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The lovelorn quest of Victor Hugo’s daughter
NORMA CLARKE
Alice Loxton EleanorA 200-mile walk in search of England’slost queen352pp. Pan Macmillan. £22. Many are commemorated in stone, but few so grandly as Eleanor of Castile (d. 1290). Following her unexpec
Simone De Beauvoir The Image of HerTranslated by Lauren Elkin208pp, Penguin Vintage Classics, £14.99 The first reviews of Simone De Beauvoir’s novel Les Belles images (1966) were dismissive. Some crit
Last April, a surprising photograph (see near right) appeared on the Wikipedia page devoted to Jeanne Duval, the long-term mistress of Charles Baudelaire and the “Black Venus” who inspired some of the
Catapult Opera; Talea Ensemble/Neal Goren Pentatone PTC5187492 99:63 mins The history of Nadia Boulanger’s only full-length opera is a tortuous as Gabriele D’Annunzio’s libretto, in which Alexandre an
NORMA sat on her parents’ sofa and sipped her tea. It was Saturday afternoon, one of her favourite times of the week. She’d finished work at the newsagents at lunchtime and now, she had a relaxing aft
I HOPE this is the last time I’ll sit at home watching the Winter Olympics on telly,” I said. Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean were kneeling on the ice. “In four years’ time, I want to be there, cov