The Victorian and the Romantic: A Memoir, a Love Story, and a Friendship Across Time

History meets memoir in two true-life love stories between two sets of writers—one unfolding in nineteenth century Rome, one in present-day Paris and London—which both reveal the longings and ambitions of the very contemporary Nell Stevens.
In 1855, English novelist Elizabeth Gaskell completed her most famous work: the biography of her dear friend, the recently deceased Charlotte Bronte. As publication loomed Elizabeth was keen to escape the reviews and, leaving her wholesome, dull minister husband at home, traveled with her daughters to Rome. And it was there that she met the American writer and critic, Charles Eliot Norton. Seventeen years her junior, he was the love of her life. She knew they could never be together—it would be an unthinkable breach—but when she returned home to Mr. Gaskell she discovered to her horror that while she was gone he had betrayed her—betrayed her work—in a way that she is not sure she can ever...