A MAD, WICKED FOLLY is the title of Sharon Biggs Waller's
stellar debut novel. It
was published as a young adult tale but can definitely be
enjoyed by older adults as well. In 1909, 17-year-old
Victoria Darling is attending finishing school in France.
Her dream, however, is to become an artist, so she sneaks
off to art class with a well-known master and a bunch of
male artists. Scorned by her classmates because she's a
girl, one day she makes the foolhardy decision to pose as
the nude model for the class. Word gets out, and Vicky is
sent home to London in disgrace.
The Darlings are wealthy and live in a society where women
are taught to be wives and mothers, to embroider, garden,
give parties and visit their friends. Her parents want to
marry Victoria off to Edmund Carrick-Humphrey or send her
off to live with a maiden aunt.
Victoria wants to pursue her dreams of attending the Royal
College of Art and does what she can to pursue her goals.
Her excursions include getting arrested along with other
members of the suffrage movement and becoming friends with
a police constable whom she thinks of as her muse while
still trying to appease her parents by attending balls and
lunches with her mother. I can't say more without giving
away more of this delectable novel, one of the best
historical fiction stories I've read so far this year.
To say Sharon Biggs Waller has talent for writing is the
understatement of the year, but she also has the ability to
bring it all to life. Victoria, her parents, her art
friends, Edmund Carrick-Humphrey, and PC Will Fletcher all
virtually jump off the page. London in 1909 comes to life
as well with the opulent dress of Edwardian times, twisting
alleys of not-so-great neighborhoods, homes of the rich and
the lower class and a cell in a police wagon. Waller has
clearly done her research and uses historical details to
flesh out her story. Some authors have a heavy hand and the
details can become boring, but Waller is as deft as many of
the artists in her tale, so the details only enhance.
Waller combines action, romance and a thrilling time in
history for women to create a wonderful novel that should
be read and savored by all.
Welcome to the world of the fabulously wealthy in London,
1909, where dresses and houses are overwhelmingly opulent,
social class means everything, and women are taught to be
nothing more than wives and mothers. Into this world comes
seventeen-year-old Victoria Darling, who wants only to be an
artist—a nearly impossible dream for a girl.
After Vicky poses nude for her illicit art class, she is
expelled from her French finishing school. Shamed and
scandalized, her parents try to marry her off to the wealthy
Edmund Carrick-Humphrey. But Vicky has other things on her
mind: her clandestine application to the Royal College of
Art; her participation in the suffragette movement; and her
growing attraction to a working-class boy who may be her
muse—or may be the love of her life.
As the world of debutante balls, corsets, and high society
obligations closes in around her, Vicky must figure out:
just how much is she willing to sacrifice to pursue her
dreams?
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