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Audiobook15 hours
Beautiful Lies
Written by Clare Clark
Narrated by Wanda McCaddon
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
London 1887. For Maribel Campbell Lowe, the beautiful bohemian wife of a maverick politician, it is the year to make something of herself. A self-proclaimed Chilean heiress educated in Paris, she is torn between poetry and the new art of photography. But it is soon plain that Maribel's choices are not so simple. As her husband's career hangs by a thread, her real past, and the family she abandoned, come back to haunt them both. When the notorious newspaper editor Alfred Webster begins to take an uncommon interest in Maribel, she fears he will not only destroy Edward's career but both of their reputations.
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Author
Clare Clark
CLARE CLARK is the author of four novels, including The Great Stink, which was long-listed for the Orange Prize and named a Washington Post Best Book of the Year, and Savage Lands, also long-listed for the Orange Prize. Her work has been translated into five languages. She lives in London.
More audiobooks from Clare Clark
We That Are Left Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Nature of Monsters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beautiful Lies Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
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Reviews for Beautiful Lies
Rating: 3.4418605348837206 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
43 ratings9 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5n Victorian London, scandal can so easily ruin your life. And Mirabel and her husband have a very big secret to hide! Dealing with a creepy newpaper reporter’s sudden interest in Mirabel and her abandoned family’s sudden reappearance in her life, Mirabel is an awesome, independent, heroine who refuses to conform to societal norms. She’s also an artist, with an artist’s fascinating observations on life and the meaning of art.I know I said this already, but I’ll say it again for effect: I loved this book. What really sold it for me was the writing style, which reminded me of The House of Mirth or something by Austen. I felt like we were reading Mirabel’s memoirs, since it could have been written by someone in her time period, which made her feel more real. I also particularly enjoyed her musings on art and life. Again, the thoughtfulness added depth which made her feel like a real person. And while Mirabel was by far my favorite part of the book, a lot of the secondary characters were well fleshed out too. We discover more about their interests and their flaws with Mirabel, leading to several very well delivered subplots which played nicely with the main plot.The slow revelation of Mirabel’s past was also done very well. It made the book a little bit of a mystery and kept me turning pages quickly! Mirabel has a highly unusual history, which made her later breaking of societal conventions and the decisive action she took to solve her own problems feel quite in character. My only problem with the book was a few minor typos and since my copy was clearly labeled as an ARC, I’m not sure that even counts. The writing was superb at showing situations instead of telling. The period feel of the writing rocked my socks. And I just can’t resist a great female protagonist. Highly recommended!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maribel Campbell-Lowe (half French, half Spanish, raised in Chile) is the embodiment of the late-Victorian New Woman; her husband, Edward, inheritor of an impoverished Scottish estate, is the radical rising star of the Socialist Party - but as we soon find out, Maribel has secrets that only her husband knows, and that if these should be made public, it would be disgrace for her, and the end of his political career. So far, she has lived out this "beautiful lie", but now she fears journalist Alfred Webster could be about to expose her, partly to bring down her husband.This is a meticulously researched, meticulously evocative portrait of the late 1880s, beautifully characterised and beautifully written. Clare Clark plays with may levels of deception and pretence throughout - Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show, which is taking London by storm, Maribel's passion for photography (and the vogue for "spirit" photographs), the rise of investigative journalism, the young Maribel's passion to go on the stage and its consequences, a possible gold mine in Spain that could save the family estate ... (if I have a niggle, there seemed perhaps to be "too much" being drawn in to the narrative).All in all though, this is a glorious slice of Victoriana, richly characterised and extremely moving in chronicling Maribel's story and how her whole life .becomes her greatest roleAnd it is based on fact, Edward and Maribel Campbell-Lowe have real-life counterparts in the Socialist MP and founder member of the Labour Party, Robert Cunninghame-Graham, and his "French / Spanish" wife, Gabriela. Alfred Webster is a possibly more unpleasant version of the famous campaigning journalist, William Stead (who brought to light a number of MP's scandalous liaisons)
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Despite how enigmatic and unsympathetic the protagonist Maribel is, her story is strangely entrancing. Clare Clark's beautifully woven descriptions draw the reader in, urging one to keep reading and attempt to understand the mysterious character and her past, even if the explanations are ultimately unsatisfactory.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This novel is about the double life of a politician's wife in Victorian England. It is based on actual events but I just don't think it was interesting enough to write about. The book dragged in many places and I found it difficult to care about Maribel, the main character. It's possible if this was edited to be much shorter, it would have been an enjoyable read. But it wasn't so I'll never know. I gave it 3 stars because I think the writer has talent but got lost somewhere along the way
