This week, we’re giving away a brand-new book that gives you a peek into the private life of Edwardian novelist Edith Wharton. The Age of Desire, by Nashville author Jennie Fields, exposes the midlife love affair that almost ruined Wharton’s closest friendship. This slightly scandalous romance with a much younger man took place—of course—in Paris, and Fields’ lush writing brings the beautiful city to life.
Fields stopped by our office last week to answer questions about her love of Edith Wharton, the challenges of writing about real people and more. She also signed two copies of Age of Desire for two lucky BookPage readers!
TO ENTER: Leave a comment about your favorite novel to feature a real-life person.
CONTEST DETAILS: Two winners will be chosen by random.org from among entries received by 5 pm CST on Friday, August 10. The two winners will each receive a copy of The Age of Desire. Prize must be shipped to a North American address, and Rhode Island residents are not eligible. (Full contest rules here.) Good luck!
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ETA: Congratulations to our winners, Michelle and Suzanne! Their favorite novels featuring a real-life person are The Paris Wife and The Chaperone.
Thanks to all who entered! Contest is now closed.
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
I loved ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ by Tracy Chevalier. The novel evoked the feeling that you get when you look at a Vermeer!
Clara And Mr. Tiffany was memorable and beautiful. Unforgettable book.
I’d have to say Loving Frank. I was dissapointed by Paris Wife. But I’m very interested in that ex-pat life in France, so I’ll have to put this title on my list.
DEATH IN THE CITY OF LIGHT by David King
“Love Is Eternal” with Abe Lincoln and Mary Todd. I read it as a teenager and loved it.
I loved “Love Is Eternal”, have read it twice. Mary Todd Lincoln fascinates me!
I loved Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin. Great read about the life of the girl who inspired Alice in Wonderland.
What a great question! I loved Forrest Gump by Winston Groom. Forrest’s close proximity to so many famous real-life people was brilliant.
My favorite novel is Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell. My favorite Edith Wharton book is The Age of Innocence.
Loved it………have read it 9 times, the first when I was in the 5th grade! My Mother never censored my books, except I did sneak and read her copy of “Peyton Place”!!!!
I would have to say Loving Frank by Nancy Horan. I learned a lot about Frank Lloyd Wright. Amazing novel
I also vote for Loving Frank. It was a beautiful, disturbing novel:)
My 35-year old daughter talked me into reading Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. It was a great summer read, and maybe just a bit too plausible!
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain.
The Paris Wife
Valerie just beat me to it – I would also recommend The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. An interesting looks at Hemingway’s life.
Many thanks! – Katie
It would be a tie between The Paris Wife and Loving Frank…both of which I enjoyed!
The Thread by Victoria Hislop…what a great historical fiction!
Best novel with “real life” people was Philip Roth’s Plot Against America
It has to be the one that stays in my mind the most even though I read it awhile ago: Unbroken. Such an incredible story about an amazing man. I found it very inspiring.
Still she haunts me : a novel by Katie Roiphe
It is very similar to Alice, I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin.
Even though it is not a novel, I would have to say Unbroken. one of my favorite books of all time; I bought it as a gift for several people.
My favorite is THE LAST DICKENS by Matthew Pearl.
I knew Loving Frank would be suggested by many, but NOT ME! I wanted to smack that woman upside the head……
My have to say I preferred Clara and Mr. Tiffany and The Heretic’s Daughter.
As a big Edith Warton fan, I’d love to win this week. The book sounds great!
I recently finished The Chaperone and enjoyed that very much.
My favorite novel to feature a real life person is the Secrets of Mary Bowser. Thanks for a fun contest!
The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone about Michelangelo
Karen Kondazian novel THE WHIP. THE WHIP is a historical novel about the legendary stagecoach driver, or whip, Charley Parkhurst. Known as “One-Eyed Charley,” “Six-Horse Charley,” and “Parkie” to his closest friends, Charley Darkey Parkhurst was really a woman named Charlotte.
Mine would definitely have to be Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran.
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Julie and Julia by Julie Powell, featuring Julia Child.
Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier is among the most satisfying works in my library; I reread it every year or so. The balance of what is known about Vermeer and art of the period with pure and exquisitely languaged imagination takes my breath away. Because of this book I look at works of art more deeply and imaginatively, and I have read all of Chevalier. Because of stylistic parallels, including historical figures, And my fascination with my 2nd choice, The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguru, I wonder what kind of magic is being worked in the writers’
program at the University of East Anglia.
Clara and Mr. Tiffany.
West with the Wind by Beryl Markham. Hemingway said of her writing that she should have won the Nobel, not him. Her writing is lyrical, and if you are a pilot, very rewarding to read.
The Hours by Michael Cunningham with Virginia Woolf.
There are so many that I love! The first that comes to mind is Tracy Chevalier’s “Remarkable Creatures,” about Mary Anning, fossil pioneer!
Just finished “Freeman” by Leonard Pitts, Jr. Definitely in my top 5 ever.
My two all time favorites – Loving Frank and The Paris Wife. Loving Frank opened up a whole new genre, if you will, to me – historical fiction.
I just made note of the previous 36 suggestions! (not counting Loving Frank and The Paris Wife!, of course)
Love your contests! It’s always fun to take a shot at them!
I would have to say Loving Frank by Nancy Horan, I love that book!
Their love was one for history.
I would have to say Paris Wife.
“The other Boleyn Girl” was a good read…. much better then the movie, which I found very disappointing.
A most recent favortite, “The Chaperone” by Laura Moriarty. The actress, Louise Brooks, was a real person. I still do not know if Cora Carlisle (her chaperone) was real.
Girl With a Pearl Earing
The Sherlockian
Gone for Good by Mark Childress
The Diary of Anne Frank is the first one that comes to mind. Possibly because it made such an impression on me which I read it for the first time.
Molokai: The Story Of Father Damien truly inspirational
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is my all time favorite.
Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, by Seth Grahame-Smith
Very entertaining vampire hunter story and using President Lincoln was very original, IMHO.
Clara and Mr. Tiffany is a beautiful story. The Paris Wife was okay but somewhat disappointing for me.
I’m another who really enjoyed Clara and Mr. Tiffany.
West with the wind – Beryl Markham – one of my all time favorites!
84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, although this probably isn’t a novel is it?, but one of my favorites. Also Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, so much history to find out about in that series!
The Paris Wife by Paula McClain
The Other Boleyn Girl
Michaelangelo makes an appearance in one of my favorite historical fiction novesl – The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant.
The Diary of Anne Frank was one of the first books I remember reading in school.
Hmmmm, I would have to say “The Blind Side” by Michael Lewis and “In Cold Blood” By Truman Capote
Loving Frank….quite a life he led
Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier – and so many more!
The Hours, Michael Cunningham. I’ve always loved Virginia Woolf and this was such an amazing homage to Mrs. Dalloway.
Julie and Julia by Julie Powell
I was fascinated reading “Loving Frank”
My two favorites have to be: Night by Elie Wiesel (what an awesome account of the Holocaust) and Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (what those parents put those kids through was awful, but yet the kids came out just fine – a real testament to their inner strength and will). Plus, I loved The Red Tent by Anita Diamant – her depiction of Biblical times really made me stop and think about the women in the Bible and be appreciative of the freedoms we enjoy today.
Loving Frank, Clara and Mr. Tiffany, and Girl with a Pearl Earring,
I couldn’t agree more with other readers who liked them also!
“Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand. I loved this story. I read the book and I also listened to it with my husband. We both enjoyed it so much. My book club discussed the story.
In his epic novel, Ragtime, E.L. Doctorow weaves many real-life people–Harry Houdini, Henry Ford, Emma Goldman, among others–into the story of his fictional family. An engrossing read.
It’s so difficult to answer a question like that because there are so many that stand out in my memory. Because of its vast overall story, I would have to go with “Gone With the Wind.” I’ll never, ever forget this terrific classic.
I have so been looking forward to reading “The Desire” and have it at the top of my Wish List.
Lincoln by Gore Vidal
Unbroken.
