Vaughn Entwistle
08-29-2010, 08:53 PM
Currently reading the Dark Clue by James Wilson. Inspired by the "Victorian Sensation" novel, the Dark Clue is a kinda-sorta-mystery novel in which two amateur sleuths, Walter Hartright and his sister-in-law Marian, (characters Wilson recycles from Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White) are on a journey through varying levels of Victorian society to discover the truth about the painter J.M.W. Turner's personal and well-hidden private life.
I'm barely a third of the way through the novel but I'm liking it so far, and I'm not especially a fan of the epistolary novel. I am, however, a sucker for novels set in Victorian London and this book does not dissappoint. I'm also enjoying the novel's educational aspect it because of the author's grasp of art history of the period. It's even made me go back and re-look at all of Turner's paintings. I remember as a kid growing up in England being blown away the first time I saw Turner's dark and violently brooding paintings; I'm even more blown away looking at them again. I can understand now why Turner's work caused such a kerfuffle (love that word) in Victorian times.
Anybody else read this book?
I'm barely a third of the way through the novel but I'm liking it so far, and I'm not especially a fan of the epistolary novel. I am, however, a sucker for novels set in Victorian London and this book does not dissappoint. I'm also enjoying the novel's educational aspect it because of the author's grasp of art history of the period. It's even made me go back and re-look at all of Turner's paintings. I remember as a kid growing up in England being blown away the first time I saw Turner's dark and violently brooding paintings; I'm even more blown away looking at them again. I can understand now why Turner's work caused such a kerfuffle (love that word) in Victorian times.
Anybody else read this book?