Book Review: Clara and Mr. Tiffany

New York : Random House, 2011.

I've just finished Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland today.

When I closed the book, after having read the afterword and the acknowledgments, I let the book rest against my chest and crossed my arms over it as if in an embrace and let out a very contented sigh. 

It was a wonderful journey and I'm sad to let it go.  I borrowed the book from the library and kept telling myself I didn't need to buy it.  Now that I'm finished with it I know I do need to buy it.

The story is beautifully written.  The characters are full, well-rounded and real.  The setting is absolutely amazing.  Not only do you learn many interesting things about New York City as nineteenth century life moves into the twentieth century, but you live it with them.  And the detail on the process of designing and producing the lampshades if facinating.  Vreeland has taken what could have been a dry, step-by-step write-up describing the process of the work -- however interesting -- and shown it to us through an artist's mind and emotions.

As a reader I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys beautifully written novels in an historical setting and for those who enjoy books on art and artists.  As a writer I would recommend this book to all writers as a way to learn from the way Vreeland has made her setting come alive and the connection between the words she chooses to use in her descriptions and what happens to be going on in the novel at that moment.  (Something which I've been working on over the past year.  Her novel really reinforced the usefulness of this technique and how it adds elegance and continuity to the writing.)

Here are a few sites that mention some of the sources Vreeland used in here research for this novel: 

Susan Vreeland's Website - Clara and Mr. Tiffany
 Loads of links to great sites about Clara Driscoll, Works by Louis Comfort Tiffany and related sites.

Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall—An Artist’s Country Estate - The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Article: New-York Historical Society to Shine “A New Light on Tiffany”
 Includes a photograph of Clara Driscoll and Joseph Briggs at work.