Mad Richard by Lesley Krueger

Mad Richard
Lesley Krueger
expected publication date: 14 March 2017
5/5 stars

This is the fictionalized history of Victorian artist Richard Dadd, and of Charlotte Brontë's last two years.  Krueger links the two through a visit that Brontë made to Bedlam to meet Dadd, and through their mutual acquaintances in the world of Victorian literature.  Charles Dickens is also featured, and several prominent artists have cameos.

Richard Dadd

The link between Brontë and Dadd is tenuous--and did they actually meet outside of Krueger's mind?--and yet the novel flows easily back and forth between the two, comparing and contrasting their personalities and artistic temperaments.  Dadd's slow spiral into madness is both believable and touching.  The prose is beautiful, at times nearly poetic.  The story moves seamlessly back and forth in time and between characters, never feeling disjointed.

I mean no disrespect to the author when I say that I did wonder if she wrote a partial novel about Dadd, then later a partial novel about Brontë, and found that she didn't have enough material to finish them both, so combined them.  A sort of Lennon-McCartney song, if you will.  Yet, that speculation does nothing to diminish my enjoyment of Mad Richard.  It is a solid, strong novel, intriguing and compelling, well-written and polished.