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“The Last Rendezvous is a beautiful, tragic romance about a real-life leading lady: Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, the French singer, actress and poet of the early 19th century….French novelist and biographer Plantagenet follows her through a series of failed pregnancies and unsuccessful relationships. Her prose is nearly flawless: elegant, self-assured and filled with a profound sense of longing.”—NPR.org
“A novel of the life—especially the loves—of the 19th-century French actress and poet Marceline Desbordes-Valmore…Plantagenet gives us vivid portraits of theatrical and salon life in 19th-century France…Flitting through the pages is a cast of well-known and lesser-known poets and artists, including Hugo and Balzac. Although Plantagenet anchors her narrative in the first-person perspective of Marceline, she alternates chapters between the young, coming-of-age Marceline and the older, more world-weary actress and poet…This is primarily a novel about giving birth—to poems, to the creative life and to tragically doomed children…A passionate rendering of a passionate poet.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Anne Plantagenet’s novel is written with controlled precision and attention to detail…an enthralling narrative of a famous woman who had the audacity to pursue male-dominated professions during one of the most difficult, politically tumultuous periods in the history of France. Researched like a biography, the book exposes Marceline’s innermost thoughts, much like the pages of a diary. The result is a feeling of intimacy, allowing the reader inside the mind of an ardent poet who lived long ago…Fascinating and absorbing, this talented writer’s book is a conscientious expression of her own twenty-first-century attitudes toward the poet; it is educational as well as entertaining.”—ForeWord Magazine
“Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, a 19th-century French Romantic poet and actress whose contemporaries included Hugo, Balzac, and Georges Sand, was a sensation in her time… As Desbordes-Valmore gains public acclaim as a writer and pursues political and charitable interests, she emerges here as a modern, liberated woman. This work, a 2005 award winner in France, brings French history and letters to life. With selected poems.”—Library Journal
“With a poet’s imagery rendered in narrative prose, Anne Plantagenet invites us in to the intimate life of the historic poet, Marceline Desbordes-Valmore. In bold leaps forth and back in time, and in a voice wry, precise, and deliciously sardonic, it’s as if Plantagenet inhabits her, has become her. What a splendid achievement.”—Susan Vreeland, New York Times bestselling author of Hyacinth Blue, The Passion of Artemisia, and Luncheon of the Boating Party
“An extraordinary portrait of an extraordinary woman. Anne Plantagenet captures the heightened, passionate atmosphere of Romanticism in Europe in a novel that is at once vivid and elegant—and profoundly moving.”—Jude Morgan, author of Passion and Symphony
“This is truly a stunning work. Ms. Plantagenet’s insights into the lives of her characters are breathtaking. The writing is clean, crisp, fragile and poignant…The book is absolutely magnificent.”—Diane Haeger, author of The Queen’s Mistake