Katey: The Life and Loves of Dickens's Artist Daughter.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.[Complete number line 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2.] FINE/FINE+.Bright,crisp,clean,matt,superimposed,oil on canvas portrait detail,colour painting by Sir John Everett Millais (The Black Brunswicker,1860) illustrated front panel of dw/dj, painting's thumbnail detail repeated to spine/backstrip with brown+red lettering; with negligible shelf-wear,bumping,creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present.Top+fore- edges clean and inevitably,but very lightly toned - without blemish; contents bright, tight,clean,solid and sound - no intentional dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners - appears unread,apart from my own collation.Bright,crisp,clean, sharp-cornered,publisher's original,plain black cloth boards (bds) with bright crisp,blocked gilt letters to spine/backstrip,a maroon+black striped headband and immaculate plain maroon endpapers (eps).UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,xi-xviipp+1-398pp [paginated] includes acknowledgements,a note on names,a preface,a prologue,25 chapters,8pp contemporary b/w photographs and colour paintings - the majority, in 1 block,between pp198/9 with a loose,detached 2pp within (loose due to its binding technique),a bibliography and an index, plus [unpaginated] half-title+title ages,a dedication,separate contents+illustrations lists/tables,a Dickens's genealogical family tree chart to the reverse of last page of acknowledgements.
Katey Dickens was 19thC artist and socialite,and the beautiful daughter of Charles Dickens.In this illuminating biography,Lucinda Hawksley,herself Dickens's great-great-great granddaughter, recreates the life of an extraordinarily determined girl who defied Victorian convention to live and love as an independent woman.
Blessed with a privileged upbringing in a family that moved between London,France,Switzerland and Italy,Katey pursued her love of painting,acted in her father's plays,modelled for John Everett Millais and,as the daughter of the most famous writer of the time,enjoyed a high profile in Victorian society.Yet she refused to be eclipsed by her father and fought to establish herself as an artist in her own right.Family life in the Dickens household was turbulent and the unhappy atmosphere that followed the eventual breakdown of her parents' marriage drove Katey to marry young. Her first husband was the chronically ailing Charlie Collins,brother of the famous author Wilkie Collins,and theirs was a sexless but otherwise companionable union,while Katey threw herself into a passionate and very un-Victorian affair with celebrated artist Val Prinsep.After Charlie's untimely demise, the widowed Katey married the handsome Italian artist Carlo Perugini,with whom she had fallen deeply in love.Despite the happiness she finally found in her second marriage,Katey often suffered from deep depression, particularly following the death of her beloved father and of her baby.But she remained active,pursuing her career as a painter, championing Charles Dickens's works,and befriending such eminent figures as J.M. Barrie and George Bernard Shaw.Kate Perugini lived to be almost ninety and her artistic prestige,which flourished during her lifetime,still persists to this day.
Author of the acclaimed 'Lizzie Sidall: The Tragedy of a Pre-Raphaelite Supermodel',Lucinda Hawksley has delved deep into her own family history to research this fascinating new biography,which intimately reveals the life of a supremely independent Victorian woman.
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