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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
Compelling read, beautifully researched and I’m now inspired to research more about Egon Schiele alongside all four women.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I didn’t know that much about Egon Schiele before reading this book but I admit I am now completely obsessed. All thanks to Sophie Haydock writing a piece of historical fiction that is just out of this world.
Haydock focuses on each of these women, who were all depicted in Schiele’s art and explores how they were a part of his life. It was fascinating to uncover. Their stories are well researched and are a good blend of fact and fiction.
The portrayal of Schiele left me with mixed feelings about him. There are elements in the story that left me questioning his somewhat controversial actions, did he really do wrong? We will never know, but Haydock does a great job of making you decide yourself on what you think occurred. He most certainly was a tortured soul, that much was clear.
The four women however, are the main force behind this book. There is a section about each one of them and I felt like I knew these ladies inside out by the end. Haydock explores their behaviours, emotions and inner conflicts and gives them a powerful voice. Every single one of them made my heart ache and I felt so close to each of them, particularly Vally, she was such a bright flame! The impact Schiele had on all of these women was pretty toxic but also he seemed to be able to give them life, especially through his art.
I can already say without a doubt that this will be one of my books of the year. I adored it. A work of art that will burn bright and stay close to my heart for a very long time
Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC of this.
In short - I absolutely loved this book! It follows four of the women attached to Egon Schiele - or, as I should maybe say, four of the women who made him. I knew next to nothing of Schiele before this book, but it's completely ignited me with a passion to learn more and, mostly, go and see some of his work in person!
Sophie brilliantly and powerfully imagines the stories as told by the women, for once. The book is split into 4 sections - Adele, Gertrude, Vally, and Edith - and masterfully time-hops between them. It's an excellent call to arms to always look beneath the surface, and really think about the portraits we see and who they portray. If you're worried that writing about art could possibly be stuffy or pretentious, you've no need to worry: Sophie's prose and characters burst with life, and the energy fizzes off the page.
As the kind of person who always goes onto google how much is fact and how much is fiction - whether it a book or on TV - I also really loved the author's notes afterwards, explaining her inspiration for the book, and which elements are fact and which were fiction.
In short - I absolutely loved this book! It follows four of the women attached to Egon Schiele - or, as I should maybe say, four of the women who made him. I knew next to nothing of Schiele before this book, but it's completely ignited me with a passion to learn more and, mostly, go and see some of his work in person!
Sophie brilliantly and powerfully imagines the stories as told by the women, for once. The book is split into 4 sections - Adele, Gertrude, Vally, and Edith - and masterfully time-hops between them. It's an excellent call to arms to always look beneath the surface, and really think about the portraits we see and who they portray. If you're worried that writing about art could possibly be stuffy or pretentious, you've no need to worry: Sophie's prose and characters burst with life, and the energy fizzes off the page.
As the kind of person who always goes onto google how much is fact and how much is fiction - whether it a book or on TV - I also really loved the author's notes afterwards, explaining her inspiration for the book, and which elements are fact and which were fiction.
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Offering a well-researched blend of fact and fiction, Sophie Haydock’s debut novel The Flames instantly transported me to early twentieth-century Vienna and into the lives of four extraordinary women, all of whom have influenced the life – and work – of scandalous, innovative artist Egon Schiele.
Flame-haired and fiery-tempered, Adele Harms knows that she is destined to be more than just another society wife. From the moment she sees the young artist who has moved in across the street, she knows that their fates will be intertwined. Gertrude Schiele, meanwhile, longs to follow in her brother’s footsteps and escape the confines of their small town existence. For Vally Neuzil, already a model for the famous Gustav Klimt, Egon is just another artist who wants to paint her: a means to an end that becomes something more. For Edith Harms, Adele’s sister, he is the man who will become her husband.
All four of these women are connected by Egon Schiele: inveterate artist and Klimt protégé, whose defiant, provocative nudes scandalise polite society and earn him a reputation as a pornographer. Yet, as Sophie Haydock displays, these women might be connected to Schiele but their lives are not – and should not – be solely defined by him.
In this captivating novel, Haydock imagines the lives of four women who, although their faces shine out at us from the walls of art galleries and collections across the globe, have had their voices lost amidst the admiring chatter of the art world. In doing so, she explores not only the relationship between artist and model, but explores the inner lives and personal circumstances of four women whose provocative poses set the artist, the art world, and polite society, aflame.
With an evocative sense of both time and place, Haydock expertly re-creates the heady and sensual world of Egon Schiele, capturing both the allure that he might have offered whilst being unafraid to consider the problematic ways in which the women who made his name might have been treated. I say ‘might’ because, as Sophie Haydock makes clear in an illuminating author’s note, very little tangible evidence – beyond, of course, Egon’s captivating portraits of them – has survived about the lives of Egon’s muses. What Haydock imagines, however, is not only convincing but offers a tantalising glimpse into the vivid, complicated lives that surely lay behind these images.
