The Painted Girls

A Novel

By: Cathy Marie Buchanan

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Julia Whelan, Danny Cambell

Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Paris, 1878: Following the death of their father from overwork, the three van Goethem sisters find their lives upended. Without their father’s wages, and with what little their mother earns as a laundress disappearing down the absinthe bottle, eviction from their single boarding room seems imminent. With few options for work available for a girl, bookish 14-year-old Marie and her younger sister Charlotte are dispatched to the Paris Opera, where for a scant seven francs a week, the girls will be trained to enter its famous ballet. Their older sister, stubborn and insolent 17-year-old Antoinette, dismissed from the ballet, finds herself launched into the orbit of Émile Zola and the influence of his notorious naturalist masterpiece L’Assommoir - and into the arms of a young man who may turn out to be a murderer.

Marie throws herself into dance, hoping her natural gift and hard work will enable her to escape her circumstances, but the competition to become one of the famous étoiles at whose feet flowers are thrown nightly is fierce, and Marie is forced to turn elsewhere to make money. Cripplingly self-conscious about her low-class appearance, she nonetheless finds herself modeling in the studio of Edgar Degas, where her image will forever be immortalized in his controversial sculpture Little Dancer, Aged 14. Antoinette, meanwhile, descends lower and lower in society and must make the choice between honest labor as a laundress and the more profitable avenues available to a young woman in the Paris demimonde - that is unless her love for the dangerous Émile Abadie derails her completely.

Set at a moment of profound artistic, cultural, and societal change, The Painted Girls is ultimately a tale of two remarkable girls rendered uniquely vulnerable to the darker impulses of "civilized society". In the end, each will come to realize that her individual salvation, if not survival, lies with the other.

©2013 Cathy Marie Buchanan (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc

Critic reviews

“ The Painted Girls is historical fiction at its finest, awash in period details of the Paris of Degas and Zola while remaining, at its heart, the poignant story of two sisters struggling to stay together even as they find themselves pulled toward different, and often misunderstood, dreams. Cathy Marie Buchanan also explores the uneasy relationship between artist and muse with both compassion and soul-searing honesty.” (Melanie Benjamin, author of Alice I Have Been)

“Sisters, dance, art, ambition, and intrigue in late 1800s Paris. The Painted Girls offers the best of historical fiction: compelling characters brought backstage at l’Opera and front and center in Degas’ studio. This one has ‘book club favorite’ written all over it.” (Meg Waite Clayton, author of The Wednesday Sisters)

“Will hold you enthralled as it spools out the vivid story of young sisters in late nineteenth century Paris struggling to transcend their lives of poverty through the magic of dance. I guarantee, you will never look at Edgar Degas’s immortal sculpture of the Little Dancer in quite the same way again.” (Kate Alcott, author of The Dressmaker)

Pulls you in

Told from the viewpoints of sisters in an impoverished family with ties to the ballet, the story is surprisingly charming and engrossing -- I say surprisingly because I'm not interested in ballet and don't usually read period fiction. The narrator has a pleasant voice with a likable personality. I would call this elevated light entertainment - you won't learn anything but you won't feel like you've wasted your time on utter fluff, either.

Enjoyable interpretation of historical events

Would you consider the audio edition of The Painted Girls to be better than the print version?

I did not read the print version.

What other book might you compare The Painted Girls to and why?

I don't know.

Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favorite?

I enjoyed the character of Marie the best. I found there was not a lot of difference between the voice of Marie and the voice of Antoinette. I would have chosen two narrators whose voices were more different.

If you could rename The Painted Girls, what would you call it?

The title is perfect as is but an alternative could be "The Ballet Girls"

Any additional comments?

No.

Vivid Portrayal of Ballet Girl

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, I love Degas paintings. I love ballet. I love historical fiction. Great combo!

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Painted Girls?

The ending was by far the best. I won't give it away.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, this was my first but she is amazing.

If you could rename The Painted Girls, what would you call it?

Something about sisters.

Terrifically Researched - A Great Read

What did you love best about The Painted Girls?

I really enjoyed this fact-based back story to Degas' famous sculpture "The little dancer of fourteen years". The two main characters: Antoinette and Marie, were very appealing and engaging. The subject matter, of the difficult lives of the 'petit rats' who barely lived above the poverty line and hoped for deliverance from the Paris Opera was also fascinating and enlightening. The fact that these ballet girls' lives were intertwined with a number of murders that scandalised 1880's Paris all made for a gripping tale.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Painted Girls?

There were numerous memorable moments, but Marie's audition for the cadre was a lovely moment.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

It was fine, but (unlike The Poisonwood Bible) the voices were not individual enough to separate the characters easily.

Loved it!

Although the book was about the lives of these young girls and their mother, in the 1700s ballet and opera companies. It was a great historical fiction that told much more than poverty in early France. A+ to the Marie Buchanan.

Really mediocre historical fiction

When historical fiction is done well, it really transports you to a time in a way that can't be duplicated. I remember reading "The Alienist" for the first time and I could smell the streets of New York in the late 1800s. With many of the rave reviews on this book, I expected the same feel for Paris. It never happened.

The premise of this story is good ... though certainly not original. "Girl with a Pearl Earring" has the same art-comes-to-life basis. While I appreciated a look at the world of ballet in Paris during the time, it wasn't any more revealing than what one would have guessed.

This was a book club selection so I had a chance to hear what others thought about it. My feelings about the book put me in the minority - much like the reviews here and elsewhere. There were many others who thought it was terrific and appreciated the story of the sisters. Clearly we have a different view of historical fiction and how it should be written. This was simply not the book for me nor would I recommend it to others.

The painted girls

I listened to this book because it was the selection for my book club. I found the story to be very slow to establish. Nearly half the book was devoted to character development before anything really happened. The narrator had a very slow cadence to her narration. I used the audible app to speed up the narration helping me persevere in finishing this book. I found the narrator used an American-type accent that I found confusing when narrating a story about Parisian French girls written by a Canadian author.

Thoroughly enjoyable!

The narration was excellent and the story drew me in. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the footnote at the end!

The most depressing story I’ve heard in a long time

I only had 2 hrs left to listen and I gave it up. I did t even care any more. And there was something rather annoying in the way Antoinette was read.

Good Listen!

I really enjoyed this book! I really liked the narration of the story. It was a great historical fiction read!