{"product_id":"a-sultry-month-9780571372294","title":"A Sultry Month","description":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): Alethea Hayter\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: Faber \u0026amp; Faber\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: Faber \u0026amp; Faber\u003cbr\u003e • BISAC: Literary Figures\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWine and dine with Victorian London's literati in a heatwave in one of the first ever group biographies, introduced by Francesca Wade (author of \u003ci\u003eSquare Haunting\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThough she loved the heat she could do nothing but lie on the sofa and drink lemonade and read Monte Cristo ...\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJune 1846. As London swelters - sunstroke strikes, meat rots, ice is coveted - a glamorous coterie of writers and artists indulge in decadent parties. With her ringletted 'face of an Egyptian cat goddess', Elizabeth Barrett is courted by her secret fiancÃ©, the poet Robert Browning, who plots their elopement to Italy; Keats roams the Heath; Wordsworth visits the zoo; Dickens is intrigued by Tom Thumb; the Carlyles suffer a marital crisis. But when the visionary painter Benjamin Robert Haydon commits suicide, their lives begin to spiral around the tragedy ... \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne of the first group biographies, inspired by the \"Pop Artists\", Althea Hayter's glorious \u003ci\u003eA Sultry Month\u003c\/i\u003e was a groundbreaking feat of creative non-fiction in 1965 - and as radical today. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"An experiment in the art of biography that has [been] never bettered.\" -- \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eGuardian\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A form which was so new as to lack a name ... A masterpiece.\" -- \u003cb\u003eAnthony Burgess\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Faber \u0026 Faber","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":45030808748183,"sku":"9780571372294","price":1135.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9780571372294.webp?v=1767896675","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/a-sultry-month-9780571372294","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}