One Madder Woman - Freehand Books

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One Madder Woman

  • Publication Date: September 1, 2020
  • ISBN: 9781988298689 / 1988298687
  • 9" x 6"

A memorable and clandestine love story between two visionary artists in 19th-century Paris.

“These madmen—and one madder woman—paint as if suffering seizures! One cannot make heads or tails of the work without taking ten paces back.”

In One Madder Woman, Dede Crane vividly recreates the life of Berthe Morisot, the sole female member of the renowned group of artists known as the Impressionists. Inspired by true events, One Madder Woman charts her complicated relationship with her sister and rival, Edma, and her tumultuous love affair with Édouard Manet, the charismatic enfant terrible of the Paris Salon, against a backdrop of upheaval and war in mid-19th-century Paris.

One Madder Woman illuminates the stories behind familiar masterpieces, and sketches a life teeming with obstacles defied and conquered by the genius of Morisot. At a time when art was a space completely dominated by men, Morisot upends all expectations of what a “proper woman” should be and manages to carve out her own place in the art world. Crane’s rich prose and lyrical expression bring this revolutionary artistic period to life, in vivid and glorious colour.

“What an enchanting world! Trailblazing artists, smouldering sensuality, and the rare mind of a visual artist who changed the way we see. Every time I left the book, I rushed to return, to be beguiled again by Crane’s deft and painterly vision, and her penetrating exploration of a woman genius at work in a field utterly dominated by men.” SHAENA LAMBERT author of Petra and Oh, My Darling

“Dede Crane has created a stunning literary portrait of Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot as a groundbreaking artist, feminist and woman-in-love. Crane’s luminous prose lets us feel colours just as Morisot did. I was so invested in the story of this tumultous and beautiful life that I kept reading one more chapter, then another and another, late into the night.” JOAN MACLEOD winner of the Siminovitch Prize and Governor General’s Award

“In the brimming pages of Crane’s novel centering on the only female painter of their group, the world of the French Impressionists is stirred into complex, nuanced, living, breathing existence.” PAULINE HOLDSTOCK author of Here I Am

News & Events

04/20-22/23: Dede Crane at the Sidney LitFest
Freehand wins four prizes at the 2021 Alberta Book Publishing Awards
Montreal Serai reviews One Madder Woman
Freehand Books on CBC's Daybreak Alberta
One Madder Woman reviewed in The Ormsby Review
One Madder Woman in the Globe and Mail
Recording of Dede Crane, Caroline Adderson and Shaena Lambert (Munro's Books)
Watch Dede Crane speaking about and reading from One Madder Woman
September 19, 2020: Dede Crane and John Gould online at Salt Spring Island Public Library
One Madder Woman on CBC's Fall Fiction List
September 13, 2020: Dede Crane online book launch celebration
October 13, 2020: Dede Crane, Caroline Adderson and Shaena Lambert online event with Munro's Books
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