About BECOMING BELLE (on sale August 7)
After earning a host of awards for her dazzling short stories, Dublin-born Nuala O’Connor published her American debut novel, Miss Emily (2015), to critical acclaim. Now O’Connor returns with a captivating story about a true-to-life Victorian era feminist. BECOMING BELLE (G. P. Putnam’s Sons; August 7, 2018), follows the meteoric rise of British beauty Belle Bilton, whose grit and determination made her a London stage star at nineteen and whose bohemian self-reliance made her a tabloid target.
Bilton was a prototype for the modern feminist era and truly a woman ahead of her time. A middle-class eldest daughter from a military family, she arrived in London as a naïve nineteen-year-old, passionate about her independence and her desire to carve out a career on the stage. In four years she was the toast of London’s music halls and a household name, a woman who traveled in exclusive circles and was photographed by Queen Victoria’s royal photographer. By the time she left London to live out her days in rural Ireland, she could also claim the title of Countess, due to a loving-if-quick marriage to twenty-year-old Viscount Dunlo, an Irish aristocrat and heir to the Earl of Clancarty of Galway.
Bilton’s success was the stuff of legend thanks to the star’s raw talent, natural beauty, and unwavering determination. However, through her meticulous research O’Connor discovered that it was accompanied by hardship, heartbreak, and a pair of scandals that rocked British society, landing Bilton in the middle of a salacious court case started by her aristocrat father-in-law. Yet, Belle was nothing if not patient and resourceful. She fought hard for everything she had achieved and wasn’t about to let true happiness and love slip from her grip.
About Nuala O'Connor
Nuala O'Connor is the author of Miss Emily and a well-regarded short-story writer and novelist, writing in her native Ireland under the name Nuala Ní Chonchúir. She has won many fiction awards, including RTÉ Radio's Francis MacManus Award, the Cúirt New Writing Prize, the Jane Geske Award, the inaugural Jonathan Swift Award, the Cecil Day Lewis Award, and the Kerry Irish Novel of the Year Award, among others. Her short story "Peach" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and she was shortlisted for the European Prize for Literature for her short story collection Nude. She has been published in Granta, The Stinging Fly, and Guernica, among many others. She was born in Dublin in 1970 and lives in East Galway with her husband and three children.
Advance Praise for Becoming Belle
“Masterful storytelling! I was putty in Nuala O’Connor’s hands. She made the unsinkable BelleBilton and her down-to-earth sister Flo real to me, and brought 1880's London to my living room. Encore! Encore!” — Lynn Cullen, bestselling author of Mrs. Poe
"Nuala O'Connor has the thrilling ability to step back nimbly and enter the deep dance of time―this is a hidden history laid luminously before us of an exultant Anglo-Irish woman navigating the dark shoals and the bright fields of a life." ― Sebastian Barry, award-winning author of The Secret Scripture and Days Without End
“Nuala O’Connor has a genius for finding the universal and unifying life essence of seemingly diverse women as they nurture their deepest sensibilities and draw upon their enduring strength. After the triumphant Miss Emily, about Emily Dickinson and her Irish maid, O’Connor’s rendering of a now little-known nineteenth-century music hall dancer in Becoming Belle is thrillingly dramatic and achingly moving and profoundly resonant into this present era.” —Robert Olen Butler, author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
“Becoming Belle is a glorious novel in which Belle Bilton and 19th century London are brought roaring to life with exquisite period detail. In her portrayal of Belle, Nuala O'Connor delivers a seductive study of a complex and fascinating woman, who deserves the stage provided for her in this wonderful book.”
— Hazel Gaynor, New York Times bestselling author of A Memory of Violets
"Nuala O’Connor is a gifted writer who, with incandescent characters and mellifluous prose, captivates the reader with the same command as magnificent theatre. Becoming Belle is so mesmerizing you will be distraught when it ends and you remember that she lives no more. O’Connor has resurrected a fiery, inexorable woman who rewrites the script on a stage supposedly ruled by men. Sensual, witty, daring, and unapologetically forward, Belle Bilton and her cohorts will dance on in your mind long after the curtains fall." — Lisa Carey, author of The Stolen Child
“Becoming Belle is luscious, addictive and as satisfyingly wise as it is huge of heart. Nuala O'Connor has gone in deep to imagine the life of a fascinating woman, and from the dance floor to the townhouse to the bedroom, she renders Belle Bilton's passion, determination and vulnerability bracingly real. A treat as well as a tribute; utterly absorbing.” — Belinda McKeon, author of Tender
"A thoroughly engrossing and entertaining read. O’Connor’s meticulous attention to period detail and scrutiny of the upper classes and their shallow lives [is] reminiscent of Edith Wharton at her very best. It also makes us question whether women have ever really escaped from the censorious judgement of Victorian times." — Liz Nugent, author of Unraveling Oliver
My Review
Becoming Belle is the story of Isabel Bilton, she changed her name to Belle for her career, who became a dancer/actress on the London stage. She performs with her sister Flo and they take London by storm. They frequent the clubs and that is where Belle meets William, Viscount Dunlo. They fall in love and marry but William's father, Lord Dunlo, opposes the marriage and sends William abroad to get him away from Belle. Belle has a protector, Isidor, who is supposedly gay. Even though it is known in the circles they travel in, it is not in the open so when Lord Dunlo has Belle watched, this is speculation that she was unfaithful to William while he is gone. This is used against Belle when Lord Dunlo tries to have the marriage dissolved.
Prior to meeting William, Belle ended up pregnant by a man, Alden Weston who she had a one night stand with. Because of her career, she chose to send the baby out to a wetnurse to be raised. The court case is dismissed and William and Belle go to Ireland where they live at Garbally Court, which still stands.
This is a story that is mostly based on research, true facts and speculation by the author. A romantic story of a strong woman who defies what society feels how a woman should behave, she is shunned by normal society, has a mother who never liked or loved Belle. Belle's life was not all roses though, as there is hardship and heartbreak. She perseveres and finally gets what she wants, William.
A historical fiction story that is well worth a read. I really enjoyed it! I highly recommend it!
Eric Schumacher was born in Los Angeles in 1968 and currently resides in Santa Barbara, CA with his wife, two children and dog. He is the author of two historical fiction novels, God’s Hammer and its sequel, Raven’s Feast. Both tell the story of the first Christian king of Viking Norway, Hakon Haraldsson, and his struggles to gain and hold the High Seat of his realm. More information on Eric and his Hakon Sagas can be found on his website. You can also connect with Eric on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and AuthorsDB.
