Literary bloggers
The Emerald City Book Review- June 3 2016
What happens when an eminent scholar and biographer turns her hand to fiction? In the case of Janet Todd’s A Man of Genius, we get a highly distinctive, engrossing tale of mystery and madness, centering on a woman writer of one of those “horrid books” that were so popular around Jane Austen’s time.
“…a highly distinctive, engrossing tale of mystery and madness…
Janet Todd has beautifully translated her passion for and knowledge of the era and its literature into a compelling fictional creation. I hope she will give us many more.”
*Collected Miscellany – review by Jeff Grim
A Man of Genius by Janet Todd is a psychological page turner. It delves deeply into the interactions between a female writer and a genius/borderline madman.
“A Man of Genius is a psychological page turner.” “The book is an intriguing read.”
The Historical Novel Review – book review May issue
In 1816 London, Ann St. Clair supports herself by writing gothic horror novels. Her cold, cruel mother had rejected her as a child, and her father had died before her birth. Remaining a spinster, Ann surrounds herself with other artistic types.
“Todd’s elegant, psychologically dark prose kept me mesmerized.”
Alive on the Shelves – cover & descriptive paragraph on ‘New on the Shelves’ page
A Man of Genius portrays a psychological journey from safety into obsession and secrecy. It mirrors a physical passage from flamboyant Regency England through a Europe conquered by Napoleon.
JBronderBookReviews.com
This is an amazing story. You can tell that Janet Todd has a lot of knowledge about the 18th century and London and Venice. I found myself instantly falling into this story. Ann is such a strong, independent woman yet finds herself with such an unstable partner. All I could do was sit back and pray that she could survive this relationship.
AustenProse – A Jane Austen Blog (Five star review)
Still, there is something about Janet Todd’s work that won’t be a surprise at all: it reflects exactly the kind of attention to detail and historical accuracy that we’ve come to expect from this venerable, renowned author.
So Little Time
A Man of Genius is a dark and mysterious work of literary fiction. Set in the early 1800s London and Venice, the story has the tone of a book written in the same period, with a feel of a classic.