About this item
A riveting story of talent and the price it exacts, set in a richly imagined Victorian EnglandCalled the most promising artist of his generation, handsome, modest, and affectionate, Richard Dadd rubbed shoulders with the great luminaries of the Victorian Age. He grew up along the Medway with Charles Dickens and studied at the Royal Academy Schools under the brilliant and eccentric J.M.W. Turner.Based on Dadd's tragic true story, Mad Richard follows the young artist as he develops his craft, contemplates the nature of art and fame - as he watches Dickens navigate those tricky waters - and ultimately finds himself imprisoned in Bedlam for murder, committed as criminally insane.In 1853, Charlotte Bronte - about to publish her third novel, suffering from unrequited love, and herself wrestling with questions about art and artists, class, obsession and romance - visits Richard at Bedlam and finds an unexpected kinship in his feverish mind and his haunting work.
About the Author
Lesley Krueger's new novel, Far Creek Road, will be published in October 2023 by ECW Press. Her previous novel, Time Squared, was published in September 2021 -- a time travelling look at the role of women through the ages. Says critic Kerry Clare, "I'll dive right in and tell you that the novel, Time Squared by Lesley Krueger, which I've loved more than I've loved than any book I've read in ages, could be billed as Kate Atkinson's Life After Life meets Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, if we wanted to underline just how badly you really ought to read it. And oh, you really do. " Lesley is the award-winning author of four previous novels, two works of non-fiction and two books of short stories. She lives in Toronto with her husband and an elderly cat.
