Emily Franklin (Tell Me How You Got Here) brings iconoclast and art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner to sparkling life in her third novel for adults, The Lioness of Boston. In a first-person narrative, Gardner divulges her experiences as a newlywed Boston socialite; her disappointment in friendship and motherhood; and the grand opening of her museum, Fenway Court, which displays both her inimitable taste and her vast collection of treasures. Clever and restless, Gardner comes to Boston determined to become a successful society wife and mother. But her quirky tastes, from blue satin boots to speaking her mind, do not endear her to Boston's elite, and her struggles to bear a child cause her much grief. Franklin sensitively explores the push and pull between Gardner's thirst for intellectual company and her desire to be accepted by the matrons who snub her. Even her two loving sisters-in-law do not understand her, so Gardner seeks the company of writers, artists, and intellectuals like herself.
Franklin vividly describes Boston's Back Bay and the contrast between its rigid social mores and thriving intellectual life. She details Gardner's loving but complicated marriage and her travels through Europe, where she falls in love with art collecting. She also recounts Gardner's deep love for her three nephews, whom she raises after their parents die. While Franklin includes some of Gardner's newsworthy exploits, such as walking a pair of lions through the streets of Boston, the author ultimately paints a rich, nuanced portrait of a woman hungry to find beauty, knowledge, and her own place in the world. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams