The story of the titanic aesthetic battle between James Whistler and John Ruskin over the ground-breaking Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket.
In a dark London courtroom in November 1878, America’s foremost artist sued England’s foremost art critic—for a bad review. At issue was Nocturne in Black and Gold—the Falling Rocket, a painting that flouted Victorian conventions of art and that Ruskin denounced as an incomprehensible mess. The trial and the startling verdict that followed was just the beginning, of a larger, lifelong battle for aesthetic dominance: the battle of a lifetime–or rather, of two. Falling Rocket vividly evokes an artistic world in energetic motion, culturally and socially, in the last decades of the nineteenth century.
“Enjoyable in its breezy enthusiasm. An unashamedly approachable good read.” —New York Times Book Review
“A lively, entertaining tale of art and criticism. ” —Kirkus Reviews
“Victoriana scholar Murphy hits another bull’s-eye with this remarkable new title…. Absorbing and informative, this title is cultural history at its best.”—Library Journal
A Must-Read book for the Next Big Idea Club
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“It is worth being shot at to see how much one is loved.”
—Queen
Victoria,
1882
“Let me die.”
—Jane
Clouson,
1871
Shooting Victoria recounts the amazing stories of the seven boys and men who attacked the Queen eight times throughout her reign, as well as Victoria’s heroic responses, leading cumulatively to a profound revitalization of the British monarchy.
The gripping account of the brutal murder of a young maid-of-all-work on a south London country lane in 1871, of the investigation and trial that followed, and beyond: a case that has remained unsolved for a century and a half: unsolved until now.