A Man of Genius
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
"Strange and haunting, a gothic novel with a modern consciousness." —Philippa Gregory
"A haunting, sophisticated story about a woman discovering the truth about herself and the elusive, possibly illusive, nature of genius." —Sunday Times
"Mesmerizing, haunting, imbued with a complete sense of historical verisimilitude" —Times Literary Supplement
"A psychologically haunting and disturbing tale as full of mystery, exotic foreign places, and questions of parentage as any penned by her protagonist." —Library Journal
"Thrilling and heartbreaking, a gothic novel with emotional heart and depth." —Foreword Reviews
"A darkly mischievous novel about love, obsession and the burden of charisma, played out against the backdrop of Venice's watery, decadent glory." —Sarah Dunant
"A mesmerizing story of love and obsession in nineteenth-century Venice: dark and utterly compelling." —Natasha Solomons
Set in bustling Regency England and decaying Venice, A Man of Genius portrays a psychological journey from safety into secrecy and obsession. After a troubled childhood, Ann achieves independence earning her living as an author of Gothic novels. Within a group of male writers, she meets and is enthralled by the supposed poetic genius, Robert James. They become uneasy lovers. Ann and Robert travel from London through a Europe exhausted by the Napoleonic Wars. They arrive in a Venice of spies and intrigue, where their relationship becomes tortuous and Robert descends into near madness. Forced to flee with a stranger, Ann delves into her past to be jolted by a series of revelations about her lover, her parentage, the stranger, and herself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The gothic novels of late 18th- and early 19th-century England tended to feature an innocent virgin led into dark adventures by an evil man. Ann St. Clair, the protagonist of Todd's novel, makes her living writing books like these, and though she's not proud of her prose each book, she knows, essentially rearranges the elements of romance, danger, and exotic travel she is proud of her independence. Then she meets the titular genius, a writer and radical whose great work, such as it was, is behind him and she goes from writing gothics to living one, complete with dangerous love, tragedy, a desperate escape, revelations about her parentage, and, when things look darkest, a chance for happiness. Historian Todd studies the era, and in her first work of fiction, she both evokes and comments on these novels, as Ann, who is neither young nor a virgin, falls prey to the genius's violent charisma. Unfortunately, both language and plot are slow going: Ann compares the sea to a "large white hand with rosy clutching fingers bent on taking the life from the living," and many plot developments are apparent to the reader before they are to Ann, who ruminates over questions the reader has already answered. These choices may stem from the era and genre, but they wear thin.
