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If With A Beating Heart
‘No, they were all wrong about love. Their sort of love destroyed people.'
Retreating from a youth of misplaced passion among the romantic poets, Claire Clairmont has spent the rest of her life in obscurity.
That is until young scholar, Simeon Collings, a scholar, tracks her down in Florence.
He is desperate to get his hands on her memoirs of Byron and Shelley, so he can write a ground-breaking thesis, but Claire will not immediately give him what he wants.
She knows she is close to death, and wants her life story recorded before it is too late.
As Simeon listens on, Claire relives her past, from her youthful days spent with her half-sister Mary Shelley, and eminent father William Godwin, to her infatuation with Percy Bysshe Shelly, and later her affair with Lord Byron.
Claire takes us from the theatrical backstreets of London to Geneva and the birth of Frankenstein.
Those summer months change Claire and Simeon irrevocably, as she makes peace with her demons, and he reinvents his future, learning from the old woman how desire and ambition can indeed destroy...
From the bestselling author of Sister Kate comes this haunting love story, a portrayal of an obsessive life balanced precariously between idealism and despair.
Jean Bedford is an English-born Australian writer who is best known for her crime fiction, but who has also written novels and short stories, as well as nonfiction.
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.
Retreating from a youth of misplaced passion among the romantic poets, Claire Clairmont has spent the rest of her life in obscurity.
That is until young scholar, Simeon Collings, a scholar, tracks her down in Florence.
He is desperate to get his hands on her memoirs of Byron and Shelley, so he can write a ground-breaking thesis, but Claire will not immediately give him what he wants.
She knows she is close to death, and wants her life story recorded before it is too late.
As Simeon listens on, Claire relives her past, from her youthful days spent with her half-sister Mary Shelley, and eminent father William Godwin, to her infatuation with Percy Bysshe Shelly, and later her affair with Lord Byron.
Claire takes us from the theatrical backstreets of London to Geneva and the birth of Frankenstein.
Those summer months change Claire and Simeon irrevocably, as she makes peace with her demons, and he reinvents his future, learning from the old woman how desire and ambition can indeed destroy...
From the bestselling author of Sister Kate comes this haunting love story, a portrayal of an obsessive life balanced precariously between idealism and despair.
Jean Bedford is an English-born Australian writer who is best known for her crime fiction, but who has also written novels and short stories, as well as nonfiction.
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.
186 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1993
4 people are currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
Jean Bedford
20 books9 followersJean Bedford's first book Country Girl Again, a collection of short stories, was published in 1979. This was followed by the novel Sister Kate in 1982, another collection of short stories (with Rosemary Creswell) and seven further novels. She has been widely anthologised and has also been commissioning editor for several collections of fiction and non-fiction.
She was born in England and came to Australia as a baby. She grew up on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula and went to university at Monash and UPNG.
She has worked as a teacher, journalist, editor and publisher, and has lectured in creative writing at several universities, most recently UTS. Her career has included being Literary and Arts Editor for the National Times and a literary consultant for Australian Film Commission. She has been the judge for many literary awards and prizes, including the Australian/Vogel Award, the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, the Australia Council and the Nita B Kibble Award for women's writing.
She is co-founder and co-editor, with Linda Funnell, of the online review journal the Newtown Review of Books and a Board member of the NSW Writers Centre.
She is married to writer Peter Corris and they have three daughters and six grandsons. She lives in Newtown, Sydney.
She was born in England and came to Australia as a baby. She grew up on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula and went to university at Monash and UPNG.
She has worked as a teacher, journalist, editor and publisher, and has lectured in creative writing at several universities, most recently UTS. Her career has included being Literary and Arts Editor for the National Times and a literary consultant for Australian Film Commission. She has been the judge for many literary awards and prizes, including the Australian/Vogel Award, the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, the Australia Council and the Nita B Kibble Award for women's writing.
She is co-founder and co-editor, with Linda Funnell, of the online review journal the Newtown Review of Books and a Board member of the NSW Writers Centre.
She is married to writer Peter Corris and they have three daughters and six grandsons. She lives in Newtown, Sydney.
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