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The Gypsy Model: A Romany Curse
What happens when an artist in search of a muse, picks up a beautiful young Gypsy girl at a Norfolk fair? Intrigued by her potential will he play Pygmalion moulding her into his own thing? No, Fred Sands has bitten off more than he can chew here. The young woman has a mind of her own and Fred is prey, not only to her Romni wiles, but also to the unquiet fantasies that invade his thoughts during the long hours he spends painting her. He shows her in many guises, but the single strand running through his work is his growing obsession with the seductive enchantresses of legend and myth. Kiomi Gray plays the roles he dreams up for her too well, and he becomes hopelessly entangled in the spells she weaves.
Fred makes matters worse when he takes up again with the actress who is to remain with him for the rest of his life. Now he has two formidable women on his hands and his life spirals out of control. Has the gypsy model become an avenging angel of his own creation? The Romany curse, that was uttered at that dinner party cannot, after all, be unsaid.
The book is faction based on a Gypsy Girl who modelled for the Pre-Raphaelite painters. Like the Hunt for the Hassamboulia, this story unrolls in a kind of parallel universe inhabited by the alter-egos of well-known people (artists painters and poets) of the 19C.
Fred makes matters worse when he takes up again with the actress who is to remain with him for the rest of his life. Now he has two formidable women on his hands and his life spirals out of control. Has the gypsy model become an avenging angel of his own creation? The Romany curse, that was uttered at that dinner party cannot, after all, be unsaid.
The book is faction based on a Gypsy Girl who modelled for the Pre-Raphaelite painters. Like the Hunt for the Hassamboulia, this story unrolls in a kind of parallel universe inhabited by the alter-egos of well-known people (artists painters and poets) of the 19C.
266 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 11, 2014
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 24, 2014
I thoroughly enjoyed this. It's a stroll through a lesser known story of the Pre-Raphaelite era. Whilst everyone else makes drama out of Effie Gray, Ruskin and Millais, Bill MacFarlane has chosen the lesser known Frederick Sands and his gypsy muse Kiomi Gray. The story itself is a diverting one, and extremely well written, but that's not what makes the book so enjoyable.
What lifts it from the usual is the narrator, who is a modern-day traveller, quite possibly a barely-disguised version of the author himself. The narrator's voice dominates throughout. The Pre-Raphaelite drama is just a jumping-off point – full of “what ifs” and other suppositions. The story provides ample opportunities to wander off to fairs and boxing matches and horse races; plus an opportunity to imagine Romany life back through the ages, complete with archaic dialect.
Strangely, in the end what I was mostly reminded of was my own dad. He was a great storyteller and his stories would often go on for hours at a time, full of diversions and tangents, asides and digressions. The stories themselves hardly mattered, the joy of listening was all. And so it is here, but with an added dash of historical brio and a delightful wallop of gypsy-lore. It felt like sitting round a camp fire of an evening, as stories were passed down the generations by a mischievous patriarch.
What lifts it from the usual is the narrator, who is a modern-day traveller, quite possibly a barely-disguised version of the author himself. The narrator's voice dominates throughout. The Pre-Raphaelite drama is just a jumping-off point – full of “what ifs” and other suppositions. The story provides ample opportunities to wander off to fairs and boxing matches and horse races; plus an opportunity to imagine Romany life back through the ages, complete with archaic dialect.
Strangely, in the end what I was mostly reminded of was my own dad. He was a great storyteller and his stories would often go on for hours at a time, full of diversions and tangents, asides and digressions. The stories themselves hardly mattered, the joy of listening was all. And so it is here, but with an added dash of historical brio and a delightful wallop of gypsy-lore. It felt like sitting round a camp fire of an evening, as stories were passed down the generations by a mischievous patriarch.
Displaying 1 of 1 review