"Atmospheric, well-researched, carefully plotted, this is an
intellectual’s romance novel . . . . full-bodied and intelligent, and,
like Shakespeare’s plays, chock-full of equal parts mirth and pith to
please all.”
—MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
—MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
Please join me today in welcoming Mary Sharratt to Books & Benches. Mary will be touring the blogosphere for the next month as she shares posts, interviews, and readers share their thoughts on her latest release, The Dark Lady's Mask.
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Shakespeare in Love meets Shakespeare’s Sister in this novel of England’s first professional woman poet and her collaboration and love affair with William Shakespeare.
London, 1593. Aemilia Bassano Lanier is beautiful and accomplished, but her societal conformity ends there. She frequently cross-dresses to escape her loveless marriage and to gain freedoms only men enjoy, but a chance encounter with a ragged, little-known poet named Shakespeare changes everything.
Aemilia grabs at the chance to pursue her
long-held dream of writing and the two outsiders strike up a literary
bargain. They leave plague-ridden London for Italy, where they begin
secretly writing comedies together and where Will falls in love with the
beautiful country — and with Aemilia, his Dark Lady. Their Italian
idyll, though, cannot last and their collaborative affair comes to a
devastating end. Will gains fame and fortune for their plays back in
London and years later publishes the sonnets mocking his former muse.
Not one to stand by in humiliation, Aemilia takes up her own pen in her
defense and in defense of all women.
The Author
MARY SHARRATT is an American writer who has lived in the Pendle region
of Lancashire, England, for the past seven years. The author of the
critically acclaimed novels Summit Avenue, The Real Minerva, and The
Vanishing Point, Sharratt is also the co-editor of the subversive
fiction anthology Bitch Lit, a celebration of female antiheroes, strong
women who break all the rules.
The Dark Lady’s Mask gives voice to a real Renaissance woman in every sense of the word.
Publication Date: April 19, 2016
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Formats: Hardcover, eBook, Audio Book
Genre: Historical Fiction
What can you tell us about your newest release?
In
The Dark Lady’s Mask, I explore what
happens when a struggling young Shakespeare meets a struggling young woman poet
of equal genius and passion. They strike up a literary bargain. Fleeing
plague-ridden London for Italy, they begin secretly writing comedies together
and fall in love.
Publication Date: April 19, 2016
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Formats: Hardcover, eBook, Audio Book
Genre: Historical Fiction
CLICK HERE to Enjoy an Excerpt from
The Dark Lady's Mask
“An exquisite portrait of a Renaissance woman
pursuing her artistic destiny in England and Italy,
who may — or may not — be Shakespeare’s Dark Lady.”
pursuing her artistic destiny in England and Italy,
who may — or may not — be Shakespeare’s Dark Lady.”
— MARGARET GEORGE, internationally bestselling author of Elizabeth I
Q&A with Mary Sharratt
What can you tell us about your newest release?
The Dark Lady’s Mask: A Novel of
Shakespeare’s Muse is drawn from the dramatic story of the
groundbreaking Renaissance poet, Aemilia Bassano Lanier (also spelled Lanyer).
The
highly cultured daughter of an Italian court musician, Lanier was the first
English woman to aspire to a career as a professional poet by actively seeking
a circle of eminent female patrons to support her. She may have also been
Shakespeare’s mistress and the Dark Lady of his sonnets, which adds to her aura
of intrigue.
My
intention was to write a novel that married the playful comedy of Marc Norman
and Tom Stoppard’s Shakespeare in Love
to the unflinching feminism of Virginia Woolf’s meditations on Shakespeare’s
sister in her essay A Room of One’s Own.
How many more obstacles would an educated and gifted Renaissance woman poet
face compared with her ambitious male counterpart?
In
The Dark Lady’s Mask, I explore what
happens when a struggling young Shakespeare meets a struggling young woman poet
of equal genius and passion. They strike up a literary bargain. Fleeing
plague-ridden London for Italy, they begin secretly writing comedies together
and fall in love.
But
their Italian idyll cannot last and their affair comes to a devastating end.
Will gains fame and fortune for his plays back in London. Years later his
published sonnets mock his former muse. Not one to stand by in humiliation,
Aemilia takes up her own pen in her defense and in defense of all women.
What is your favorite scene in The
Dark Lady’s Mask?
Aemilia,
dressed in the guise of a young man, steals away to visit the young Earl of
Southampton in his house on a moon-drenched Midsummer Night’s Eve. Will
Shakespeare is there, too—an impoverished poet desperate for win the Earl’s
favor. Aemilia sings and plays the virginals, while Will, both intrigued and
bewildered by this accomplished young woman in breeches, seeks to impress the
Earl with his epic poem, Venus and Adonis.
But the capricious young Earl is more interested in amusing himself by pitting
Aemilia and Will against each other. Aemilia and Will are both scalded by his
cruelty and find themselves becoming unlikely allies.
Which writers have inspired
you?
I
adore the work of Louise Erdrich. It’s so masterful the way her writing evokes
an entire landscape and a cast of unforgettable, utterly unique characters who
live inside you forever. I’ve also fallen in love with Elena Ferrante’s
passionate tales of the lives of women and girls in mid-twentieth century
Naples.
What story are you working on
next, and what inspired it?
My
new work-in-progress, Ecstasy: A Novel of
Alma Mahler, is about another accomplished, creative woman who was
overshadowed by the men in her life. Once an aspiring young composer, Alma
Schindler was celebrated as the most beautiful girl in Vienna. The great Gustav
Mahler fell in love with her at first sight, but it was Mahler’s demand that
Alma give up composing as a condition of their marriage that gave rise to her
shocking and radical transformation into a woman who insisted on living life on
her own terms, her own woman to the last.
What appeals to you most about your
chosen genre of historical fiction?
My
purpose and calling as a historical novelist is to write women back into
history. To a large extent, women have been written out of history. Their lives
and deeds have become lost to us. To uncover the buried histories of women, we
historical novelists must act as detectives, studying the sparse clues that
have been handed down to us. To create engaging and nuanced portraits of women
in history, we must learn to read between the lines and fill in the blanks. I
hope my novels can draw strong, intelligent women like Aemilia Bassano Lanier out
of the shadows and into the spotlight.
“Mary Sharratt is a magician.
This novel transports the reader to Elizabethan England
with a tale of the bard and his love that is nothing short of amazing. Absorbing, emotional, historically fascinating.
A work of marvelous ingenuity!”
— M.J. ROSE, New York Times bestselling author of
The Witch of Painted Sorrows
This novel transports the reader to Elizabethan England
with a tale of the bard and his love that is nothing short of amazing. Absorbing, emotional, historically fascinating.
A work of marvelous ingenuity!”
— M.J. ROSE, New York Times bestselling author of
The Witch of Painted Sorrows
The AuthorWebsite | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
Join the Blog Tour
Monday, April 19
Review & Giveaway at Unshelfish
Review at Oh, for the Hook of a Book!
Wednesday, April 20
Review at A Bookish Affair
Interview at Oh, for the Hook of a Book!
Excerpt & Giveaway at A Literary Vacation
Review at A Bookish Affair
Interview at Oh, for the Hook of a Book!
Excerpt & Giveaway at A Literary Vacation
Thursday, April 21
Review at A Book Drunkard
Guest Post at A Bookish Affair
Interview at Books and Benches
Review at A Book Drunkard
Guest Post at A Bookish Affair
Interview at Books and Benches
Tuesday, April 26
Review at With Her Nose Stuck In A Book
Guest Post & Giveaway at Let Them Read Books
Review at With Her Nose Stuck In A Book
Guest Post & Giveaway at Let Them Read Books
