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19 oeuvres 319 utilisateurs 31 critiques

A propos de l'auteur

Comprend les noms: Nancy Means Wright

Crédit image: Nancy Means Wright

Séries

Œuvres de Nancy Means Wright

Harvest of Bones (1998) 49 exemplaires
Poison Apples (2000) 45 exemplaires
Stolen honey (2002) 41 exemplaires
Mad Season (1996) 34 exemplaires
Broken Strings (2013) 28 exemplaires
Mad Cow Nightmare (2005) 26 exemplaires
Crimes of Passion [Anthology 4-in-1] (2002) — Contributeur — 7 exemplaires
Queens Never Make Bargains (2014) 7 exemplaires
Walking into the Wild (2012) 4 exemplaires
The pea soup poisonings (2006) 3 exemplaires
Make your own change (1985) 2 exemplaires
Down the strings (1982) 2 exemplaires
The Great Circus Train Robbery (2008) 1 exemplaire
Acts of Balance (2014) 1 exemplaire
The Shady Sisters (2016) 1 exemplaire

Étiqueté

Partage des connaissances

Date de naissance
20th Century
Sexe
female
Nationalité
USA
Lieux de résidence
Middlebury, Vermont, USA
Études
Vassar College

Membres

Critiques

In 1781, Mary Wollstonecraft has just published her Vindications of the Rights of Women and is active with the men and women of intellectual London. This crowd includes erotic painter Henry Fuseli, with whom Mary is obsessed. When Fuseli's masterpiece, The Nightmare, is stolen, Fuseli blames minor artist Roger Peale and has him arrested. Mary doubts Peale's guilt, and Peale's fiancee turns to Mary for help, but Mary's obsession with Fuseli hampers her ability to think straight. When fellow intellectual and bluestocking Isobel Frothingham is murdered, her dead body arranged in The Nightmare's tableau, and found by Mary's maid, Mary wonders if there is a connection between the theft and the murder.
Wright captures the character of intellectual London brilliantly. These writers, artists and French revolutionaries are passionate idealists, but they lack common sense. With their heads in the clouds trying to unravel the grand philosophical knots plaguing mankind, they stumble into the mud puddles at their feet. Obsessed with trying to change her sexual attraction to Fuseli into an intellectual ideal, Mary hardly pays any mind to the crimes of the story, making her a bizarre yet intriguing sleuth. When she helps to solve the mystery, it is almost as an after-thought: save France from its corrupt royalty, demand equal rights for women, discover murderer and avoid being killed . . . .
Devotes to the murder mystery genre might be frustrated by the lack of focus characters show to solving the crimes, yet I found Mary's scatter-brained intellectualism charming. I appreciate Wright's ability to model her fictional Mary Wollstonecraft with the clay of the historical person, keeping her personality and foibles and not pretending that when faced with a murder she would suddenly become Sherlock Holmes.
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Signalé
elizabethcfelt | May 15, 2017 |
Cette critique a été rédigée pour LibraryThing Member Giveaways.
A multi-generational novel about women that everyone will find relateable and admirable....'the stuff real women are made of' i'd say. From Scotland to America they live thru historical times and changes, which makes the characters become even more real....people you'd want to know.

I love it when as you read a book that flows so well that the images create a kind of movie in your head....THIS book has the makings of a show i'd watch on PBS!
 
Signalé
linda.marsheells | Oct 14, 2014 |
I just could not get into this story. When I first started reading I thought it might be a good story. A mysterious death of a puppeteer who wants to change the story endings to her shows and none of her employees agree with her. Sounds like an interesting who done it. But the more I read the more bogged down the story became and the less I cared.
Then there were the witches. It is my understanding that while covens will hold "open" rituals and allow non-coven members to observe, they are not allowed to participate. Yet, the girl (whose name I didn't even bother to learn) was able to jump right in.
I just wouldn't, in good conscience, be able to recommend this book to anyone.
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
Kindelvr137 | 5 autres critiques | Sep 9, 2014 |
Cette critique a été écrite dans le cadre des Critiques en avant-première de LibraryThing.
43% in. This is a DNF for me. I struggled to get past the 40% mark but there is just nothing about the characters or the story line that I find appealing. The characters are not likeable to me nor is the story line intriguing. Judging from other reviews, there are some that really liked this so obviously YMMV but it's a complete miss for me.

I received a copy of this through the librarything EarlyReviewers program and this is my honest review.
 
Signalé
Mrsbaty | 5 autres critiques | Jul 13, 2014 |

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Statistiques

Œuvres
19
Membres
319
Popularité
#74,135
Évaluation
3.1
Critiques
31
ISBN
44
Langues
1

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