Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #623362 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Scotsman
‘this tender, elegant treasure’

From the Publisher
An unforgettable novel in the bestselling tradition of Girl with a Pearl Earring

About the Author
Harriet Scott Chessman has taught writing at Yale University and is on the faculty of the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College. She has also written a book on Gertrude Stein, The Public is Invited to Dance, as well as essays on modern literature. Chessman lives with her family in the San Francisco Bay area.

Customer Reviews

A Painter and her Model
This book was a delight to read and a delight to look at. The story of two sisters told through five pictures painted by artist Mary Cassatt of Lydia, who is terminally ill. Sounds morbid? It isn't. It is tender, beatifully written, and ultimately life-affirming. It offers many insights into the art world of Degas' Paris, and into the mind of a comparatively unknown artist, (unjustly so), who deserves to be ranked with almost any of the Impressionists. And the real treat was the superb production, the style, and the illustrations - it is quite the prettiest book I have seen in a very long while, and would make a splendid gift for someone special, or for yourself. The only drawback? You'll finish it at a sitting, I guarantee. But still, I for one can't wait to read it again.

Art and life at the time of Degas
An exceptional introspective masterpiece about the relationship between the two sisters Mary and Lydia Cassatt, the painter and the model. A collection of thoughts and sensations in short sketches, each one dealing with a paint. A vivid stream of consciousness narration, meant to evocate and not to describe, the novel focuses on the different personalities of Lydia herself, Mary and her pigmalion Degas, whose character appears and disappears in the flow of the events as light in the impressionist paintings. Finally the main theme of this novel seems to be the sometimes dangerous relationship between art and life, illness and vitality. The evocating power of the writer - deeply indebted to Virginia Woolf's best pages - reproduces in words the atmosphere of the impressionist masterpieces. An unforgettable novel of feelings, such as Tracy Chevalier's "Girl with a Pearl Earring"

Art and life at the time of Degas
An exceptional introspective masterpiece about the relationship between the two sisters Mary and Lydia Cassatt, the painter and the model. A collection of thoughts and sensations in short sketches, each one dealing with a paint. A vivid stream of consciousness narration, meant to evocate and not to describe, the novel focuses on the different personalities of Lydia herself, Mary and her pigmalion Degas, whose character appears and disappears in the flow of the events as light in the impressionist paintings. Finally the main theme of this novel seems to be the sometimes dangerous relationship between art and life, illness and vitality. The evocating power of the writer - deeply indebted to Virginia Woolf's best pages - reproduces in words the atmosphere of the impressionist masterpieces. An unforgettable novel of feelings, such as Tracy Chevalier's "Girl with a Pearl Earring"