I became utterly absorbed in the lives of Adele, Gertrude, Vally, Edith, and the way in which their lives intersected, spiralling around the complex and often challenging figure of Egon himself. Rich in historical detail and thick with the allure of imagined possibilities, The Flames is an impressive debut that is vividly bought to life the lives of one of the twentieth-centuries most provocative artists, and the women who lay behind so many of his famous works.
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Happy publication day to The Flames!!
‘I’m not a saint. But we women are expected to be perfect and pure, while you men do whatever you please with no thought of the consequences.’
As a literature lover, I am not the most knowledgeable when it comes to the world of art, so I was a little apprehensive as to whether I would be able to fully immerse myself. I was very wrong.
The Flames is a feminist novel through and through, following the lives of the real women who defined and moulded the work of the artist egon schiele; although events throughout are fictitious. If you are unfamiliar with schiele (1890-1918), his radical art dominantly depicted women in the nude, their sensuality and sexuality celebrated. I felt Haydock’s admiration for his work so intensely whilst reading The Flames, which has exposed me to something I would have never appreciated beforehand.
‘It’s quite a battle the two of you have chosen to undertake. Against religion. Against society. It doesn’t bother your to forfeit order and conformity?’
The four women include: Adele the deluded admirer, whose fixation with Egon ruins not only her own life but those surrounding her, Gertrude the devout sister, who shares a bond unfathomable to others with Egon, Vally the magnificent muse, the love Egon was too foolish to fully embrace and the bravest of them all and Edith the multifaceted wife, the underestimated force to be reckoned.
‘She’s becoming that most mysterious of all creatures: a woman.’
Each of them contributes so much value to the novel and Egon, his art nothing without them. Yet their is a disheartening nature in that Egon benefits the most in their relationships, his gender and class raising his pedestal. Regardless, it is empowering as a female reader seeing these women define a man’s career and livelihood.
Another perfect read for the month of International Women’s Day, another perfect read for my fellow feminist rhetoric lovers!
I’m stuck between 3.5 and 4 stars with this one.
‘I’m not a saint. But we women are expected to be perfect and pure, while you men do whatever you please with no thought of the consequences.’
As a literature lover, I am not the most knowledgeable when it comes to the world of art, so I was a little apprehensive as to whether I would be able to fully immerse myself. I was very wrong.
The Flames is a feminist novel through and through, following the lives of the real women who defined and moulded the work of the artist egon schiele; although events throughout are fictitious. If you are unfamiliar with schiele (1890-1918), his radical art dominantly depicted women in the nude, their sensuality and sexuality celebrated. I felt Haydock’s admiration for his work so intensely whilst reading The Flames, which has exposed me to something I would have never appreciated beforehand.
‘It’s quite a battle the two of you have chosen to undertake. Against religion. Against society. It doesn’t bother your to forfeit order and conformity?’
The four women include: Adele the deluded admirer, whose fixation with Egon ruins not only her own life but those surrounding her, Gertrude the devout sister, who shares a bond unfathomable to others with Egon, Vally the magnificent muse, the love Egon was too foolish to fully embrace and the bravest of them all and Edith the multifaceted wife, the underestimated force to be reckoned.
‘She’s becoming that most mysterious of all creatures: a woman.’
Each of them contributes so much value to the novel and Egon, his art nothing without them. Yet their is a disheartening nature in that Egon benefits the most in their relationships, his gender and class raising his pedestal. Regardless, it is empowering as a female reader seeing these women define a man’s career and livelihood.
Another perfect read for the month of International Women’s Day, another perfect read for my fellow feminist rhetoric lovers!
I’m stuck between 3.5 and 4 stars with this one.
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for this free eARC in exchange for an honest review.
I have to admit I requested this book solely because of the cover; I read this book as pure fiction, I know the author took liberties, I didn't know how much was the truth or close to the truth until I took it upon myself to furiously google the people in this book. Luckily Sophie Haydock tells you herself all the things she added in the end. I really appreciated that and I have a new appreciation for these people who I had no idea existed before reading this book... Not the artist, not the artwork and certainly not the muses.
What Sophie does with this debut book truly is beautiful. Written through the eyes of the women affected and used by an idealistic artist you see the women who lived outside the confines of those drawings. In the end, this book does leave you sad for lives cut short and the knowledge that we just won't ever truly know how these women truly felt but at least they will never be forgotten.
I have to admit I requested this book solely because of the cover; I read this book as pure fiction, I know the author took liberties, I didn't know how much was the truth or close to the truth until I took it upon myself to furiously google the people in this book. Luckily Sophie Haydock tells you herself all the things she added in the end. I really appreciated that and I have a new appreciation for these people who I had no idea existed before reading this book... Not the artist, not the artwork and certainly not the muses.
What Sophie does with this debut book truly is beautiful. Written through the eyes of the women affected and used by an idealistic artist you see the women who lived outside the confines of those drawings. In the end, this book does leave you sad for lives cut short and the knowledge that we just won't ever truly know how these women truly felt but at least they will never be forgotten.