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2021., Adult, Knopf Random Vintage Canada Call No: QWF Fic Win Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: From Giller-shortlisted author Kathleen Winter (author of the bestseller Annabel): A stunning novel reimagining the lost years of misunderstood Romantic Era genius Dorothy Wordsworth. When young James Dixon, a local jack-of-all-trades recently returned from the Battle of Waterloo, meets writer Dorothy Wordsworth, he quickly realizes he’s never met another woman anything like her. In her early thirties at the time of the meeting, Dorothy has already lived a wildly unconventional life. As her famous brother William Wordsworth’s confidante and creative collaborator—considered by some in their circle to be the secret to his success as a poet—she has carved a seemingly idyllic existence for herself, alongside William and his wife, in England’s Lake District. One day, Dixon is approached by William to do some handiwork around the Wordsworth estate. At William’s urging, he takes on more and more chores—and quickly understands that his real, unspoken responsibility is to keep an eye on Dorothy, who is growing frail and melancholic. The unlikely pair of misfits form a sympathetic bond despite the sometimes troubling chasm in social class between them, and soon Dixon is the quiet witness to everyday life in Dorothy’s family and glittering social circle, which includes literary legends Samuel Coleridge, Thomas de Quincy, William Blake, and Charles and Mary Lamb. Through the fictional James Dixon—a gentle but troubled soul, more attuned to the wonders of the garden he faithfully tends than to vexing worldly matters—we step inside the Wordsworth family, witnessing their dramatic emotional and artistic struggles, hidden traumas, private betrayals and triumphs. At the same time, Winter slowly weaves a darker, complex “undersong” through the novel, one as earthy and elemental as flower and tree, gradually revealing the pattern of Dorothy's rich, hidden life—that of a woman determined, against all odds, to exist on her own terms despite societal norms. But the unsettling effects of Dorothy’s tragically repressed brilliance take their toll, and when at last her true voice finally sings out, it is so searing and bright that Dixon, compelled equally by love and grief and fear, must make an impossible choice.
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-- Under song2021., Adult, 08:17:56., Books on Tape Connect to this eAudiobook title Summary Note: A stunning historical novel of rare enigmatic power reimagining the so-called "lost years" of the misunderstood Romantic Era genius Dorothy Wordsworth. When young James Dixon, recently returned from the battle of Waterloo and local jack-of-all-trades, meets Dorothy Wordsworth in Rydel, Westmoreland, in 1816, he realizes he's never met a woman remotely like her. In her early thirties, Dorothy has already lived an extraordinary life, one that has flown in the face of social convention. As her brother William Wordsworth's closest confidante and creative collaborator--considered by some in their circle to be the secret to his artistic success--she has forsworn marriage and carved a seemingly idyllic life for herself, with William and his wife, in England's Lake District, where she passes the days taking long walks and filling her diaries with astonishing observations of the natural world and common country life--and of course, helping William usher in a new epoch in English literature. When Dixon is approached by William to do some handiwork around their humble estate at Rydel Mount, he quickly understands that his unofficial responsibility is to keep an eye on Dorothy, who is growing frail, melancholic, and inscrutable. The pair form an unusual bond, and over the next several decades, Dixon is ushered into the Wordsworth inner sanctum--where he is swept up in the extraordinary secrets of this extraordinary family and their unusual circle (Samuel Coleridge, Thomas de Quincy, and Charles and Mary Lamb all make cameos). In the imagination of bestselling author Kathleen Winter, the misunderstood genius of Dorothy Wordsworth and complexity of her legacy is given new meaning. Through James Dixon, a tremendous literary invention, Winter leads us inside the Wordsworth family and the scintillating emotional and artistic life, hidden traumas, private betrayals and triumphs of an inimitable, unorthodox woman determined to exist on her own terms. But also, brilliantly, Winter weaves a complex dark undersong through her story, not only of Dorothy's secret life and thoughts, but that of the tragically unacknowledged lives of women in her time, such as Dixon's own doomed sister.
![Undersong [eAudiobook]](/Library/images/~imageCT101930.JPG "Undersong [eAudiobook]")