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The Painter's Daughters

A Novel

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The Painter's Daughters

By: Emily Howes
Narrated by: Gemma Lawrence, Louise Brealey
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About this listen

 A “beautifully written” (Hilary Mantel), “fascinating” (The Washington Post) story of love, madness, sisterly devotion, and control, about the two beloved daughters of renowned 1700s English painter Thomas Gainsborough, who struggle to live up to the perfect image the world so admired in their portraits.

Peggy and Molly Gainsborough—the daughters of one of England’s most famous portrait artists of the 1700s and the frequent subject of his work—are best friends. They spy on their father as he paints, rankle their mother as she manages the household, and run barefoot through the muddy fields that surround their home. But there is another reason they are inseparable: from a young age, Molly periodically experiences bouts of mental confusion, even forgetting who she is, and Peggy instinctively knows she must help cover up her sister’s condition.

When the family moves to Bath, it’s not so easy to hide Molly’s slip-ups. There, the sisters are thrown into the whirlwind of polite society, where the codes of behavior are crystal clear. Molly dreams of a normal life but slides deeper and more publicly into her delusions. Peggy knows the shadow of an asylum looms for women like Molly, and she goes to greater lengths to protect her sister’s secret.

But when Peggy unexpectedly falls in love with her father’s friend, the charming composer Johann Fischer, the sisters’ precarious situation is thrown catastrophically off course. Her burgeoning love for Johann sparks the bitterest of betrayals, forcing Peggy to question all she has done for Molly, and whether any one person can truly change the fate of another.

A tense and tender examination of the blurred lines between protection and control, The Painter’s Daughter is an “engaging, transporting” (The Guardian) look at the real girls behind the canvas. Emily Howes’s debut is a stunning exploration of devotion, control, and individuality; it is a love song to sisterhood, to the many hues of life, and to being looked at but never really seen. Family Life Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Women's Fiction Emotionally Gripping

Critic reviews

"Emily Howes’s debut novel examines the lives of Peg and Molly Gainsborough, daughters of the renowned portrait artist Thomas Gainsborough. Gemma Lawrence gives Peg a strong, determined voice as she recounts Peg’s close, protective ties with her troubled older sister, Molly. Lawrence’s subtle changes in emphasis and volume communicate Molly’s distance and confusion. As Peg attempts to keep Molly safe, Lawrence conveys her moments of panic, her mother’s frustration, and her father’s insistence that everything is fine. Louise Brealey tells the story of Meg, Peg’s grandmother, and of Margaret, Peg’s mother, whose family history is shrouded in secrecy. Brealey speaks with an observer’s detached distance, employing a steady, even delivery that slowly reveals Margaret’s secret past and her aspirations for her daughters."
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