Author:Orlando Figes
'Magnificent. Beautifully written, immaculately researched and thoroughly absorbing from start to finish. A tour de force that explains how Europe's cultural life transformed during the course of the 19th century - and so much more' Peter Frankopan
From the bestselling author of Natasha's Dance, The Europeans is richly enthralling, panoramic cultural history of nineteenth-century Europe, told through the intertwined lives of three remarkable people: a great singer, Pauline Viardot, a great writer, Ivan Turgenev, and a great connoisseur, Pauline's husband Louis.
Their passionate, ambitious lives were bound up with an astonishing array of writers, composers and painters all trying to make their way through the exciting, prosperous and genuinely pan-European culture that came about as a result of huge economic and technological change. This culture - through trains, telegraphs and printing - allowed artists of all kinds to exchange ideas and make a living, shuttling back and forth across the whole continent from the British Isles to Imperial Russia, as they exploited a new cosmopolitan age.
The Europeans is Orlando Figes' masterpiece. Surprising, beautifully written, it describes huge changes through intimate details, little-known stories and through the lens of Turgenev and the Viardots' touching, strange love triangle. Events which we now see as central to European high culture are made completely fresh, allowing the reader to revel in the sheer precariousness with which the great salons, premieres and bestsellers came into existence.
At least in The Handmaid's Tale they value babies, mostly. Not so in the true stories here.
—— Margaret Atwood[A] furious, necessary book
—— Sinéad GleesonAchingly powerful ... There will be many people who don't want to read Republic of Shame, for fear it will be too much, too dark, too heavy. Please don't be afraid. Read it. Look it in the eye
—— Irish TimesUtterly brilliant. Please read it
—— Marian KeyesHogan's captivatingly written stories of people who were consigned to what she calls the "shame-industrial complex" puts faces - many old now, and lined with pain - to the clinical data. ... Brilliant
—— Sunday Times[A] searing account of the Church's treatment of women during its period of dominance over Irish society ... It is never less than compelling
—— Irish IndependentRepublic of Shame is a careful, sensitive and extremely well written book - but it is harrowing. It would break your heart in two
—— Ailbhe SmythRiveting, immensely insightful and horrifically recognisable
—— Emma DabiriA must read for everyone
—— Lynn RuaneCompelling ... devastatingly human, [Republic of Shame] will make you shake with sadness and anger
—— RTÉ GuideA beautifully written and impeccably researched book ... We need more books like this
—— Caitriona PalmerCaelainn's book brings real people to the fore
—— Hot PressA vital and damning portrait of Ireland's mother and baby homes
—— GCN.ieI've laughed, cried & RAGED reading this book
—— Taryn De VereFor anyone interested in understanding modern Ireland. A compelling and beautifully written investigation into institutions for "fallen women" and the culture which facilitated them
—— Siobhán FentonCaelainn Hogan's harrowing account of the "shame industrial complex" shows how the legacy of Ireland's treatment of "fallen women" remains part of the scenery of modern life
—— Totally Dublin[A] sensitive, can't-look-away book ... Through moving stories, Hogan shows how the past is still present
—— NPRA gripping, eye-opening and challenging read ... Hogan sheds light on the darkest corners of our recent history in Ireland, but also holds up a mirror to today
—— Dublin InquirerReads like a murder mystery ... Taylor challenges nostalgic politicians' desire to resurrect a sanitised, 'civilizing mission' version of our imperial past, perpetuating the myth of Britain as an anti-slavery nation
—— Colin Grant , Writers Mosaic[An] excellent new book... The scale of what the abolitionists were up against is only now becoming clear ... Taylor's book is one of the few studies to give it equal time
—— London Review of Books
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