"In The Wayward Muse, Elizabeth Hickey conjures up the fascinating love story behind an artist's vision and brings it to life with richly imagined characters and historical detail. It is an enchanting novel."
-- Tova Mirvis, author of The Ladies Auxiliary and The Outside World
"I will never again encounter a William Morris design or read a poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti in quite the same way. Elizabeth Hickey's rendering of the Pre-Raphaelite movement in English poetry and art is evocative and enchanting. Jane Burden is a heroine worthy of the Brontë sisters."
-- Brenda Rickman Vantrease, author of The Illuminator and The Mercy Seller
"The Wayward Muse grants us and its protagonist, the plainest Jane from an Oxford slum, a shared dream: to be transported out of ourselves. With sumptuous and persuasive detail, the novel unveils for us the intoxications and burdens of always being someone's muse."
-- Jim Shepard, author of Project X and Love and Hydrogen
Elizabeth Hickey's excellent historical novel "The Wayward Muse" is unhurried, the writing quietly assured.
Elizabeth Hickey imagines the life of Jane Burden, Dante Gabriel Rossetti's model and inspiration, in "The Wayward Muse," a deftly written historical novel rich in period detail. Jane, a poor girl born in an Oxford slum, is unusually tall and very thin, with a long, pale, sad face and a mass of coarse, unruly hair. Her family and neighbors consider her ugly and despair of her finding a husband, but her unusual beauty attracts Rossetti's attention. His fellow artist Edward Burne-Jones persuades Jane's grasping mother to allow the 17-year-old to pose, for a fee, as Guenevere in a series of murals . The modeling sessions change Jane's life, introducing her to a group of young artists, writers, and craftsmen who called themselves the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Jane's face doesn't launch the movement, but she becomes its icon.
Hickey writes persuasively, capturing Jane's confusion as she adjusts to her new life. She and Rossetti fall in love, but he soon drops her to marry his semi-invalid fiancée. Crushed by Rossetti's rejection, Jane agrees to marry his friend and protégé William Morris, an independently wealthy young man, a poet, designer, and social reformer who will found the Arts and Crafts movement. Jane never stops loving Rossetti and takes up with him again after his wife dies. Morris knows about their affair and reluctantly facilitates it, preferring private humiliation to public scandal. Hickey writes knowledgably about the period, but her research never eclipses her graceful narrative. --Diane White
Plain Jane Burden never expected to be an artist's model, much less the standard of pre-Raphaelite beauty, but in Hickey's second historical novel (after The Painted Kiss), Jane's looks catapult her from the Oxford slums to the drawing rooms of London. After Jane is discovered by painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, her domineering mother allows her to sit for a mural of Guinevere because of the much-needed income it brings the family. Jane relishes the few hours each week she's allowed to sit and eavesdrop on Rossetti and his clique of artists and writers, inspiring verses in their poetry and a declaration of love. But after Rossetti leaves her for his sickly fiancée, Lizzie, Jane agrees to marry his rich friend William Morris so she can stay close to him. Jane bears two children and becomes an uneasy confidante to Lizzie, but Rossetti's feelings for Jane resurface after Lizzie dies, and William can't help noticing. Hickey handles her characters with a light touch and steers them clear of brooding cliché territory. Marvelous period detail adds appeal to an alluring story.
A young girl, born in the worst kind of poverty, mistreated by her parents, is faced with the prospect of going into service, where her treatment won’t be much better, or marrying a neighbor boy as poor and brutal as her family. Enter a handsome young gentleman who sees her unusual looks as beautiful and falls in love with her as he immortalizes her on canvas. Sound like a fairy tale? It isn’t. It is the real life story of Jane Burden, muse to Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the rest of the Pre-Raphaelites and model for Shaw’s Pygmalion. Although Rossetti seduces and wins Jane’s heart, he is promised to another. She marries his protégé, William Morris, father of the Arts and Crafts movement because he is adoring and rich. But when Rossetti’s wife dies, their affair blooms again and Morris and Jane come to an interesting arrangement. Hickey, author of the well-received Painted Kiss (2005), manages to imbue the story with real warmth and passion focusing on the relationships and the art. Haunting and lyrical; the reader will be captivated. —Elizabeth Dickey
Hickey's obsession with the art world has led her into a fascinating realm where she merges art and passion to explore what fires an artist's spirit and creativity, both in work and for the women who serve as inspiration. Her full-blooded characters move through the pages with verve and passion for life and their art. She traces the triumphs and tragedy of an unconventional love triangle and paints a portrait as fine as any artist's—one readers will see and feel.
Copyright ©2007 Elizabeth Hickey