Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet meets Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice in this intense and propulsive story of love, lust, art and betrayal, based on the important—and forgotten—real life of eighteen-year-old Claire Clairmont who changed the course of literature forever. With searing relevance to our here and now—of celebrity worship, climate disaster, of complicated femininity, Love & Other Monsters is the untold origin story of Frankenstein, a feminist reckoning of sisters, survival, and the creation of monsters—both those on the page and those who walk among us.
“Delicious, spot-on… The prose is lush and Franklin’s descriptions evoke the tenor of the Romantics’ writing. Her attention to detail and carefully drawn characters will delight fans of British period dramas and readers of historical fiction.”
–Library Journal, Starred Review
“Franklin examines this famous gathering… of current and future literary celebrities from the perspective of an integral but often forgotten member of the group… will appeal to fans of Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell and By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult.”
–Booklist, Starred Review
“Emily Franklin’s transfixing historical novel gives voice to Claire Clairmont, lover of Lord Byron and stepsister of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. The book’s sensual, immersive prose balances Claire’s yearnings and frustrations with the brilliance, insecurities, and quirks of her companions, each of whom is fleshed out with complexity. Intrigues build and dissipate, and Claire’s hopes for an independent life are thwarted… Weaving historical details with notes of natural beauty and the vagaries of genius, Love and Other Monsters reinterprets a woman’s free-spirited passion.”
–Foreword Reviews
Boston Globe Bestseller
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