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

History meets memoir in two irresistible true-life romancesamp;mdash;one set in 19th century Rome, one in present-day Paris and Londonamp;mdash;linked by a bond between women writers a hundred years apart

In 1857, English novelist Elizabeth Gaskell completed her most famous work: the biography of her dear friend Charlotte Brontë. As publication loomed, Mrs. Gaskell was keen to escape the reviews. So, leaving her dull minister husband and dreary provincial city behind, she set off with her daughters to Rome. There she met a dazzling group of artists and writers, among them the American critic Charles Eliot Norton. Seventeen years her junior, Norton was her one true love. They could not be togetheramp;mdash;it would be an unthinkable breach of conventionamp;mdash;but by his side and amidst that splendid circle, Mrs. Gaskell knew she had reached the "tip-top point of [her] life."

In 2013, Nell Stevens is embarking on her PhD--about the community of artists and writers living in Rome in the mid-19th centuryamp;mdash;and falling head over heels for a soulful American screenwriter in another city. As her long-distance romance founders and her passion for academia never quite materializes, she is drawn to Mrs. Gaskell. Could this indomitable Victorian author rescue Nell's pursuit of love, family and a writing career?

Lively, witty, and impossible to put down, The Victorian and the Romantic is a moving chronicle of two women each charting a way of life beyond the rules of her time.