Tuesday, time for the teaser again, and this time the book is something I picked up from the library on a whim, Claude and Camille.
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
Here are two teaser sentences from
Claude and Camille by Stephanie Cowell:
“The distant sun of late February retreated. He breathed in the cold air and the smell of turpentine and paint and the warm scent of her.”
Blurb: “In the mid-nineteenth century, a young man named Claude Monet decided that he would rather endure a difficult life painting landscapes than take over his father’s nautical supplies business in a French seaside town. Against his father’s will, and with nothing but a dream and an insatiable urge to create a new style of art that repudiated the Classical Realism of the time, he set off for Paris.
But once there he is confronted with obstacles: an art world that refused to validate his style, extreme poverty, and a war that led him away from his home and friends. But there were bright spots as well: his deep, enduring friendships with men named Renoir, Cézanne, Pissarro, Manet – a group that together would come to be known as the Impressionists, and that supported each other through the difficult years. But even more illuminating was his lifelong love, Camille Doncieux, a beautiful, upper-class Parisian girl who threw away her privileged life to be by the side of the defiant painter and embrace the lively Bohemian life of their time. “
I needed a light diversion, had seen a few works by Monet at an exhibition, and found the premise interesting. The writer in me keeps cringing at the sentences, the adverbs I hate strewn all over. ‘Lazy writing’– I keep saying every few lines: “She slowly took in the sketched face and the bold strokes of the dress. She stood so close that the buttons of her nearly closed coat almost touched him.”
But I’m intrigued by the setting, the romance of the artistic life of Monet and his contemporaries, so I’m not giving up on this book. Yet.
How about you? Would you read a book like Claude and Camille?
I read it a while back and enjoyed it but I was a French teacher so I gobble that kind of stuff up. The Paris Wife and The Aviator’s Wife are better examples of that genre. I did it with a book club and everyone liked it and we had French food, fun!
Great idea! You inspired me. Here is my Tuesday Teaser post: http://renogalsays.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/teaser-tuesday-the-portrait-of-a-lady-by-henry-james/
I think I will read Claude and Camille, it sounds interesting. Thanks!
You’ve got me looking over my own stuff for lazy writing.
Great teaser. Please check out my teaser.
This has been on tbr pile for a while. I love artists, but haven’t been in the mood for a slow read yet. Thanks for the teaser.
Here’s mine:
http://booksojourner.blogspot.com/2013/10/teaser-tuesday-21-alienated.html
I love the description in your Teaser. Scent is so powerful–evoking memories and setting a mood. But I agree with you about adverbs. Hate them!
My Teaser is from AFTER ALL THESE YEARS.
Gosh, I must read this too. Thank you for such a lovely teaser
http://cupandchaucer.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/teaser-tuesday-october-08/
Not sure if I’d read it but the subject is very interesting. I read a book recently that referenced that group all living in PAris, no one realizing how famous they would become, it was interesting…
This one does sound captivating…thanks for sharing. Here’s MY TUESDAY MEMES POST
Sounds wonderful. Any sense of how close to history it is?
I love the descriptions.
I’m reading 2 books this week. So here are mine:
http://www.lovebitesandsilk.co.uk/2013/10/teasertuesday-hung-parliament-by-sa.html
http://lovebitessilkties.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/teasertuesday-under-alphas-protection.html
I enjoyed this teaser. Probably not a book I would normally read but I enjoyed your ‘2 cents’ at the end 🙂
here is my teaser: http://meanwhoyouare.blogspot.com/2013/10/teaser-tuesday-5-08102013.html
Happy reading!
Chanzie @ Mean Who You Are
Love the teaser. Sounds like a good book. Here is my TT http://cynthiastacey.com/2013/10/08/teaser-tuesday-oct-8/
Sounds like a slow one. Wonder what was recently painted though.
here’s ours: http://www.ourstack.blogspot.com/2013/10/teaser-tuesdays-four-for-you.html