"Maddox presents a richly detailed and startlingly new portrait of D.H. Lawrence: not the bearded prophet with the baleful eye, not the sickly and self-absorbed sexual outlaw, but a vulnerable, sensitive Lawrence, a hilarious mimic, a lover of nature, an inspired teacher, a brilliant journalist, an ecological visionary, and above all - as he saw himself - a married man." "The prize-winning author of Nora (Mrs. James Joyce) examines Lawrence's perplexing,...

"A startling new portrait of George Eliot, the beloved novelist and a rare philosophical mind who explored the complexities of marriage"-- In her mid-thirties, Marian Evans transformed herself into George Eliot and published her debut novel. Her life partner, George Lewes, was already married. Their relationship scandalized her contemporaries, yet she grew immeasurably within it. Carlisle shows how, through the immense ambition and dark marriage...

"Nora May French and Carrie Sterling arrive at Carmel-by-the-Sea at the turn of the 20th century with dramatically different ambitions. Nora, a stunning, brilliant, impulsive writer in her early twenties, seeks artistic recognition and Bohemian refuge among the most celebrated counter-culturalists of the era. Carrie, long-suffering wife of the poet George Sterling, wants the opposite: a semblance of the stability she thought her advantageous marriage...

Explores Zelda Fitzgerald's affair with French aviator Edouard Jozan, the man on whom F. Scott Fitzgerald based his famous character Jay Gatsby. "The romance between F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre has been celebrated as one of the greatest of the 20th century. Despite their love, both Scott and Zelda engaged in flirtations that threatened to tear the couple apart. But none had a more profound impact on the two--and on Scott's writing--as the...

A witty look at the complex and fascinating but tumultuous marriages of five well-known figures in the literary world, including British theater critic Kenneth Tynan, and authors Roald Dahl and Kingsley Amis. The history of wives is largely one of silence, resilience, and forbearance. Toss in celebrity, male privilege, ruthless ambition, narcissism, and a few more factors, and it's easy to understand why the marriages of many famous writers have...

Key West, 1936. Headstrong, accomplished journalist Martha Gellhorn is confident with words but less so with men when she meets disheveled literary titan Ernest Hemingway in a dive bar. Their friendship -- forged over writing, talk, and family dinners -- flourishes into something undeniable in Madrid while they're covering the Spanish Civil War. Martha reveres him. The very married Hemingway is taken with Martha -- her beauty, her ambition, and her...

"A startling reevaluation of Lady Byron's marriage and the untold story of her complex life as a single mother and progressive force. Far from a victim or an obstacle to Lord Byron's work, Lady Byron was a rebel against the fashionable snobbery of her class, founding the first Infants School and Co-Operative School in England. A poet and a talented mathematician, Lady Byron supported the education of her precocious daughter, Ada Lovelace, now recognized...

Arthur Conan Doyle and his wife, Louisa, arrive at the Britannic Hotel in 1890s New York, where Louisa, after coming across the body of a woman in the Bowery who she recognizes from the hotel, finds disturbing clues which point back to a stalker.