The Master by Colm Toibin
An oldie by Anya Seton: “The Winthrop Woman,” explores the life of Elizabeth Winthrop who was the niece and the daughter-in-law of Puritan governor John Winthrop. I first read it at age 15 and am now collecting Social Security. I know I have read this historical novel at least 8 times since I first read it oh, so many years ago.
Lonesome Dove. I was going through a stressful time when I read that book, and the thought of being by a fire with Gus, with the sun rising, while he made hot biscuits, is my ultimate stress free fantasy. A biscuit and a poke with a philosophical, good natured man, early in the morning……Life wouldn’t get any better!
Tragic real life drama is often hard to read but when based on historical facts like the women who were forced to work by life circumstances at the Lowell, Massachusetts mills in the 1800s are compelling. Try “Emmeline” by Judith Rossner – a real person from Fayette, Maine whose life was a tragic as it can get.
Well, I’m not sounding very erudite among the books mentioned, but I like opera and if I have a guilty pleasure it would be for Babara Paul’s 1980s mystery novels starring the most famous opera personalities at the Met in the early 1900s, like Caruso, Farrar, Puccini, etc. A Cadenza for Caruso and Prima Donna at Large!
There are just tooooooooo many! One of my favorites would be Gertie Nevels in “The Doll Maker”. I have read this book 3 times, and love it more each time.
I love historical fiction, particularly when it is about real people and I have to agree with a previous comment that The Master, about Henry James, contemporary of Edith Wharton, was utterly fascinating.
“The Devil in the White City ” is one of Erik Larson’s best works. It’s an informative non fiction but, reads like a thrilling novel.
Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger
It follows Lady Lucie Duff Gordon during her 19th century travels in Egypt. After reading this novel, I had to read a biography about her entire life!
A FAVORITE IS MEETING AND ENJOYING FLANNERY O’CONNOR IN AUTHOR, ANN NAPOLITANO’S LATEST NOVEL “A GOOD HARD LOOK”
I love reading fiction about real people. We can never really know what another person went through in their life, so I love reading an author’s interpretation of what might have been.
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
I recently read “Seek My Face” by John Updike … the main character was married to a fictionalized Jackson Pollock
… but my latest favorite was “Bye, Bye, Baby” by Max Allen Collins. In Collins’s story Marilyn Monroe’s accidental suicide is investigated as a murder cover-up.
A Paris Wife
I loved this book, it was so heart felt and relate-able.
My favorite thing about a real person in the setting of a novel is that it compels me to research! I need to know more about the person, the time, and the setting so off I go to the internet, my own library, or my community library. Girl with a Pearl Earring made me crack open a book on Vermeer that my husband brought into the marriage and I never opened for 2 decades!
I enjoyed Clara and Mr. Tiffany, as well as Loving Frank. Oh, and then there was Pearl of China!
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan.
I loved the Paris Wife, didn’t what it to end. I feel like I understand Hemingway better now that I’ve “seen” him as a young man. I’m addicted to anything to do with Paris and the writers that were there at that time. I understand the author did a really thorough job of research. The fact that I was an expat for a long time and I love anything written where they are involved colors my reading choices. In fact, I wrote a book of my own about expats.
Barbara
11/22/63 by Stephen King was a very interesting and informing novel about a very sad time in American history. The characters were portrayed in everyday activites that led up to the expected conclusion but the getting there made for a good read. I was very surprised by King and the way he made such an interesting read. I had just about given up on him forever.
Clara and Mr. Tiffany = unforgettable.
I know this is an older book but I loved “Angela’s Ashes.”
A Good Hard Look :A Novel of Flannery O’Connor by Ann Napolitano.
Douglas Women.
Luckily I can just get this in under the wire! Thankfully it’s a very easy question as I don’t have to think about it at all: Loving Frank. It was fantastic, horrifying, I couldn’t put it down, and I was sobbing at the end.
I loved “Alice I Have Been” by Melanie Benjamin. It was extremely well written and the author pulls you right into the family drama.
I loved Alice I Have Been, Patricia.
There are many novels I love that feature real life people’s lives, but a recent read that I really enjoyed was Godric, by Frerick Buechner. It tells the life story of Godrich of Finchale, who lived in the 1100′s in England and was a devout holy man and hermit. A fascinating and wonderful story.