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The Flames

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Every painting tells a story, but what if the women on the canvas could talk?

Adele: passionate, fierce, obstinate. The daughter of a bourgeois family in 1900s Vienna, she rails against the strictures of her class and longs for freedom.

Gertrude: spirited, single-minded, possessive. The sister to budding artist Egon Schiele, she longs for an exciting life away from their tempestuous family home.

Vally: determined, independent, proud. A model for celebrated artist Gustav Klimt, she has carved her way out of poverty and is now forging a brave new path for herself.

Edith: quiet, conventional, loyal. Or is she? Younger sister to Adele, Edith is overlooked and wonders if there is another version of the woman she might become.

Four flames, four wild, blazing hearts, longing to be known. All four will become muses to the charismatic but controversial artist Egon Schiele. In an elegant bohemian city like Vienna, everything seems possible - until an act of betrayal changes everything. For just as a flame has the power to mesmerize, it can also destroy everything in its path....

©2022 Sophie Haydock (P)2022 Penguin Audio Biographical Fiction Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Thriller & Suspense Biography Exciting Heartfelt
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Spoiler alert! Don’t Google the characters til after you have finished the novel or you will find out what happened. Very clever story about the four muses of a successful artist. Took me a while to get into it then was intrigued by the story.

Enjoyable and interesting fictional take on real life characters

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This novel caught my attention and held it. Briliantly expressed and full of imagination within a tight historical context.

it is the women's story, and yet, some men may identify with the breathtaking egomania and insensitivity of the artist driven by his passion to create, and to be recognised.

Outstanding

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Intriguing exploration of the stories of four women whose lives were entwined with Egon Schiele

Art brought to life

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A compelling tale around four women, all of them closely associated with the Austrian painter Egon Schiele. I liked how the author did her best to give them a voice and agency. Sophie Haydock told their stories by combining what little we know about their lives with what she imagined might have happened.
I'm not entirely sure why but even though we spend quite a lot of time with each of the four woman, I never fully warmed (pun not intended) to any of them; they remained just a tad too removed for my liking and whenever I felt that I was getting to know one of them better, there was a jump in time and the momentum was a bit lost. Moreover, I found it slightly mysterious and almost baffling why those interesting women were all so very much drawn - in their own ways - to this artist, Egon Schiele. His character remained mostly in shadow and quite nebulous altogether to me which at time made it hard to believe he'd be so important to the main charterers of the book.
Nevertheless, a really enjoyable read, though quite tragic. The excellent narration by Hattie Morahan in particular made it hard for me to not give 5 stars overall.

Four flames and an artist in shadow

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Vivid unravelling tale of Schieler’s life and the women he shared it with.
Based on true stories this is a fantastically engaging tale of life in Vienna - the artist at the centre but also of other ways of life around him.

So glad to have happened upon this. I was searching for stories read by Hattie Morahan as I love her narration style.

Wonderfully told story

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