A Lady of Good Family - by Jeanne Mackin (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From the author of The Beautiful American comes a richly imagined, beautifully written novel about historical figure Beatrix Farrand, one of the first female landscape architects.

Raised among wealth and privilege during America's fabled Gilded Age, a niece of famous novelist Edith Wharton and a friend to literary great Henry James, Beatrix Farrand is expected to marry, and marry well. But as a young woman traveling through Europe with her mother and aunt, she already knows that gardens are her true passion.

How this highborn woman with unconventional views escapes the dictates of society to become the most celebrated female landscape designer in the country is the story of her unique determination to create beauty and serenity while remaining true to herself.

Beatrix's journey begins at the age of twenty-three in the Borghese Gardens of Rome, where she meets beguiling Amerigo Massimo, an Italian gentleman of sensitivity and charm--a man unlike any she has known before....

Review Quotes

Praise for A Lady of Good Family

"Reading one of Jeanne Mackin's historical novels is the next best thing to having a time machine at your disposal. A Lady of Good Family is so immersive, so captivating in its depiction of famed Gilded Age landscape architect Beatrix Farrand--niece of Edith Wharton and friend of Henry James -- that I devoured it in one sitting."--Jennifer Robson, author of After the War is Over andSomewhere in France

"Mackin has taken an unusual approach to a fictionalized biography by relating the story through another story: that of her friend Daisy Winters, an associate of Edith Wharton and Henry James. This novel depicts the various stages of love through the dissimilar characters' lives. The simple yet beautiful prose charms."--RT Book Reviews

Praise for The Beautiful American
"Readers will rank [it] right up there with The Paris Wife...A brilliant, beautifully written literary masterpiece..."--New York Times bestselling author Sandra Dallas

"Will transport you to expat Paris...and from there take you on a journey through the complexities of a friendship...breathes new life into such luminaries as Man Ray, Picasso, and, of course, the titular character, Lee Miller, while at the same time offering up a wonderfully human and sympathetic protagonist in Nora Tours."--Suzanne Rindell, author of The Other Typist

"Leaves its essence of love, loss, regret, and hope long after the novel concludes."--Erika Robuck, author of Fallen Beauty

"Achingly beautiful and utterly mesmerizing... Sure to appeal to fans of Paula McLain's The Paris Wife and Erika Robuck's Call Me Zelda, or indeed to anyone with a taste for impeccably researched and beautifully written historical fiction."--Jennifer Robson, author of Somewhere in France

"An engaging and unforgettable novel. I couldn't put it down."--Renee Rosen, author of Dollface

"An exquisitely imagined and beautifully rendered story of the talented, tragic, gorgeous Lee Miller."--Becky E. Conekin, author of Lee Miller in Fashion

About the Author

Jeanne Mackin is an award-winning author of historical novels, including The Beautiful American, The Frenchwoman, The Sweet By and By, Dreams of Empire, Queen's War, and A Lady of Good Family. She lives in the Finger Lakes region of New York with her husband, artist Steve Poleskie.