The Painted Girls: A Novel (Paperback)
January 2013 Indie Next List
“At the end of the 19th century, Paris was the center of the world for all arts, and humanity struggled with massive changes in the very structure of society. Degas and Zola were players on this stage as were three sisters who aspired to the world of ballet. Based on historical figures and incidents, this novel delivers great atmosphere and fully realized characters who weave through the harsh yet rich tapestry of the times and tell a story of family, romance, degradation, and fulfillment.”
— Karen Frank, Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, VT
Staff Reviews
Such a wonderfully written and well researched tale of sisters, Cathy Marie Buchanan uses the world and paintings of Degas to bring to life the world of Degas' famous Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. Using historical details and creativity, this novel is like a painting on the page. From the perspective of two sisters, the story is one that cannot be resisted. A must read for anyone who loves historical fiction, dance, or art. Plus, the author is just amazing. -Shane's February Staff Pick, 2014
Such a wonderfully written and well researched tale of sisters, Cathy Marie Buchanan uses the world and paintings of Degas to bring to life the world of Degas' famous Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. Using historical details and creativity, this novel is like a painting on the page. From the perspective of two sisters, the story is one that cannot be resisted. A must read for anyone who loves historical fiction, dance, or art. Plus, the author is just amazing. -Shane's February Staff Pick, 2014
1878 Paris. Following their father’s sudden death, the van Goethem sisters find their lives upended. Without his wages, and with the small amount their laundress mother earns disappearing into the absinthe bottle, eviction from their lodgings seems imminent. With few options for work, Marie is dispatched to the Paris Opéra, where for a scant seventeen francs a week, she will be trained to enter the famous ballet. Her older sister, Antoinette, finds work as an extra in a stage adaptation of Émile Zola’s naturalist masterpiece L’Assommoir.
Marie throws herself into dance and is soon modeling in the studio of Edgar Degas, where her image will forever be immortalized as Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. There she meets a wealthy male patron of the ballet, but might the assistance he offers come with strings attached? Meanwhile Antoinette, derailed by her love for the dangerous Émile Abadie, must choose between honest labor and the more profitable avenues open to a young woman of the Parisian demimonde.
Set at a moment of profound artistic, cultural, and societal change, The Painted Girls is a tale of two remarkable sisters rendered uniquely vulnerable to the darker impulses of “civilized society.” In the end, each will come to realize that her salvation, if not survival, lies with the other.
"Deeply moving and inventive... Buchanan's evocative portrait of nineteenth-century Paris brings to life its sights, sounds, and smells, along with the ballet hall where dancers hunger for a place in the corps... But nothing is more real or gripping than the emotions of Marie and her older sister Antoinette... Their tale is ultimately a tribute to the beauty of sisterly love." --People
"The ethereal ballerina from Degas's famed sculpture Little Dancer Aged Fourteen comes to life in this richly imagined novel. Amid the glamour of tutus and art emerges a surprisingly gritty story of survival in the gutter of Belle Epoque Paris." --Entertainment Weekly