The Antagonist, Silas, well, I am not going to even ruin it for you, again, read the book. The characters in this novel are wide in range of peculiarities, Albie a street urchin was my favorite. Both Iris and her sister work in a doll factory creating faces, dressing and the mundane tasks of getting them ready so that their boss who lives in a haze of drugs, can sell the dolls. Iris has a twin, who until she caught the influenza was, beautiful, loved and wanted, the opposite of Iris who was always nagged by her mother, made fun of because of her stature and deformities. Menaces beyond her control lurk in the alley’s and storefronts just biding their time to jump out and ruin her. It is dark, colorless and filled with the dreariness that comes from being poor in London. Iris’s life is far from the world she sees through her artistic soul. Iris dreams of art, creating it, imagining it and living with paint and charcoal soaked into her skin. The crack, on the bell jar, I simply didn’t see. It gave away nothing of the premise of the novel and I really enjoyed finding out that it wasn’t as beautiful inside as it was outside. I was drawn to this novel just by the photo alone. Elizabeth Macneals’s debut novel is set in the squalor, lust and dirt-filled alleys of the Victorian era.

Chapter 79: Chapter 73: The Butterfly CabinetĪ Haunting, Terrorizing dream-like Dickenesque book.Chapter 76: Chapter 70: The Royal Academy.Chapter 63: Chapter 57: Caramel Truffles.Chapter 53: Chapter 48: A Review and a Reply.Chapter 47: Chapter 42: The Private View.Chapter 29: Chapter 24: The Wombat’s Lament.Chapter 22: Chapter 17: Gamboge and Madder.Chapter 19: Chapter 14: A Pair of Letters.Chapter 12: Chapter 8: The Great Expense.Chapter 10: Chapter 6: The Great Exhibition.Chapter 5: Chapter 1: Silas Reed’s Shop of Curiosities Antique and New.For Iris, an arrestingly attractive aspiring artist, it is a brief and forgettabl. In 1850s London, the Great Exhibition is being erected in Hyde Park and, among the crowd watching the dazzling spectacle, two people meet by happenstance. In this “sharp, scary, gorgeously evocative tale of love, art, and obsession” (Paula Hawkins, bestselling author of The Girl on the Train), a beautiful young woman aspires to be an artist, while a man’s dark obsession may destroy her world forever. “This terrifically exciting novel will jolt, thrill, and bewitch readers.” -Booklist, starred review “A lush, evocative Gothic.” -The New York Times Book Review

Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window “As lush as the novels of Kate Morton and Diane Setterfield, as exciting as The Alienist and Iain Pears’ An Instance of the Fingerpost, this exquisite literary thriller will intrigue book clubs and rivet fans of historical fiction.” -A.J. The #1 international bestseller and The New York Times Editor’s Choice

The doll factory novel