exploration of fading love and the bitterness of endings. George Eliot discovers the man she married doesn't understand who she is, and she struggles with the various social and personal pressures he brings to bear to make her conform to his image of her as a wise and proper Victorian lady. In 1980, the entirely fictional Caoline Spingold struggles with her emerging maturity as a woman and a sculptor agains her dominating husband's desire that she stay "soft" and trusting. Both stories take place largely in Venice and echo each other in many ways. Both husbands are financiers, convinced of their own rightness, although Johnny Cross uses weakness to get his way, while Malcolm Spingold uses strength.

The two stories show women struggling with universal questions of love, loyalty, compromise, and recognition for their work. An elegaic and thoughtful book that focusses on the moments when the participants discover that love is not what they thought it was. Definitely worth the read.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The primary setting for the book is Venice, with two stories; one set in 1880 involving George Eliot (Marian Evans) and her marriage to John Cross on their honeymoon, and one contemporary tale with a sculptor, Caroline, reluctantly returning to Venice as an anniversary trip. While both women have marriages that have failed to meet their expectations, in some ways they are opposites. Caroline married a much older man who is disappointed in her growth from a naive woman to someone with more confidence and strength, while Marian is the older partner and is more pragmatic about her relationship. As each figures out the path forward in her respective relationship, at times the two stories seem to have little in common, but Venice connects them in varying ways. I had mixed feelings about the book, and there were times where I did not connect with either story, and I felt that the historical tales was a bit stronger, but overall it was an interesting book.

[Marsha · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started off very promisingly, but just didn't hold my interest. It's about two couples, one in 1880 -- Johnnie and Marian (the novelist George Eliot) and one in 1980 -- Caroline and Malcolm. I never cared about the modern couple at all -- found them annoying, selfish, and self-involved. I wanted to give them a good kick in the rear and say, "Work it out, or get divorced, but leave me out of it." The Victorian couple's story intrigued me at first, but after a while I lost interest in the details and mysteries of their very misguided marriage. The character I enjoyed the most -- James MacNeill Whistler -- was, alas, just minor.

[Leslie Zampetti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Serendipitously - as often happens with books, for instance, McCarthy's The Rpad and Craces The Pesthouse - this appeared at the same time as Kathryn Walker's A Stopover in Venice. Weisgall's imagining of Marian Evans' brief second marriage parallels a sculptor's marriage in the recent past. The scenes of George Eliot (as she is better known) are wel-researched and ring true; the scenes of Venice are tantalizing as well as accurate, and the story of Caroline Edgar Spingold, Weisgall's wholly fictional heroine is less insipid than Walker's book. Enjoyable on many levels - as historical fiction, "women's fiction," and as an evocation of Venice, this is a very good read.