Description
When the celebrated actor Nandou first sees Jeanne Sorel on the Paris streets, his heart is pierced by her innocent beauty, glowing like a pearl amid the squalor of her surroundings. Unable to bear the prospect of abandoning her to a life of grinding poverty, he takes her to live with him and teaches her about his beloved theatre, about literature, and about life in the bohemian world of nineteenth-century Paris.
Although he loves her, Nandou knows that Jeanne can never be his, and he watches jealously as Jeanne and Louis, the radical son of the wealthy Vollard family, become lovers.
When Jeanne is left pregnant with Louis’s child, too ashamed to ask for help, she struggles on alone until Nandou comes to her aid. Then her daughter is kidnapped and Jeanne swears revenge on her former lover, but it is some years before she fulfils her vow…
‘Clever, solidly based … the plot unfolds against the well-depicted political and artistic upheavals of the age’ Publishers Weekly
‘Rich with historical detail and with involving personal crises. Her characters are lively, believable, and compelling’ Booklist
Paperback, 599 pages. In very good preloved condition with the exception of a very slight colour change to pages.
