Also Georgiana - Hardcover

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Not until Georgiana Curwen comes of age in 1830 can she begin to unravel her past. Georgiana's grandfather, a prominent politician, had turned out his unmarried pregnant daughter. That woman, Georgiana's mother, left little except letters of advice to a child she never knew. Georgiana's own conduct, especially her work for the poor and her pursuit of a career as an artist, scandalizes many proper Victorians. But in London and Paris she finds more freedom. This first novel's structure is complex, its style reminiscent of the era of its setting. In fact, Harding ties Georgiana to Pip from Dickens's Great Expectations, making him a brother she never meets. Like 19th-century novels, this one contains a multitude of characters, some of whom are neither developed nor disposed of properly. Harding's care and the reader's attention center on Georgiana. She is a woman worth knowing. Kathy Piehl, Mankato State Univ. Lib., Minn.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This ambitious first novel looks at many different kinds of female travail in Victorian England. In 1829, Georgiana, raised in shadowy circumstances in a rigid Cumberland household, learns that she is illegitimate and, consequently, disenfranchised. When she reaches her majority, she is summarily sent to a branch of the distinguished Curwen family, who are related to Fletcher Christian of Bounty notoriety. There she begins to fill in the lacunae in her history. She learns that her mother, another Georgiana, a free spirit who rejected the conventional mores, was disowned by the Curwens. Developing her own identity, Georgiana follows her mother's lead, becoming a recognized artist and a fully sexual being in the diverse milieus of London, Paris and Dublin. Though overlong and busily plotted, this historic romance catches the flavor of a period of social ferment when women's rights were beginning to be asserted in a male-dominated society.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.