The Flames: A gripping historical novel set in 1900s Vienna, featuring four fiery women

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The book centres around the women who were muses of the artist Egon Schiele, a protege of Gustav Klimt, the artist who painted The Kiss. Egon is himself a controversial artist and his love for painting nude portraits leads to him becoming famous for all the wrong reasons. He is hounded and called every name under the sun. People judge him and the women he paints. Scandal follows him everywhere.

The Flames - Penguin Books UK

This is the story of four muses…Women whose bodies were shown in intimate detail, depicted by the charming yet controversial artist Egon Schiele. But who were they?A new century is dawning. Vienna is at its zenith, an opulent, extravagant city teeming with art, music and radical ideas. It is a place where anything seems possible... blogtour Adventure Ancient Egypt Art History Australia Book Blogger Bookliterati Book Recommendation Book review Christmas Contemporary Fiction Crime Del Rey Doubleday Emmeline Kirby and Gregory Longdon Mystery Fantasy Festive Reads Florence Folklore Harper Collins Historical Fiction History Independently Published Italy Karen Swan Literary Fiction Magic Mantle Books Melville House Murder Mystery Myth Orenda Books Pan Macmillan Penguin Random House Psychological thriller Romance Secrets Simon and Schuster Supernatural Suspense thriller Venice Women's Fiction Zaffre Books Book title Search for: Search Search Recent Comments Sophie was an artist herself in making us visualize a possible world, how the characters might have behaved or what they could have thought at the time. I had never heard of Egon until this book crossed my path, so I'm glad I read it. It also made me realize that in spite of the technological advances our world has had, we will always be vulnerable to things we're really unaware of like the recent COVID pandemic we've gone through. Vienna at the dawn of the 20th century. An opulent, extravagant city teeming with art, music and radical ideas. A place where the social elite attend glamorous balls in the city's palaces whilst young intellectuals decry the empire across the tables of crowded cafes. It is a city where anything seems possible - if you are a man. Sophie is represented by Juliet Mushens at Mushens Entertainment and is currently working on her second novel.

The Flames: A gripping historical novel set in 1900s Vienna The Flames: A gripping historical novel set in 1900s Vienna

It is possible her novel might have been stronger if she had grappled more fully with these moral complexities. However, the mystery and ambiguity of Schiele the man is inseparable from the power of his art; no matter how we interpret his actual relationships with women, his paintings often give them a power and autonomy generally absent in the other art of his era. The Flames has some of the most memorable characters I’ve come across in the books I have already read in 2022 I felt as if I knew each of the women not just as Schiele’s muses but as individuals, I found all characters three dimensional and even though I didn’t love all the characters I did find them interesting and well suited for the plotline.MyHome.ie (Opens in new window) • Top 1000 • The Gloss (Opens in new window) • Recruit Ireland (Opens in new window) • Irish Times Training (Opens in new window) Edith and Adele are sisters, the daughters of a wealthy bourgeois family. They are expected to follow the rules, to marry well, and produce children. Gertrude is in thrall to her flamboyant older brother. Marked by a traumatic childhood, she envies the freedom he so readily commands. Vally was born into poverty but is making her way in the world as a model for the eminent artist Gustav Klimt. This is a debut novel and I really like the way the author weaves fact with fiction to bring these characters to life. I especially enjoyed the way she explores the potential dynamics between the flames/muses to create a fascinating narrative throughout. The triangle between Egon and the two sisters is especially intriguing but also how Vally fits into the jigsaw. The one that especially fascinates me is the relationship between Egon and Gertrude and here you learn much about the man. Through the perspective of Adele Harms, Gertrude Schiele, Vally Neuzil, and Edith Harms (Schiele), we get to learn some historical facts splashed with bits of fiction of what these women might have been like and felt and how they influenced Egon and his art.

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Thought provoking and illuminating - I so enjoyed discovering the world and the women behind works of art I adore' KATE SAWYER, author of THE STRANDING She declined – and I enjoyed imagining precisely the words she used to express her dismay and sense of betrayal during that pivotal scene, in The Flames – and never saw him again. This was during the first World War, and Vally left Vienna not long after, to become a military nurse with the Red Cross, stationed in Dalmatia. She died of scarlet fever soon after, and was buried in an unmarked grave. Happily, in 2018, it was restored to give this dynamic and determined young woman a headstone and the recognition she deserved. motyw sztuki i klimat wiedeński mnie oczarował 🎨 mimo denerwującego zachowania artysty historia była inspirująca. doceniam takie książki Passionate about short stories, Sophie also works for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award and is associate director of the Word Factory literary organisation.What do you have left, if you only ever loved one man, with everything you possess? And how do you prove that you ever lived at all, if all you can point to, is a painting in a gallery? She interviews leading authors including Hilary Mantel (pictured with Sophie, above), Maggie O’Farrell, Bernardine Evaristo, Sally Rooney and Amy Tan. Next we meet Egon’s sster Gertie who has a very controversial relationship with her brother. Then there’s Vally who in in a relationship with Egon for years and who is constantly by his side when others leave him. He avoids marrying her though and tends to keep her at arms length. At a time when marriage and women’s prospects were linked with men, this is hard to bear. A drama of love, loss, rivalry and betrayal. A terrific debut, brilliantly imagined' Saga Debut of the Month

The Flames by Sophie Haydock review - The Guardian

The Flames reimagines the intertwining lives of these women: four wild, blazing hearts, longing to be known. In an elegant bohemian city like 1900s Vienna, everything seems possible. But just as a flame has the power to mesmerize, it can also destroy everything in its path … Hi, I am an avid reader and have been all my life. I put it down to being an only child and having a teacher for a mum. The idea of this blog is to share my passion for reading and review new and upcoming books as well as those that may have been out for several years. Vally Neuzil did not come from wealth or have much by way of education. She was born in Tattendorf in 1894, and moved to Vienna with her mother age 12. She became an artist’s model, an occupation which, at that time, was akin to prostitution. This was a time when husbands hardly saw their wives undressed. So it was not an honourable role to take one’s clothes off for money, much less to have to deliver those artworks to Vienna’s elite, who had a taste for the explicit and were willing to pay handsomely to have their appetites sated.The quality of the writing is very good, in places it’s almost sensual as you might expect given the nature of Shiele’s work but the author cleverly changes the tone to suit the four very different women and how they interact with him and impact on his life. Over the course of a decade, the four women risk everything – their reputations, their most precious relationships, their sanity and souls – as they try to hold on to the man they each love. As the First World War throws their lives off course forever, and the Spanish influenza pandemic ravages Europe, threatening everyone in its path, one question remains: will any of them emerge unscathed?