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a novel based on fact and knowing that makes the reading all the more interesting. Edward Campbell Lowe is a member of Parliament fighting for the rights of the poor at a time in England's history where there is a great divide between the rich and the downtrodden. He is married to Maribel, a woman with a mysterious past. She is dabbling in poetry and exploring photography but in reality she is running from the demons of her true background that are slowly catching up to her threatening to bring Edward's career and their status to a fiery end.The book is written with rich details of the lives and times of Victorian Britains so that one feels as if there. Maribel is not completely likable as a character but I suspect it is because she has to hold her secrets so close. She only becomes her true self with Edward because he knows most of them. Edward is truly passionate about his causes even when they land him in jail. A sleazy newspaperman, Webster starts to support, then undermine Edward and to show an abnormal interest in Maribel. Does he know more about her than he should? All of the mystery makes for a dark read but Ms. Clark's way with words does not drag but rather keeps the reader turning pages to see exactly how it will all play out. I didn't understand, though her almost constant focus on Maribel's smoking? Did she just quit and this was a way of having a cigarette vicariously? It really got annoying . . .I found Maribel's tale fascinating. She is a complex character and Edward is a good balance for her and together they made a good pair. The ancillary characters are well developed with the exception of Maribel's friend Charlotte - she was all sweetness and light. No one is that sweet - unless she was medicated. I don't know. But she did bring a welcome comic relief. I was satisfied with the ending, as mysterious as it was.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The basics: Set in 1887 London, Beautiful Lies is the story of Maribel Campbell Lowe, whose husband Edward Campbell Lowe is a politician. Maribel was born in Chile and educated in Paris. When a letter arrives from her estranged mother asking to meet in London, their picture perfect life begins to unravel.My thoughts: One challenge with historical fiction can be making characters both true to their time and accessibly to contemporary readers. Writing about female characters can pose a particular challenge, especially in the case of Maribel Campbell Lowe, who pushed against the gender boundaries of the 1880s. Clark masterfully sets the stage of Victorian London through her descriptive and detailed writing, but it was the dialogue and inner thoughts of Maribel that most impressed me. It was fascinating to read the different ways Maribel spoke to her husband, society equals, and the hired help. Through these distinctions, Clark gave Maribel her defiant voice yet stayed true to history.It's clear from the title of this novel there are lies, and I won't spoil the pleasure of deciphering the truths from the lies here. Clark bases this novel on the real life story of Gabriela and Robert Cunninghame Graham. Knowing the story is based on real people made it even more suspenseful. As eager as I was to discover Maribel's lies, I was also eager to see how this story matched reality (Clark has a lengthy--and fabulous--author's note at the end.) I'm fascinated by political history, as the perspective of history gives us enough distance to see the big picture, and I loved the detail of this turbulent political time. What is perhaps most impressive, however, is how Clark ties all of the details and issues of Victorian London to today. As I read, I was immersed in the world of Maribel, but I couldn't help realizing how many parallels there are to other times.Favorite passage: "I am not interested in the Indians as curiosities. If I am to photograph them it should be as they really are. The truth, not the myth-making."The verdict: Beautiful Lies transported me to Victorian England. Clark made the politics and culture of the time come alive and feel familiar, and I'll state my prediction now: look for this title on the 2013 Orange Prize longlist in March.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5If Maribel had not smoked, I'm guessing that this historical fiction would have been a good 25 pages shorter. But Maribel smoked, and we read about where she got her cigarettes, how she felt before, during, after smoking, how the ashtrays overflowed, how the smoke and the tips of the cigarettes looked, much more than I ever wanted to know about this particular habit of hers. Not only did she smoke obsessively, the author described it obsessively.Maribel was the wife of a late-19th century liberal politician capable of making strong enemies. Unfortunately, she came across as only a foolish woman who, despite beautiful lies, was not particularly interesting or even particularly likable. She and her husband were both multifaceted, but her friend Charlotte was too good to be real.What I liked about the novel is the information on the politics and attitudes of the period, and that the major characters, although fictionalized, were based on real people. I liked that other real people such as Oscar Wilde appeared under their own names. I like reading about the Victorian era.The first book I read by this author, The Nature of Monsters, left a very favorable impression on me although it was a dark book. The second I read by her, The Great Stink, was much less interesting to me, and there were parts of it I didn't care for at all. This one lies somewhere between those two. I enjoyed it for a summer read but I didn't love it.I was given a copy of the book for review.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An historical novel describing the London of the late 1880s. The history is more interesting than the fictional story unfortunately. The character flaws of the lead character simply didn't carry the weight they needed to. Worth the read, if this period interests you. I certainly learnt a great deal from it.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a novel based on fact and knowing that makes the reading all the more interesting. Edward Campbell Lowe is a member of Parliament fighting for the rights of the poor at a time in England's history where there is a great divide between the rich and the downtrodden. He is married to Maribel, a woman with a mysterious past. She is dabbling in poetry and exploring photography but in reality she is running from the demons of her true background that are slowly catching up to her threatening to bring Edward's career and their status to a fiery end.The book is written with rich details of the lives and times of Victorian Britains so that one feels as if there. Maribel is not completely likable as a character but I suspect it is because she has to hold her secrets so close. She only becomes her true self with Edward because he knows most of them. Edward is truly passionate about his causes even when they land him in jail. A sleazy newspaperman, Webster starts to support, then undermine Edward and to show an abnormal interest in Maribel. Does he know more about her than he should? All of the mystery makes for a dark read but Ms. Clark's way with words does not drag but rather keeps the reader turning pages to see exactly how it will all play out. I didn't understand, though her almost constant focus on Maribel's smoking? Did she just quit and this was a way of having a cigarette vicariously? It really got annoying . . .I found Maribel's tale fascinating. She is a complex character and Edward is a good balance for her and together they made a good pair. The ancillary characters are well developed with the exception of Maribel's friend Charlotte - she was all sweetness and light. No one is that sweet - unless she was medicated. I don't know. But she did bring a welcome comic relief. I was satisfied with the ending, as mysterious as it was.