‘An intricate, moving novel… Quinn’s best book to date’ Observer
‘Every sentence he produces is a joy’ Metro
‘Opens up timeless themes of family, success and love’ New Statesman
‘Truly magnificent… this is Quinn’s masterpiece’ The Tablet
‘Quinn is an intelligent analyst of the uncertainties of love and art’ Sunday Times
A celebrated artist of the Georgian era paints his two young daughters at the family home in Bath. The portrait, known as “Molly &the Captain”, becomes instantly famous, its fate destined to echo down the centuries, touching many lives.
In the summer of 1889 a young man sits painting a line of elms in Kensington Gardens. One day he glimpses a mother at play with her two daughters and decides to include them in his picture. From that moment he is haunted by dreams that seem to foreshadow his doom.
A century later, in Kentish Town, a painter and her grown-up daughters receive news of an ancestor linking them to the long-vanished double portrait of “Molly &the Captain”. Meanwhile friendship with a young musician stirs unexpected passions and threatens to tear the family apart.
Molly & the Captain is a story about time and art and love. Through the prism of a single painting it examines the mysteries of creativity, and the ambiguous nature of success. What weighs more, loyalty to one’s talent or loyalty to one’s blood? Does self-sacrifice ennoble the soul or degrade it? And what does it mean to speak of the past when its hold on the present is inescapable?
Through Anthony Quinn’s signature gifts – period subtlety, intricate characterisation and storytelling verve this triptych novel melds three families and three centuries into a single vision of human frailty and longing.
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Reviews
Quinn's books are unbeatable treats... His latest, a hall of mirrors across three centuries revolving around a single painting, is both about art and irresistibly artful
Quinn displays an impressive range of expression: the mannered, epistolary style of the early chapters gives way to touches of Victorian gothic, and then to crisp contemporary prose
Quinn has an artist's eye and can mine drama from even the plainest parlour or afternoon in the park
Truly magnificent... each part is separate and distinct, involving and compassionate, yet all are mysteriously connected... Period details sparkle in this elegant prose... This is Quinn's masterpiece
Pleasurable... The novel is a triptych, each part standing alone and quickly establishing its particular note and colour by means of language, carefully chosen detail and a sprinkling of familiar names
Poignant, involving, beautiful and thoroughly entertaining... Quinn's best and most ambitious novel yet dances through three centuries, entwines the worlds of theatre and art in a thoroughly seductive embrace, and brings all his considerable gifts into play... This is a novel packed with pleasures
A deft, century-hopping novel... delight[s] in the granular details of an era, as well as a thorough knowledge of its broad sweep
These women's lives are gently and perceptively explored
[A] stylish literary triptych... Quinn is a fine writer with an instinctive understanding of the pitfalls of the bohemian life
So versatile - Quinn seems to reinvent himself with every book
There is a delicious mystery at the heart of this novel
A gripping mystery... Sweeping across centuries in its three interlinked sections, it summons the past effortlessly, as a vehicle for a plot that is both intricate and immaculately constructed... Quinn's most ambitious book to date and decidedly his best
One of my favourite writers... a breathtakingly ambitious novel that nails the small personal triumphs and tragedies of each woman's life
Gripping historical fiction
A witty and affecting saga... It delights in exploring tiny, unexpected quirks of character and broad brushstrokes of greater emotion alike, and never fails to entertain
[A] beguiling new novel about the mysteries of creativity from master storyteller Anthony Quinn... Every sentence he produces is a joy
Quinn is an intelligent analyst of the uncertainties of love and art
Quinn is an accomplished writer at ease with the idioms of the past... He is also a subtle creator of character... opens up timeless themes of family, success and love