Victorine,
by Drema Drudge
(literary/historical fiction)
Release date: March 17, 2020
at Fleur-de-Lis Press
362 pages
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Buy It Here
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SYNOPSIS
‘Victorine, Drema Drudge’s debut novel, features Victorine Meurent, a forgotten, accomplished painter who posed nude for Edouard Manet’s most famous, controversial paintings such as Olympia and The Picnic in Paris, paintings heralded as the beginning of modern art. History has forgotten (until now) her paintings, despite the fact that she showed her work at the prestigious Paris Salon multiple times, even one year when her mentor, Manet’s, work was refused.
Her persistent desire in the novel is not to be a model anymore but to be a painter herself, despite being taken advantage of by those in the art world, something which causes her to turn, for a time, to every vice in the Paris underworld, leading her even into the catacombs.
In order to live authentically, she eventually finds the strength to flout the expectations of her parents, bourgeois society, and the dominant male artists (whom she knows personally) while never losing her capacity for affection, kindness, and loyalty. Possessing both the incisive mind of a critic and the intuitive and unconventional impulses of an artist, Victorine and her survival instincts are tested in 1870, when the Prussian army lays siege to Paris and rat becomes a culinary delicacy, and further tested when she inches towards art school while financial setbacks push her away from it. The same can be said when it comes to her and love, which becomes substituted, eventually, by art.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Drēma Drudge
suffers from Stendhal’s Syndrome,
the condition in which one becomes overwhelmed in the presence of great art.
She attended Spalding University’s MFA in Creative Writing Program
where she learned to transform that intensity into fiction.
Drēma has been writing in one capacity or another since she was nine,
starting with terrible poems and graduating to melodramatic stories in junior high
that her classmates passed around literature class.
She and her husband, musician and writer Barry Drudge, live in Indiana
where they record their biweekly podcast, Writing All the Things, when not traveling.
Her first novel, Victorine, was literally written in six countries while she and her husband wandered the globe.
The pair has two grown children.
In addition to writing fiction, Drēma has served as a writing coach, freelance writer, and educator.
For more about her writing, art, and travels,
please visit her website, and sign up for her newsletter to receive a free historical fiction story.
She’s always happy to connect with readers in her Facebook group, The Painted Word Salon,
or on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
or on any other book blog participating in this tour.
Visit/Follow the participating blogs on Facebook/Twitter,
as listed in the entry form below, and win more entry points!
ENTER THE GIVEAWAY
Tweeting about the giveaway everyday of the Tour
will give you 5 extra entries each time!
[just follow the directions on the entry-form]
Global giveaway open to all
5 winners will receive an ecopy of this book
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CLICK ON THE BANNER TO READ MORE REVIEWS AND AN EXCERPT
Words And Peace 
Pingback: Drema Drudge on tour: Victorine | France Book Tours
I have a thing for books about painters, especially female painters. This looks good!
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If you think you would have time to read and review it before the end of the tour, we still have review copies. Plus some special event with the author coming up soo. Sign up to France Book Tours through email to be notified
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I like victorine’s determination to be an artist herself.
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Yes, that must required a lot of courage!
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Well this is going to be interesting, I followed the instructions for the giveaway – let’s see if that worked :). Must admit that I am fascinated by the premise of this book because I’ve not heard of the artist Victorine Meurent though have seen her in the Manet paintings.
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The tour goes until mid April. Would you have time to read it and review it? We would send you a review copy. We will also have great event with the author coming up, so keep your eye on France Book Tours! You can sign up through email to get notified for net time I post there
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I’m interested by the era but mostly by female painters, there are not enough of them to my liking, and those who exist are sadly under rated 🙂
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Definitely a great reason for reading this book!
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