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johnchan's review against another edition
4.5
good books transport you to a different world. this one takes you to parisian opera houses where drama lurks around every corner. pretty words too!
hamilgrom's review against another edition
4.0
I love reading long books on my vacations and choose this book to read during our honeymoon in Europe. The constant twists and turns and exotic settings made it an excellent read for this situation and I found myself telling my husband about each exciting plot point. That being said, there is a lot of plot to this book and it is fairly light on the character development side. For me, however, I was fine with that style. I was happy to get caught up in the gowns and misfortune and opera and didn't stop too much to wonder about character motivations or if everyone's actions were realistic and plausible. To me, this just wasn't that kind of book and I was fine to suspend my disbelief. Ultimately I'd say I really thoroughly enjoyed about 85% of this novel, the other 15% was just too convoluted for me to even make sense of. I highly recommend this for lovers of long novels you can sink your teeth into, lovers of soapy drama and lovers of rich historical fiction.
lizawall's review against another edition
I loved the drag sensibility of this book! All queenie melodrama, gowns, second empire/third republic realness.
erincastor's review against another edition
1.0
I couldn't get over no quotation marks around the text when someone was speaking. It made the book very hard to follow. I actually felt that this book was really hard to get into.
dharma130's review against another edition
1.0
Could not finish this book...the author tried too hard and sounded so arrogant with all the details and the French and Italian he threw in there without translating...I read (well, listened to) almost half of it and couldn't take it anymore. Did not like the characters, felt the story was all over the place. The author just seemed pompous.
candacesiegle_greedyreader's review against another edition
3.0
My, what an odd book! I realized about a third of the way through that I had completely lost the thread of the plot, but I kept reading because I was captivated by how Alexander Chee elegantly revels in several of my very favorite arcane and glorious mid-19th century subjects.
One is the Empress Eugenie and her influence on fashion. Eugenie played a role quite like that of Princess Diana, but with more impact on foreign relations. As the Empress of France, everyone's eye was on her, and Eugenie and her ladies would change gowns five times a day, top to bottom, inside to out. Since all this changing could easily take up most of the Empress's day, there was an art do doing this speedily and perfectly. The main character has a job being in charge of these "toilettes"--mannequins of each dress, accessories, underclothes and hoops, and this is where the book is really addictive. Chee's descriptions are wonderful, rich and sensuous, and I ate it up with a spoon.
The other gloriously arcane topic is 19th century opera. The main character possesses a beautiful voice and trains with Pauline Viardot, a woman worth a book of her own. Pauline was the daughter of Manuel Garcia, whose development of vocal technique remains a direct line to the way voice is taught today. Pauline's career is over, but she is happily tucked away in a French country home with her husband and lover, the Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev, giving lessons. Friends like Georges Sand frequently drop by. Again, wonderful stuff.
You may be wondering why the main character is being referred to as just that in this review . She has a name she adopted--Lilliet Berne--but she is not up to her rich setting. It's hard to believe where she came from and what she goes through.She is detached. She seems to be floating through it all, worshiped by men, singing like a goddess or at least fastening myriad tiny pearl buttons up the back of a Worth gown like a whirlwind. What a novel this would have been with a heroine worthy of her world!
One is the Empress Eugenie and her influence on fashion. Eugenie played a role quite like that of Princess Diana, but with more impact on foreign relations. As the Empress of France, everyone's eye was on her, and Eugenie and her ladies would change gowns five times a day, top to bottom, inside to out. Since all this changing could easily take up most of the Empress's day, there was an art do doing this speedily and perfectly. The main character has a job being in charge of these "toilettes"--mannequins of each dress, accessories, underclothes and hoops, and this is where the book is really addictive. Chee's descriptions are wonderful, rich and sensuous, and I ate it up with a spoon.
The other gloriously arcane topic is 19th century opera. The main character possesses a beautiful voice and trains with Pauline Viardot, a woman worth a book of her own. Pauline was the daughter of Manuel Garcia, whose development of vocal technique remains a direct line to the way voice is taught today. Pauline's career is over, but she is happily tucked away in a French country home with her husband and lover, the Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev, giving lessons. Friends like Georges Sand frequently drop by. Again, wonderful stuff.
You may be wondering why the main character is being referred to as just that in this review . She has a name she adopted--Lilliet Berne--but she is not up to her rich setting. It's hard to believe where she came from and what she goes through.She is detached. She seems to be floating through it all, worshiped by men, singing like a goddess or at least fastening myriad tiny pearl buttons up the back of a Worth gown like a whirlwind. What a novel this would have been with a heroine worthy of her world!
thriftylibrarian's review against another edition
2.0
I was promised a diamond and instead found only paste.
DND at 60% because life's too short to read books I don't enjoy.
DND at 60% because life's too short to read books I don't enjoy.