The Wayward Muse"I apologize again for my boldness, but I must tell you that you're the most beautiful girl in Oxford. Maybe in all of England. I have to put you in my painting." With these words, the scandalous, wildly talented painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti changes seventeen-year-old Jane Burden's life forever. Jane's gaunt, awkward figure and grave expression have cemented her reputation as the ugliest girl in Oxford. Raised by a stableman on Holywell Street -- the town's most sordid and despicable slum -- Jane is nearly resigned to marry in-kind. But when she meets Rossetti at the theater, he sees beyond her worn, ill-fitting dress and unruly hair and is stirred by her unconventional beauty. The charismatic painter whisks Jane into Oxford's exclusive art scene as his muse, and during the long and intimate hours of modeling -- draping and tilting, gazing and posing -- Jane finds herself falling in love. When Rossetti abruptly leaves Oxford with no plans to return, brokenhearted Jane settles for a stable, if passionless, marriage to his soft-spoken protégé, William Morris -- the man who would go on to become the father of the British Arts and Crafts Movement. Jane resigns herself to life as a respectable wife and mother, exchanging the slop bucket for intricate needlepoint, willing away the memories of Rossetti and what could have been. But Rossetti and Jane are inextricably bound together by tragedy, art, and desire, and no amount of time or distance can separate them. Ultimately this complicated arrangement with which Jane, Morris, and Rossetti must learn to live threatens to undo them all. Richly textured and deftly portrayed, Elizabeth Hickey's latest is a compelling portrait of the ever-changing notions of both love and beauty. |
Contents
Section 18 | 188 |
Section 19 | 199 |
Section 20 | 204 |
Section 21 | 211 |
Section 22 | 220 |
Section 23 | 225 |
Section 24 | 228 |
Section 25 | 234 |
Section 9 | 103 |
Section 10 | 111 |
Section 11 | 122 |
Section 12 | 128 |
Section 13 | 137 |
Section 14 | 146 |
Section 15 | 153 |
Section 16 | 166 |
Section 17 | 179 |
Section 26 | 240 |
Section 27 | 248 |
Section 28 | 257 |
Section 29 | 266 |
Section 30 | 271 |
Section 31 | 285 |
Section 32 | 291 |
Section 33 | 292 |
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Common terms and phrases
artists asked Jane asked Morris baby Barnstable began Bessie better blue Burden Burne-Jones can’t carriage color couldn’t course Dante Gabriel Rossetti dinner doctor door drawing dress easel eyes face Fanny Cornforth Faulkner feel floor Gabriel Georgie girl gone Guinevere hair hand He’s head heard Holywell Street hope husband I’ve Iceland imagine Jane asked Jane Burden Jane felt Jane knew Jane saw Jane thought Jane tried Jane’s Jenny Kelmscott Kelmscott Manor kissed lady laudanum laughed live Lizzie Lizzie’s London look Maria Zambaco married Miss Lipscombe Morris’s mother never night Oxford Oxford Union painting Perhaps poem pulled Red House Ruskin seemed setti sewing shook sitting sketches sleep smiled someone sorry stared stop sure tell There’s things told took trying turned waited walked Wallingford wife William Morris window won’t wondered you’re