The God of Spring
Edge, Arabella

RRP
A$22.95

Set in Paris during the upheavals of the French Revolution, the Empire and the Restoration, The God of Spring tells the story of painter Theodore Gericault.

Having won a Gold Medal at the prestigious Salon for his painting Charging Chasseur, at the tender age of twenty-one, he is now, seven years later, searching for the subject of his next masterpiece. But he is lovesick, hopelessly addicted to his benefactor-uncle's young wife, Alexandrine, six years his senior. Every moment without her is an eternity.

Until at the house of his neighbour he hears the story of the shipwreck of the French frigate Medusa off the shores of the West African coast and the abandonment of one hundred and fifty souls on an unseaworthy makeshift raft. A catastrophe that fascinated and horrified the French public, with its tales of betrayal, madness, murder and cannibalism.

When he manages to track down two of the raft's survivors, Gericault knows he has finally found his subject, if only he can maintain his sanity.

The God of Spring is the story of grand passions. In prose that vividly evokes its setting, Arabella Edge has brought to life the creation of an epic painting.

Author Information

Arabella Edge read English Literature at Bristol University, and came out to Australia in 1992. Her first novel, The Company, published in 2000 by Picador, was a critical and commercial success. She divides her time between Tasmania and Sydney.