Becoming Isabella

A compelling historical novel,driven by an unforgettable heroine: Isabella Stewart Gardner. Scandalizing uptight Bostonians with her forthright opinions and unique stylephilanthropist and collector Gardner became a living legend when she opened her Italian palazzo-style home as a museumshowcasing her collection of old mastersantiques and objects d’art. She was seen as a trailblazera woman unafraid of controversypainted by Sargent in a portrait of daring d├⌐colletagefond of such stunts as walking a pair of lions around the Boston Public Garden. Yetbefore she inhabited the role of the outrageous and brilliant woman history has depicted her to beIsabella was twenty years oldnewly married to wealthy trader Jack Gardnerunsure of herself and puzzled by the frosty reception she received. In any era when women were supposed to fade into the wallpaperand female conversation was expected to be decorativequiet and seemlyIsabella found herself boycotted by polite society because she was not afraid to express personal views and controversial ideas. Ostracized by women as an unpredictable flirt who did not know how to behave and admonished by men for having opinions on matters that should only be the purview of her husbandIsabella struggled to fulfill a role she thought would give her satisfaction. In Becoming IsabellaEmily Franklin shows how Isabellaafter the twin tragedies of her young son’s death and a subsequent miscarriage convinced her she would never again have childrenrejected the place society had consigned her to and discovered her spirit. This novel follows Isabella asfreed by travelshe discovers the world of artideas and lettersmeeting such kindred spirits as Henry JamesHenry Wadsworth LongfellowBerthe MorisotGeorge SandJohn Singer Sargent and Oscar Wilde. We follow Isabella from ParisLondon and Veniceto Egypt and Asia; we observe her develop her keen eye for paintings and objects; and we see her meet some of the progressives and feminists who were ready to transform nineteen century thinking in the twentieth century. Becoming Isabella is a portrait of what society expected a woman’s life to beshattered by a courageous soul who rebelled and determined to live on her own terms.