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Girl in a Blue Dress: A Novel Inspired by the Life and Marriage of Charles Dickens
by Arnold, Gaynor
- Used
- Fine
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Fine/Dust Jacket Included
- ISBN 10
- 0307462269
- ISBN 13
- 9780307462268
- Seller
-
Apache Junction, Arizona, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Crown. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Fine/Dust Jacket Included. 0307462269 First edition, First printing. Not price clipped. NOT REMAINDER marked. NOT ex library. Not Book Club. Dust jacket in protective cover. Shipped in a box. Number line starting with a (1). Fine/Fine
Synopsis
At the end of her life, Catherine, the cast-off wife of Charles Dickens, gave the letters she had received from her husband to their daughter Kate, asking her to donate them to the British Museum, "so the world may know that he loved me once." The incredible vulnerability and heartache evident beneath the surface of this remark inspired Gaynor Arnold to write Girl in a Blue Dress, a dazzling debut novel inspired by the life of this tragic yet devoted woman. Arnold brings the spirit of Catherine Dickens to life in the form of Dorothea "Dodo" Gibson--a woman who is doomed to live in the shadow of her husband, Alfred, the most celebrated author in the Victorian world. The story opens on the day of Alfred's funeral. Dorothea is not among the throngs in attendance when The One and Only is laid to rest. Her mourning must take place within the walls of her modest apartment, a parting gift from Alfred as he ushered her out of their shared home and his life more than a decade earlier. Even her own children, save her outspoken daughter Kitty, are not there to offer her comfort--they were poisoned against her when Alfred publicly declared her an unfit wife and mother. Though she refuses to don the proper mourning attire, Dodo cannot bring herself to demonize her late husband, something that comes all too easily to Kitty. Instead, she reflects on their time together--their clandestine and passionate courtship, when he was a force of nature and she a willing follower; and the salad days of their marriage, before too many children sapped her vitality and his interest. She uncovers the frighteningly hypnotic power of the celebrity author she married. Now liberated from his hold on her, Dodo finds the courage to face her adult children, the sister who betrayed her, and the charming actress who claimed her husband's love and left her heart aching.A sweeping tale of love and loss that was long-listed for both the Man Booker Prize and the Orange Prize, Girl in a Blue Dress is both an intimate peek at the woman who was behind one of literature's most esteemed men and a fascinating rumination on marriage that will resonate across centuries.From the Hardcover edition.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Garys Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- SKU1012003
- Title
- Girl in a Blue Dress: A Novel Inspired by the Life and Marriage of Charles Dickens
- Author
- Arnold, Gaynor
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Dust Jacket Included
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- 1st Edition
- ISBN 10
- 0307462269
- ISBN 13
- 9780307462268
- Publisher
- Crown
- Place of Publication
- Ny
- This edition first published
- 2009-07-14
Terms of Sale
Garys Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Garys Books
Biblio member since 2014
Apache Junction, Arizona
About Garys Books
No open store. All sales are over the internet.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Remainder
- Book(s) which are sold at a very deep discount to alleviate publisher overstock. Often, though not always, they have a remainder...
- Price Clipped
- When a book is described as price-clipped, it indicates that the portion of the dust jacket flap that has the publisher's...
- Number Line
- A series of numbers appearing on the copyright page of a book, where the lowest number generally indicates the printing of that...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
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