Burning Bright (Thorndike Press Large Print Basic Series) - Hardcover

Chevalier, Tracy

3.4

14,678 ratings by Goodreads

9780786292103: Burning Bright (Thorndike Press Large Print Basic Series)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786292105 ISBN 13: 9780786292103

Publisher: Thorndike Pr, 2007

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Jem Kellaway and his family feel far from home. The Kellaways struggle to find their place in the tumultuous London city, alive with repercussions from the blood-splattered French Revolution. Luckily streetwise Maggie Butterfield is on hand to show Jem the ropes. Together they encounter the neighbour they've been warned about - radical poet and artist William Blake. Jem and Maggie's passage from innocence to experience becomes the very stuff of poetic inspiration.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

A novel teeming with the complexities of life . . . Chevalier has a fine eye for detail and delightfully captures the sights, smells, and sounds of an earlier time.
"Chicago Sun- Times"
Chevaliers vivid descriptions and unusual mix of characters make this story an easy pleasure to read.
"Library Journal"
A visual delight.
"The Times" (London)
Chevaliers writing is most lively and supple when depicting adolescent sexuality. Indeed, this novel could comfortably be classified as juvenile fictiona very honorable genre. . . . If she succeeds in acquainting a new generation with the rapturous work of William Blake on the eve of the 250th anniversary of his birth, she can take pride in her accomplishment.
"The Boston Globe"
[E]ighteenth-century London, from its shadier neighborhoods to its more elegant areas, arises from these pages in all its cacophony.
"Booklist"
Chevaliers signature talent lies in bringing alive the ordinary day-to-dayness of the past . . . lovingly evoked.
"Elle"
A wonderfully vivid portrait of eighteenth-century London.
"Time Out London"
Chevalier masterfully evokes a sense of working class life . . . [in] French Revolution era London.
"Entertainment Weekly"

aA novel teeming with the complexities of life . . . Chevalier has a fine eye for detail and delightfully captures the sights, smells, and sounds of an earlier time.a
a"Chicago Sun- Times"
aChevalieras vivid descriptions and unusual mix of characters make this story an easy pleasure to read.a
a"Library Journal"
aA visual delight.a
a"The Times" (London)
aChevalieras writing is most lively and supple when depicting adolescent sexuality. Indeed, this novel could comfortably be classified as juvenile fictionaa very honorable genre. . . . If she succeeds in acquainting a new generation with the rapturous work of William Blake on the eve of the 250th anniversary of his birth, she can take pride in her accomplishment.a
a"The Boston Globe"
a[E]ighteenth-century London, from its shadier neighborhoods to its more elegant areas, arises from these pages in all its cacophony.a
a"Booklist"
aChevalieras signature talent lies in bringing alive the ordinary day-to-dayness of the past . . . lovingly evoked.a
a"Elle"
aA wonderfully vivid portrait of eighteenth-century London.a
a"Time Out London"
aChevalier masterfully evokes a sense of working class life . . . [in] French Revolutiona era London.a
a"Entertainment Weekly"

?A novel teeming with the complexities of life . . . Chevalier has a fine eye for detail and delightfully captures the sights, smells, and sounds of an earlier time.?
?"Chicago Sun- Times"
?Chevalier's vivid descriptions and unusual mix of characters make this story an easy pleasure to read.?
?"Library Journal"
?A visual delight.?
?"The Times" (London)
?Chevalier's writing is most lively and supple when depicting adolescent sexuality. Indeed, this novel could comfortably be classified as juvenile fiction?a very honorable genre. . . . If she succeeds in acquainting a new generation with the rapturous work of William Blake on the eve of the 250th anniversary of his birth, she can take pride in her accomplishment.?
?"The Boston Globe"
?[E]ighteenth-century London, from its shadier neighborhoods to its more elegant areas, arises from these pages in all its cacophony.?
?"Booklist"
?Chevalier's signature talent lies in bringing

Praise for Tracy Chevalier
"Evokes entire landscapes...a master of voices."
New York Times Book Review(onFalling Angels)
"Absorbing...[Chevalier] creates a world reminiscent of a Vermeer interior: suspended in a particular moment, it transcends its time and place."
The New Yorker(onGirl With a Pearl Earring)
Chevalier admirably weaves historical figures and actual events into a compelling narrative.
San Francisco Chronicle(onRemarkable Creatures)
"Chevalier's signature talent lies in bringing alive the ordinary day-to-dayness of the past...lovingly evoked."
Elle(onBurning Bright)
"Chevalier's ringing prose is as radiantly efficient as well-tended silver."
Entertainment Weekly(onFalling Angels)"

From the Author:

THE INSPIRATION: In early 2001 I went to an exhibition of
William Blake's works at Tate Britain in London. This sprawling display
explored the many and varied strands of Blake's life: his paintings,
commercial engravings, books he printed and coloured, illustrated poems,
and prose and letters describing his radical thinking and bohemian world.

I was familiar with Blake's poems from studying them at college, and his
art from a semester I spent studying in London, but I had never seen it all
pulled together. I remember standing in the middle of one of the rooms,
bewildered by the variety and intensity of his work, and thinking, "This
guy was crazy, or on drugs, or both." At the end of the exhibition, I went
into the shop and bought a notebook with a Blake image on the cover,
thinking, "This is the notebook I will use for my Blake novel some day."
Two and a half years later, I opened that notebook and began taking notes.

I spent a whole year reading about Blake and looking at his work before I
began the novel itself. There is so much written about him it's kind of
ridiculous, and confusing. I think Blake is a bit of a mirror - hold him up
to yourself and you will see reflected in him your own interests and
preoccupations. Poetry, art, philosophy, theology, erotica, politics,
socio-economics: it's all there if you choose to look for it.

Blake's work is not easy to cope with. Much of his poetry is long,
personal, and obscure. His illustrations are dark and anxious. By the end
of the year I didn't understand him any better than I had at the start -
though I did at least come to realize that he was neither crazy nor on
drugs. I kept looking for that one work that would explain him to me, but
after a while I realized I was going to have to write it myself.

The works I kept coming back to were his two volumes, Songs of Innocence
and of Experience - short, simple poems I had always loved and felt I sort
of understood. I decided then that I would focus on Blake's writing of
Songs of Experience - to me the acquiring of experience contains more of a
story than being in a state of innocence. The story of Adam and Eve is
interesting because they tasted the apple, after all; otherwise there is no
story.

Speaking of Adam and Eve, I also kept circling back to a story told about
Blake and his wife Catherine. Supposedly their friend Thomas Butts visited
them in Lambeth and found them sitting naked in their garden, reading
Milton's Paradise Lost to each other. Blake is meant to have said, "Oh,
don't mind us - it's only Adam and Eve, you know!" Scholars dismiss the
story as unlikely, but I love it, as it humanizes Blake. It also made me
wonder what it was like to be his neighbor. So I put that together with
Songs of Experience and came up with Burning Bright.

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