Passion - by Jude Morgan (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Theirs was a world of obsession, genius, and above all...

In the turbulent years of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, three poets--Byron, Shelley, and Keats--come to prominence, famous and infamous, for their vivid personalities, and their glamorous, shocking, and sometimes tragic lives. In this electrifying novel, those lives are explored through the eyes of the women who knew and loved them--intensely, scandalously.

Four women from widely different backgrounds are linked by a sensational fate. Mary Shelley: the gifted daughter of gifted parents, for whom passion leads to exile, loss, and a unique fame. Lady Caroline Lamb: born to fabulous wealth and aristocratic position, who risks everything for the ultimate love affair. Fanny Brawne: her quiet, middle-class girlhood is transformed--and immortalized--by a disturbing encounter with genius. Augusta Leigh: the unassuming poor relation who finds herself flouting the greatest of all taboos.

With the originality, richness, and daring of the poets themselves, Passion presents the Romantic generation in a new and unforgettable light.

Review Quotes

"A wonderful book--rich, authentic, beautifully written and, yes, passionate." --Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl with a Pearl Earring

"This is a remarkable book. As the title suggests, it's about love and lust, but Passion concerns itself in almost greater measure with those romantic yearnings by which men and women live and for which they are willing to die." --The Washington Post Book World (One of the best books of 2005)

"Deeply imagined and gorgeously written." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"With empathy and formidable imagination, Morgan brings these iconic females---and the Romantic era---to full, resplendent life." --Entertainment Weekly (editor's choice, grade A)

"I loved Jude Morgan's Passion, which seems to me to achieve exactly what historical fiction is for, namely to illuminate the past to the present... Compellingly written, and stylish with it." --Joanna Trollope, author of Brother and Sister

"I can't remember when I last read a book that was so elegantly and stylishly written and yet at the same time so absolutely engrossing and compelling." --Diane Pearson, author of The Summer of the Barshinskeys

About the Author

JUDE MORGAN, who lives in England, studied creative writing with Malcolm Bradbury and Angela Carter.