Michael Dean (2)

I thoroughly enjoyed this fictionalization of the life of William Hogarth, the 18th-century English painter and engraver best known for his bawdy print series, "The Harlot's Progress" and "The Rake's Progress." Hogarth himself narrates and begins his story when he was injured during a violent storm as a boy. The Hogarth family lived in extreme poverty. His father had aspirations of becoming a writer never made it, and at one time, when he is jailed for debt, the family joins him in prison as show more they have nowhere else to live. Young William is apprenticed to an engraver, but his true love was always drawing. It was when he learned to combine the two skills that he became the toast of London society. And Dean gives us that society in a novel brimming with the details typical of a Hogarth print.

Dean not only takes us through key moments in Hogarth's life, but he fleshes him out as a living, breathing, feeling character. We see him as an admiring son, a friend to other artists, a young man in love, an older man with regrets. The depiction of his elopement with and marriage to Jane Thornhill is especially fine and believable. Dean portrays Hogarth as deeply in love with his wife, yet the marriage is troubled, perhaps, in Dean's view, because it failed to produce any children.

Overall, a fascinating portrait of the man and his times. show less

A very enjoyable read whether you know much about Hogarth or not. Some reviewers refer to it as a 'bawdy romp'. It certainly is that in the early sections of the novel but it's also a lot more. A skilful imagining of 18th century London - a book you can smell. But the author also portrays Hogarth's decline into old age and sickness and the problems in his relationship with his wife with real feeling. He also carries off something very difficult - describing the processes of painting and show more creativity without making it boring. show less