Overview

Effie Gray, a beautiful and intelligent young socialite, rattled the foundations of England's Victorian age. Married at nineteen to John Ruskin, the leading art critic of the time, she found herself trapped in a loveless, unconsummated union after Ruskin rejected her on their wedding night. On a trip to Scotland she met John Everett Millais, Ruskin's protege, and fell passionately in love with him. In a daring act, Effie left Ruskin, had their marriage annulled, and entered into a long, happy marriage with Millais. Suzanne Fagence Cooper has gained exclusive access to Effie's previously unseen letters and diaries to tell the complete story of this scandalous love triangle. In Cooper's hands, this passionate love story also becomes an important new look at the work of both Ruskin and Millais with Effie emerging as a key figure in their artistic development. Effie is a heartbreakingly beautiful book about three lives passionately entwined with some of the greatest paintings of the pre-Raphaelite period.

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9780792788522

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Reviews

Cooper illuminates an atmosphere of passionate artistic innovation and literary appreciation, and a high-profile romantic triangle offers an intriguing look into the peculiar interaction between Effie's two husbands in the name of art, and a young woman's remarkable refusal to bow to relentless class and marital subjugation. -- Publishers Weekly A lively and highly readable triple biography of these figures, the first one to focus on the woman at the center of this triangle. -- Washington Independent Review of Books Effie Gray's story is extraordinary and Cooper feasts upon it with appetite...I cannot recommend Suzanne Fagence Cooper's biography of Effie Gray more highly to anyone with a heart, a liking for a good read, and an interest in things Victorian. -- Literary Review Ms. Fagence Cooper's book is for the most part graceful and judicious, and Effie Gray emerges from it as a very likable figure: lively, fashionable, brave enough to resist publicly the Victorian code that said wives were subject to their husbands and should suffer in silence. -- New York Times

Author Information

Suzanne Fagence Cooper is a research fellow and curator at the Victoria & Albert Museum. She has also worked as a consultant for the BBC. She lives in London and York. Sophie Ward's acting career has included recurring roles in Heartbeat and The Nanny. She is currently producing Henry Green's Nothing in New York City with Simon Dutton.

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