"Strange and haunting, a gothic novel with a modern consciousness."
Philippa Gregory
A quirky, darkly mischievous novel about love, obsession and the burden
of charisma, played out against the backdrop of Venice's watery,
decadent glory. Sarah Dunant
'A mesmerizing story of love and obsession in nineteenth century Venice:
dark and utterly compelling.
Natasha Solomons
Intriguing and entertaining; a clever, beguiling debut.Todd knows her
Venice backwards.
Salley Vickers
"Revealing, surprising, compelling, gripping." Miriam Margolyes, actress
A Man of Genius portrays a psychological journey from safety into
obsession and secrecy. It mirrors a physical passage from flamboyant
Regency England through a Europe conquered by Napoleon.
Ann, a successful writer of cheap Gothic novels, becomes obsessed with
Robert James, regarded by many, including himself, as a genius, with his
ideas, his talk, and his band of male followers. However, their
relationship becomes tortuous, as Robert descends into violence and
madness.
The pair leaves London for occupied Venice, where Ann tries to cope with
the monstrous ego of her lover. Forced to flee with a stranger, she
delves into her past, to be jolted by a series of revelations--about her
lover, her parentage, the stranger, and herself.
Janet Todd is known for her works about Mary Wollstonecraft, Aphra
Behn, the Shelley circle, and Jane Austen. Born in Wales, her wandering
childhood in the United Kingdom, Bermuda, and Sri Lanka led to work as
an academic in Ghana, the United States, and United Kingdom. Her passion
has been for women writers, the largely unknown and the famous. A former
president of Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge, she lives
in Cambridge and Venice.
