CLAUDE AND CAMILLE (THE GREEN DRESS)

Book ID/图书代码： 04332808B24335

English Summary/英文概要： THE STORY OF THE NOVEL
In his early twenties, Claude Monet came to Paris, determined to make a success in painting. He quickly found poverty, obscurity and a beautiful upper-class girl Camille who threw away a life of privilege to be with him. He also made friends with a group of likewise unknown painters, often as poor as he was: Renoir, Pissarro, Degas, Bazille, Manet and Cezanne and somehow through every obstacle in the world kept them together until they began to be known as impressionists. But the years of struggle and life in wretched rooms with little food began to wear on his patience and Camille’s endurance until even as he was beginning to sell his work, their passionate love was descending into tragedy.

THE GREEN DRESS begins when as an old man in Giverny, Claude discovers a letter from Camille’s sister written nearly forty years earlier, holding him responsible for her death. Through the book, traveling back and forth between the young man so in love and the old man remembering, the reader will decide for herself if the terrible accusation is in anyway true and if so, does the great work he gave the world including the many water lily paintings make up in beauty and perfection for what he could not give others in his life?

THE WRITING OF THE NOVEL
I am the daughter of artists and the struggles of the great impressionists were my bedtime stories. Then about fifteen years ago, I saw an extraordinary exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York called The Origins of Impressionism. In it were gathered paintings from the 1860s by several artists who would become the impressionists. I was struck with the friendship between them: they painted the same vase of flowers or seascape, slept on each other’s floors, pawned their watches to help each other and urged each other on, standing shoulder-to-shoulder as Renoir said.

Unlike my previous two novels which each were born in less than a year, THE GREEN DRESS took many drafts over a period of four years to complete. I could not find the best structure in this complicated story of many stories really until it finally moved into the point of view of both the old and young Monet and his love for the beautiful Camille who would haunt him all his life and never tell him all her secrets.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 曾經再版八次，備受好評的《MARRYING MOZART》作者Stephanie Cowell花了四年時間，寫下關於莫內與他永遠的繆斯卡密兒之間的愛情故事。Crown迫不及待以pre-empt買下此書北美版權。
到老才成名的莫內，年輕時默默無名的印象派大師們擁有怎樣的生活？又為何莫內對荷花情有獨鐘？
一次大戰期間，年老的莫內在即將被摧毀的吉維尼家園裡，想起他的摯愛卡密兒。他發現一封來自她妹妹40年前寫的信，才發現自己竟是造成卡密兒死亡的罪魁禍首…
故事在陷入愛情的年輕時代與懷念過去的老年莫內間交錯著。二十多歲的莫內來到巴黎，雖然貧窮，但有夢想與野心，並認識了一群至交好友，畢沙羅(Pissaro)、西斯里(Sisley)、馬奈（Manet）和雷諾瓦(Renoir)，這些當時默默無名的藝術家後來成為印象派大師。
他遇到了來自上流家庭的卡密兒，以當時19歲的卡密兒為模特兒創作了《綠衣女人》（The Green Dress），一貧如洗的他還得向人借錢才能留下這幅美麗的作品。卡密兒拋棄家庭並為莫內生下兩子。然而作品招致排斥，讓莫內的生活陷入了困境，他與卡密兒也因此走向悲劇…(VC)

Awards/获奖情况：美國書卷獎得主，暢銷書籍《MARRYING MOZART》作者

版權已售: USA/ Crown（pre-empt）; Neri Pozza / Italy; Droemer Knaur / Germany

“...is a master of her chosen genre. The historical figures become as real to the reader as any contemporary character...one of the best and brightest writers of historical fiction..."---Washington Times

About the Author/作者介绍： STEPHANIE COWELL was born in New York City to a family of artists and fell in love with music, literature, and historical fiction at an early age. She won national fiction prizes twice by the age of twenty and then turned to music where she had a career as a high soprano, singing opera and ballads. Translating a late Mozart opera brought her back to writing. She is the author of Nicholas Cooke: Actor, Soldier, Physician, Priest, The Physician of London (American Book Award 1996) and The Players: A Novel of the Young Shakespeare in 1997. Marrying Mozart was published in 2004 and has been translated into seven languages and optioned for a movie. Claude and Camille: a novel of Monet was inspired by a love of the early years of the impressionists when they had hardly enough money for food or rent and no one wanted their paintings. Stephanie is married to poet and reiki practitioner Russell Clay. She has two grown sons and lives in New York City. Her website is www.stephaniecowell.com.
曾經是歌劇抒情花腔女高音的Stephanie Cowell，從小浸淫在藝術文化之中，具有深厚的藝術涵養，常以多位音樂大師或繪畫大師作為描寫的對象。Stephanie Cowell著有多本歷史小說，如《Nicholas Cooke: Actor, Soldier, Physician, Priest》、《The Players》、《THE PHYSICIAN OF LONDON》、《MARRYING MOZART》等。《THE PHYSICIAN OF LONDON》曾獲得美國書卷獎(American Book Award)。目前現居紐約。
作者網站 http://www.stephaniecowell.com/

Format:PROOF

Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：SOLD

Sales in other countries/其他国家销售情况：

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