Mad Richard
Richard Dadd knew Dickens and studied with Turner. Based on a true story, Mad Richard follows Dadd as he paints, travels, and commits a murder that puts him in Bedlam — where Charlotte Brontë visits.
Richard Dadd rubbed shoulders with the great luminaries of the Victorian Age. He grew up with Charles Dickens and studied at the Royal Academy Schools under the brilliant and eccentric J.M.W. Turner.
Based on Richard Dadd’s tragic true story, Mad Richard follows the life of the young painter, who was called the most promising artist of his age. Richard develops his craft, contemplates the nature of art and fame–and ultimately finds himself imprisoned in Bedlam for murder, locked up for life after being found criminally insane.
In Lesley Krueger’s acclaimed fourth novel, this is when novelist Charlotte Brontë pays him a visit.
Already famous for writing Jane Eyre, Charlotte is about to publish her third novel. Yet she suffers from an unrequited love, and finds herself wrestling with questions about art and artists, class, obsession and redemption. Making a visit to Bedlam, she finds an unexpected kinship in Richard’s feverish mind and haunting work.
Masterfully slipping through time and memory, Mad Richard maps the artistic temperaments of Charlotte and Richard, weaving their divergent stories together with their shared fears and follies, dreams, and crushing illusions. According to The Globe and Mail, “Krueger’s portrait of artists as young men and women is alive with wit and rebellion — an aesthetic vivisection of the young Victorian age.”
“A remarkable piece of historical fiction,” says Publishers Weekly in a starred review, calling it, “a terrific read.”
