A Man of Genius

A Man of Genius is the story of Ann St. Clair, a writer of Gothic novels in 1819 London. It’s the story of how she meets Robert James, another author, and they begin their relationship. He starts to be more and more violent, even as they leave London and travel to Venice, which is occupied by the French. Eventually, Ann has to flee Venice for Paris, with a man she just met, who turns out to have more in common with her than she thought. All along this journey she is constantly trying to discover who her father was.

I thought that the author did a great job in keeping the language and the conversations accurate to the time period. However, I did not very much enjoy the actual plot itself. There did not seem to be much of one and ended a bit anticlimactically. Her descriptions of 1819 London and Venice were realistic and felt genuine. I found it a bit hard to become attached to Ann, though. Very well researched, but not the most interesting historical fiction I’ve read.