The Ringmaster's Wife
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- $149.00
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- $149.00
Descripción editorial
An ounce of courage.
A leap of faith.
Together, they propel two young women to chase a new life—one that’s reimagined from what they might have become.
In turn-of-the-century America, a young girl dreams of a world that stretches beyond the confi nes of a quiet life on the family farm. With little more than her wit and a cigar box of treasures, Mable steps away from all she knows, seeking the limitless marvels of the Chicago World’s Fair. There, a chance encounter triggers her destiny—a life with a famed showman by the name of John Ringling.
A quarter of a century later, Lady Rosamund Easling boards a ship to America as a last adventure before her arranged marriage. There, the twenties are roaring, and the rich and famous gather at opulent, Gatsby-esque parties. The Jazz Age has arrived, and with it, the golden era of the American circus, whose queen is none other than the enigmatic Mable Ringling.
When Rosamund’s path crosses with Mable’s and the Ringlings’ glittering world, she makes the life-altering decision to leave behind a comfortable future of estates and propriety, choosing instead the nomadic life of a trick rider in the Ringling Brothers’ circus.
A novel that is at once captivating, deeply poignant, and swirling with exquisite historical details of a bygone world, The Ringmaster’s Wife will escort readers into the center ring, with its bright lights, exotic animals, and a dazzling performance that can only be described as the Greatest Show on Earth!
“Vibrant with the glamour and awe that flourished under the Big Top in the 1920s, The Ringmaster’s Wife invites the reader [into] the Greatest Show on Earth.” —Joanne Bischof, award-winning author of The Lady and the Lionheart
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cambron (The Butterfly and the Violin) seesaws between story lines and time periods in her latest novel. Fleshing out the life of the enigmatic Mable Ringling (wife of American circus entrepreneur John Ringling, of Ringling Bros. fame), Cambron fictionalizes a great deal, including how the couple met, while sprinkling in some historical facts. In the second thread, Lady Rosamund Easling's prized Arabian horse is purchased by the circus, and she leaves England and a prospective suitor to follow the animal to America. Mable and Rosamund have a few brief encounters, but primarily these are two separate stories of strong and determined women who boldly leave their pasts in search of fulfillment. Both end up in the shadow of the big top, but with much different perspectives. Cambron vividly depicts circus life during the 1920s, when the vast menagerie moved in 100-car trains and the Ringlings were establishing themselves in Sarasota, Fla., society. With a strong supporting cast of friends and family including a nemesis or two the women experience heartbreak, loss, hope, and triumph, all set against the colorful backdrop of the "greatest show on Earth."