The Painted Girls

A Novel

De: Cathy Marie Buchanan

Narrado por: Cassandra Campbell, Julia Whelan, Danny Cambell

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

Reseñas de la Crítica

“ 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)

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.

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.

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!

The painted girls

This is a hard one for me to rate. I listened to the audio book version. the characters were very interesting... but I had trouble following some of their experiences.