Loved the book – didn’t like
the ending. It seemed abrupt and not well thought out like the rest of the
book. I guess it had to end somewhere.
Emma Dobbins is raised in a lighthouse by her Father, her Mother left
when she was 5. She never learned all
the rules of living with others that most women just know….what they get from
their Mothers. She only attended one
year of schooling and she wouldn’t do her studies there. All she wanted to do was her drawing and her
art. When her Father died she had to
leave the lighthouse. She was headed to
Paris with a companion to an Art School, her companion took ill. She had to leave her in a hospital and go
into Paris alone without being able to speak the language. She was befriended by a young woman working
at the railroad when it came in. She was only 17 then. Although she couldn’t get into an Art School,
she lost the paper her companion and written down who she was supposed to
contact, so she didn’t know where to go.
The schools she tried all said only men make it into our schools. Somehow, she learns the language and lives
for a long time at the home of the gal she met at the railroad. She has to leave them as during the outbreak
of war no one has enough food or work. She
does eventually meet many of the painters who are a part of the impressionist
movement. Many want to paint her, many
want her body, she just wants to paint but she does what she can to make enough
money to practice her craft. The story
is well written and well researched.
Much of what happened really happened, Emma was really the only part of
the story not based on fact. The story
sucks you in and you really want to finish it.
You learn a lot while following Emma through her story. It was a really great book and I did enjoy it
immensely, except for the last few paragraphs at the end. It all though has to end somewhere.
I received this book through
NetGalley.com in the ereader format. The
hope is that I’ll be willing to give the book a review which I have above and
it deserved a very favorable review the book was a really good one!! #NetGalley
#TheGirlFromTheLighthouse
The Girl From the Lighthouse
tells the compelling story of Emma Dobbins. Abandoned by her mother at an early
age, she was raised by her father, a lighthouse keeper at Point Conception in
California, where early on she discovers her artistic talent. At the age of 17,
Emma travels to Paris with a chaperone, to attend art school but is separated
from the chaperone when the chaperone becomes ill. Emma arrives alone in Paris
with no money, no language skills, and no friends. A chance meeting with a
young working girl in the train station becomes her first Parisian friend. The
setting is Paris in the 1860s-70s, the start of the Belle �poque.
France soon is involved in the Franco/Prussian War and the Commune Uprising;
difficult times for Emma and all Frenchmen. Initially rejected by art schools,
her determination keeps her moving toward her goal in the art world, where the
Impressionists are starting to change the world. Frenchmen fall in love with
her beautiful face and lustrous dark hair. Some wanted to paint her, others to
court her, but either way, she does not abide by the rules they try to impose
on her. Emma grows into an accomplished artist but never gives up her own
principles... even when someone steals something precious to her. The story is
told in the first person, present tense, allowing the reader to enter the story
and feel a part of it as it unfolds, sharing with Emma her highs and lows,
loves and rejections, all focused in the art world of Paris. The novel is
filled with vivid characters, both fictional and real people, and the story
unfolds gracefully from the 1870s until 1912, just prior to the start of WWI
