The Far Side Of A Kiss - Hardcover

Haverty, Anne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0701169559 ISBN 13: 9780701169558

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 2000

Synopsis

When William Hazlitt published Liber Amoris, his 'book of love', in 1823, scandal rocked the literary world. He had chosen as the object for his grand Romantic passion a mere serving maid - thinking her the epitome of innocence and beauty - and she had disappointed him by proving just as tawdry as all the rest. But what of Sarah Walker, the subject of Hazlitt's unfortunate obsession? In a magnificent work of imaginative sympathy, Anne Haverty rescues her from silence and obscurity to let her tell her side of the story. 'He has put me in a book,' she says. 'He has used but a steel nib for his weapon but he has destroyed me as sure as if he used a blade and impaled me upon it.' She describes her gradual seduction by the wild man of letters, day by day, hour by hour, as she tries to ward off inappropriate advances without offending him and can't help but be fascinated by his stories of revolutionary France and the pleasures of Italy. With an extraordinary lightness of touch, Haverty summons up London life in an early nineteenth century boarding house and the mutual incomprehension between the literary world above-stairs and the more practical, le

About this title

Review:

"Luminous intelligence, humour and sympathy. Early 19th-century London and the 19-year-old Sarah live and breathe." -"The Times""Anne Haverty's ability to imagine the sights, smells and voices of early 19th-century London is nothing short of miraculous... brilliantly done." -"Sunday Telegraph"

Synopsis:

Sarah Walker, the victim of Hazlitt's unfortunate obsession, is rescued from silence and obscurity in this tale, to tell her side of the story. It is a novel of romantic folly and below-stairs pragmatism.

About this edition

• Publisher: Chatto & Windus
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0701169559
• ISBN 13: 9780701169558
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256