Waiting on Wednesday- The Victorian and the Romantic by Nell Stevens

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

This week I’m waiting on: The Victorian and the Romantic: A Memoir, a Love Story, and a Friendship Across Time by Nell Stevens

 

Expected Publication Date: August 7th, 2018

 

 

From Goodreads:

 

History meets memoir in two irresistible true-life romances–one set in 19th century Rome, one in present-day Paris and London–linked by a bond between women writers a hundred years apart

In 1857, English novelist Elizabeth Gaskell completed her most famous work: the biography of her dear friend Charlotte Bronte. As publication loomed, Mrs. Gaskell was keen to escape the reviews. So, leaving her dull minister husband and dreary provincial city behind, she set off with her daughters to Rome. There she met a dazzling group of artists and writers, among them the American critic Charles Eliot Norton. Seventeen years her junior, Norton was her one true love. They could not be together–it would be an unthinkable breach of convention–but by his side and amidst that splendid circle, Mrs. Gaskell knew she had reached the “tip-top point of [her] life.”
In 2013, Nell Stevens is embarking on her PhD–about the community of artists and writers living in Rome in the mid-19th century–and falling head over heels for a soulful American screenwriter in another city. As her long-distance romance founders and her passion for academia never quite materializes, she is drawn to Mrs. Gaskell. Could this indomitable Victorian author rescue Nell’s pursuit of love, family and a writing career?
Lively, witty, and impossible to put down, The Victorian and the Romantic is a moving chronicle of two women each charting a way of life beyond the rules of her time

 

This sounds like an incredibly interesting mix of memoir, literary history, and biography. I’m very curious to see the ways in which Stevens connects her own experiences with those of Gaskell’s. It seems like much of the Victorian writer’s love affair is unknown, so I’m sure some imaginative license has been taken. Even so, I’m always excited to learn more about Elizabeth Gaskell, and I typically find the world of academia fun to read about as well. The Victorian and the Romantic has the potential to be a very unique read that appeals to a lot of my interests.

 

Are you interested in this too? What book(s) are you waiting on this week?

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