Portrait of an Unknown Woman

By Vanora Bennett
(William Morrow Paperbacks, Paperback, 9780061252563, 464pp.)

Publication Date: April 2008

Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook, Hardcover, Paperback, Compact Disc, Compact Disc, MP3 CD

Categories: Historical - General

Buy online from an indie bookstore
Find an indie bookstore near you

Link to this Book


Description

In the year 1527, the great portraitist Hans Holbein, fleeing the Protestant Reformation, comes to England under commission to Sir Thomas More. Over the course of the next six years, Holbein paints two nearly identical portraits of the More family, his dear and loyal friends. But closer examination of the second painting reveals several mysteries. . . .

Set against the turmoil and tragedy of Henry VIII's court, Portrait of an Unknown Woman vividly evokes sixteenth-century England on the verge of enormous change—as viewed through the eyes of Meg Giggs, More's intelligent, tenderhearted, headstrong adopted daughter, who stands at the center of this sweeping, extraordinary epic. It is a tale of sin and religion, desire and deception—the story of a young woman on the brink of sensual awakening and a country on the edge of mayhem.




About the Author

Vanora Bennett is the author of two acclaimed novels, Portrait of an Unknown Woman and Figures in Silk, and an award-winning journalist. She has contributed to the Los Angeles Times, the Times Literary Supplement, The Times (London), and the BBC. She lives in North London with her husband and two children.




Conversation Starters from ReadingGroupChoices.com

1. Could Meg Giggs be considered a "modern woman"? Why or why not?

Indie Bookstore Finder

This book is on these lists:

#4 by jmhanks

All lists >>

Indie Bestsellers

1Q84
Haruki Murakami
Knopf
The Marriage Plot
Jeffrey Eugenides
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
The Sense of an Ending
Julian Barnes
Knopf
Death Comes to Pemberley
PD James
Knopf

Make Your Own Wishlist






Update Profile