RaveHistorical Novel SocietyThis is no straightforward biography, however, and impatient readers will want to prepare themselves for a (fabulous) meandering, objectively unobjective journey through late 19th-century and early 20th-century Europe ... Barnes unfurls his story like a novel, even as he notes that biographies have strange twists and unresolved endings that would never be left in a novel. As such, there are many questions the reader is left to wrestle with – most noted by Barnes with wry apology – but the effect is charming rather than frustrating ... Despite the seemingly unconcerned nature of the book, it is a rich, well-researched resource for any reader wanting to understand more about late 19th-century France and the United Kingdom. It offers insight into the art and literature of the era and a gossipy who’s-who of major and minor figures of the time. And as a biography, it puts aside any pretense of authorial distance, and instead invites the reader to imagine, marvel, and guess along with Barnes.
