Effie

The Passionate Lives of Effie Gray, John Ruskin and John Everett Millais

By: Suzanne Fagence Cooper

Narrated by: Sophie Ward

Effie Gray, a beautiful and intelligent young socialite, rattled the foundations of England's Victorian age. Married at 19 to John Ruskin, the leading art critic of the time, she found herself trapped in a loveless, unconsummated union after Ruskin rejected her on their wedding night. On a trip to Scotland she met John Everett Millais, Ruskin's protege, and fell passionately in love with him. In a daring act, Effie left Ruskin, had their marriage annulled, and entered into a long, happy marriage with Millais.

Suzanne Fagence Cooper has gained exclusive access to Effie's previously unseen letters and diaries to tell the complete story of this scandalous love triangle. In Cooper's hands, this passionate love story also becomes an important new look at the work of both Ruskin and Millais, with Effie emerging as a key figure in their artistic development.

Effie is a heartbreakingly beautiful book about three lives passionately entwined with some of the greatest paintings of the pre-Raphaelite period.

©2011 Suzanne Fagence Cooper (P)2012 AudioGO

Wonderful

Very interesting and well narrated! I was fascinated by Effie’s story. Ms Cooper did an outstanding job giving the subjects of this historical biography balanced focus and insight. I was very moved by the full scope covered in this book. Ms Ward did a wonderfully expressive job in the narration.

What an interesting life this woman had.

The narrator has one of the most perfect voices I have ever listened to. I became completely absorbed in the story of Effie and her family. I finished it all in one weekend. It was so lovely!

Well done triple biography

This was a delightful biography focusing on Effie but also exploring the personalities of those who were important to her. This information yields a deeper level of understanding of her personality and possible motivations through her life. This biography covers all her life: childhood to death, not just the bits we may know from film.
I very much enjoyed the awareness of this author in admitting clearly when meanings of writings were not clear, or could be understood in several different ways in Victorian society.
There was a refreshing lack of cultural or political bias in exploring issues of sex, women's roles, and relationships.
The reader was clear in speech and moved to the background of the story, as the best readers do.

Fascinating Story--Victoriana

Effie Gray was only twelve when she met the celebrated young art critic John Ruskin in 1841. A friendship developed, and within a few years, he proposed; the two married when Effie was nineteen, Ruskin 29. Effie imagined the two of them as the perfect couple, her social charm as asset to his brilliance. But on their wedding night, something went terribly wrong. Despite her innocence, Effie knew that there had to be more to marriage than taking walks along the riverbank: Ruskin either would not or could not consummate their union. In a letter to her parents, she wrote:

"He alleged various reasons, hatred to children, religious motives, a desire to preserve my beauty, and finally this last year he told me his true reason... that he had imagined women were quite different to what he saw I was, and that the reason he did not make me his Wife was because he was disgusted with my person the first evening 10th April 1848."

Ashamed, Effie remained in the marriage for six years before formally filing for an annulment. She was subjected to a physical examination to verify her chastity and humiliated by Ruskin's testimony that "though her face was beautiful, her person was not formed to excite passion. On the contrary, there were certain circumstances in her person which completely checked it." The doctor who examined her declared that she was normal in every way; it has been speculated that Ruskin might have been repelled by his wife's pubic hair, or that she was menstruating. As one would expect, the case created a scandal in Victorian England.

Fortunately, a happier future was in store. Effie had posed for Ruskin's friend, the artist John Everett Millais, who accompanied the couple on a trip to Scotland. The two fell in love and were married a year after the annulment was granted. Fagence devotes the first half of her biography to the scandal, but the second details Effie's 42-year marriage, which, despite some losses and difficulties, was a happy one. Effie continued to model for Millais (as did her siblings, her eight children, and later their grandchildren), and "Everett," as she called him, eventually earned great success as a painter, as well as a baronetcy. But her one disappointment was that the queen would not receive "a divorced person" at court. It seemed she would never quite shake the scandal of NOT being a wife to Ruskin. And Ruskin, who apparently never learned when not to speak, publicly blamed Effie for 'ruining' Millais's potential as an artist, the necessity of feeding a family turning him to a more lucrative style.

Cooper does an admirable job of presenting this slice of Victorian scandal and a peek into the world of art. We learn not only about the three persons mentioned in her lengthy title, but also about her travels in Italy, the elder Ruskins, Effie's family in Scotland, the Millais children, and the friends who stood by her. I did find the second half a bit confusing at times, partly because of the profusion of Johns, Georges, Sophias and Effies, but also because of the author's tendency to jump back and forth through time.

very good book

I really enjoyed learning about Effie, John and Everett. I spent quite a bit of time looking for some of the paintings mentioned throughout the text. truly incredible works.