I was very disappointed in reading this book as I have read several of the same genre & founf myself swept up into the lives of the characters from an era long past. This historical fiction has both the era nineteenth-century Paris, colorful, artistic characters,danger and drama but failed to bring all these elements together to create a story that engaged the reader into the era & the life of the characters. ( )

I tend to be pretty compulsive about finishing every book that I start. It is very very rare for me to put one down unfinished. This book was one of those rare exceptions.

Turgid, stilted prose. Flat cardboard characters. Criminally dull treatment of an interesting period in art & literary history.

This was awful & I didn't finish it & I'm not sorry. ( )

Although primarily interested in Art Nouveau and the latter half of the nineteenth century, nevertheless I looked forward to reading this book. It promised a diversity of subjects: art, music, sexuality, and politics.

As a young girl, Victorine vows to do whatever she can to find her place in the world. She uses her wiles, her sensuality, and her determination to succeed to take her from being a model for a painter (and the subject of a controversial--for its time--nude portrait) to the mistress of a politician, and from the paint-spattered studios of Parisian artists to the bloody fields of the Franco-Prussian war.

I wasn’t in the least disappointed with Mademoiselle Victorine. With epic-like qualities, the novel sweeps us through the mid-1800s, introducing us, through the main character, to such fascinating historical characters as Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Louis-Napoleon, and even Bismarck.

Skillfully interweaving historical data into her fiction without being intrusive or distracting, Finerman creates a believable and captivating world of artists and prostitutes, soldiers and politicians. With a background in art history and journalism, as well as having read the works of Balzac, Flaubert, Stendhal, Zola, and Proust in French and English, the author uses her knowledge and keen interest to draw the reader into a delightful and intriguing book.

TCM Reviews
http://tcm-ca.com/reviews/1863.html ( )