{"title":"Emily Franklin","description":"Emily Franklin is the bestselling author of more than twenty books including a poetry collection, Tell Me How You Got Here. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Kenyon Review, and The Journal of the American Medical Association, read aloud on National Public Radio, named notable by the Association of Jewish Libraries, and longlisted for the London Sunday Times Short Story Award. Her novel The Lioness of Boston, based on the life of trailblazer Isabella Stewart Gardner, is in its tenth printing. Love \u0026amp; Other Monsters, historical fiction told from the perspective of Claire Clairmont, Mary Shelley's forgotten stepsister who changed the course of literature forever, will be published in April 2026.","products":[{"product_id":"the-lioness-of-boston-paperback","title":"The Lioness of Boston - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBOSTON GLOBE\u003c\/i\u003e BESTSELLER\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Brings Isabella Stewart Gardner fully, intimately alive--irrepressible and avid for life. In this richly compelling novel, Emily Franklin beautifully conjures this extraordinary woman and her world.\"--Claire Messud, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Emperor's Children\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA deeply evocative portrayal of the life of Isabella Stewart Gardner, the daring trailblazer who not only created an inimitable legacy in American art but also transformed a city. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy the time Isabella Stewart Gardner opened her Italian palazzo-style home as a museum in 1903 to showcase her collection of old masters, antiques, and objects d'art, she was already well-known for scandalizing Boston's polite society. But when Isabella first arrived in Boston in 1861, she was twenty years old, newly married to a wealthy trader, and unsure of herself. Puzzled by the frosty reception she received from stuffy bluebloods, she strived to fit in. After two devastating tragedies and rejection from upper society, Isabella discovered her spirit and cast off expectations. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFreed by travel, Isabella explores the world of art, ideas, and letters, meeting such kindred spirits as Henry James and Oscar Wilde. From London and Paris to Egypt and Asia, she develops a keen eye for paintings and objects, and meets feminists ready to transform nineteenth century thinking in the twentieth century. Isabella becomes her own person, painted by John Singer Sargent in a portrait of daring décolletage, and fond of such stunts as walking a pair of lions in the Boston Public Garden. With a mission to make art accessible to the public, Isabella becomes the first woman to open a museum in the United States. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Lioness of Boston\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e is a portrait of what society expected a woman's life to be, shattered by a courageous soul who rebelled and was determined to live on her own terms.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50101648556255,"sku":"9781567928099","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/fyMonzxBh_9781567928099.webp?v=1781071894"},{"product_id":"love-other-monsters-hardcover","title":"Love \u0026 Other Monsters - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn the stormy, scandalous summer of 1816, daring eighteen-year-old Claire Clairmont changed the course of literature forever. But then--unlike her stepsister Mary Shelley--she was forgotten, until now.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDuring the dangerous storms of The Year Without Summer, a group of famous young writers gathered at a mansion on the shores of Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Brilliant Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, her fiery fiancé Percy Shelley, the famously promiscuous Lord Byron, and John Polidori, his sexually tormented personal physician. At the group's center was Claire Clairmont, Mary's impressionable, clever, and dangerously loyal stepsister. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThose months of desire, betrayal, and creative passion gave the world the works of \u003ci\u003eFrankenstein\u003c\/i\u003e, the modern vampire, and the mythic image of these Romantic literary giants. In this intense and propulsive story of love, lust, art and betrayal Claire tells her story, trying to solve the mystery of why she was all but erased from history. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eClaire--herself a writer--is desperate to free herself from the uncomfortable role she plays in her sister's marriage in London. Fueled by Jane Austin's romantic novels, and believing love offers freedom, Claire begins an affair with celebrity Lord Byron and convinces Mary and Shelley to follow him to Switzerland. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith the threat of paparazzi lurking nearby, Claire's intimate connection to each member of the celebrity group grows more complex. Her journey of self-discovery leads her to document everyone's secrets in her journal, and when climate disaster causes food shortages, Claire learns to forage, determined to prove her worth in a world built by and created for men. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe real Claire Clairmont poured her love, life, and razor-sharp wit into her pages, yet her journal from 1816 is curiously missing and each member of the group had a reason to take it. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith searing relevance to our here and now--of celebrity worship, climate disaster, of complicated femininity, \u003ci\u003eLove \u0026amp; Other Monsters\u003c\/i\u003e 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50101909192927,"sku":"9781567928556","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/NIUrzg56MX9781567928556.webp?v=1781075867"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/emily-franklin.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}