Rodin's Lover

November 15, 2014
Beautiful and tortured Camille Claudel wants nothing more than to be one of the greatest sculptors of all time-until she meets Auguste Rodin. Then she wants him, too.Caught between her relentless ambition and her searing desire for Rodin, Camille makes her way through 19th-century Paris. She's determined to etch her name in history despite society's belief that women can't be artists, her mother's belief that she should stay home and get married, and the dark voices in her head that grow louder with each passing day. Webb (Becoming Josephine, 2013) tells the true story of sculptor Claudel and her struggle to be remembered by a world that rejects everything about her. Webb's research is meticulous, and she transcends the historical romance genre by describing the undercurrents of Claudel's world incisively. She details the sexism female artists faced and hints at the personal toll of being driven by great ambition. Still, Camille and Rodin are anemic creations. Despite Webb's adroitly turned phrases and rich material, her descriptions of madness and passion deliver no heat or sizzle. And while she captures the complexities and contradictions of her characters, she doesn't offer any compelling answers for their behavior. Webb's subject is fascinating, though, and readers will find themselves hunting up encyclopedias and visiting museums to learn more about Camille Claudel and Auguste Rodin. An entertaining guide that will take readers in and out of the salons and studios of 19th-century Paris and introduce them to one of history's most tragic and unsung rebels.

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December 1, 2014
Camille Claudel became Auguste Rodin's apprentice and then his lover when he was over 40 and she was still in her teens. A talented sculptor in her own right, Claudel was at first criticized for work that was too like Rodin's, and she struggled to escape from his artistic shadow. But it was difficult for a woman to be taken seriously as an artist. As Claudel puts it in Webb's telling, A female artist is damned before she begins. Jealousy further complicated their tumultuous relationship, for Rodin refused to leave his longtime mistress, the mother of his child. In addition to battling the prevailing prejudice against women artists, the highly emotional Claudel had to battle her own demons. The novel charts her mental disintegration as she begins to hear voices, becomes increasingly paranoid, and is finally committed to an institution. Webb does a convincing job of depicting artistic life in Paris during the Belle poque (Claude Debussy, Claude Monet, and mile Zola are among the historical figures who have walk-on parts) and delineating the passions that drove Claudel and Rodin in both their personal and professional lives.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)