They are trapped in an intricate web of desire and obsession, the passions that can make or break art. But little does Iris know, a lonely taxidermist named Silas has his own designs for her.Ĭhapters interweave like the finest lace, as Iris, Rose, Albie, Louis and Silas each take a turn in the spotlight. When up-and-coming artist Louis offers to give Iris paintings lessons-in exchange for her modeling for a painting he wants to enter into the Great Exhibition-she feels that she’s one step closer to making her plan succeed. Iris also hopes to gain a position stable enough to help the toothless street urchin Albie, who sews doll clothes for the studio and becomes like a little brother to her. Trapped into an apprenticeship beside Rose, her unhappy twin sister, Iris plots to build a new life in which she is free to paint while Rose runs her own shop. In 1851 London, Iris works long hours in a doll-making studio. The shop is located in Covent Garden and given the gothic feel of this part of London, its heritage and its cobbled square, it’s the perfect place for strange goings on. He is fascinated by the deformed beauty he sees in the world and makes up stories about the creatures he works on.In Elizabeth Macneal’s debut sensation, an aspiring artist traverses the fine line between destruction and creation. At the moment, he provides taxidermy service of animals to the medical profession but craves more and starts to collect more too. Silas is an eccentric collector of curiosities with a dream to build his own museum to house his strange artefacts. Louis Frost is a fictional member of the very real pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood painting collective who asks Iris to model for him Silas Reed’s Shop of Curiosities Antique and New. Iris dreams of escaping hers as although she works in Mrs Salter’s Doll Emporium, her true passion is painting. You can’t imagine the excitement and importance of this event at the time – Charles Darwin, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll were just some of the famous people to attend. This is the focus of the novel and is where the story starts. The Great Exhibition (also called the Crystal Palace Exhibition in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held) was an international exhibition that took place in Hyde Park, London, from 1 May to 15 October 1851.
This is Victorian-era London where the humdrum life is the best you can hope for. Travel Guide Travel BookTrail style to London via The Doll Factory
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