The Flames by Sophie Haydock

 

The Flames by Sophie Haydock.

Published in hardback 17th March 2022 by Doubleday.

From the cover of the book:

Vienna at the dawn of the 20th century. An opulent, extravagant city teeming with art, music and radical ideas. A place where the social elite attend glamorous balls in the city's palaces whilst young intellectuals decry the empire across the tables of crowded cafes. It is a city where anything seems possible - if you are a man.

Edith and Adele are sisters, the daughters of a wealthy bourgeois industrialist. They are expected to follow the rules, to marry well, and produce children. Gertrude is in thrall to her flamboyant older brother. Marked by a traumatic childhood, she envies the freedom he so readily commands. Vally was born into poverty but is making her way in the world as a model for the eminent artist Gustav Klimt.

None of these women is quite what they seem. Fierce, passionate and determined, they want to defy convention and forge their own path. But their lives are set on a collision course when they become entangled with the controversial young artist Egon Schiele whose work - and private life - are sending shockwaves through Vienna's elite. All it will take is a single act of betrayal to change everything for them all. Because just as a flame has the power to mesmerize, it can also destroy everything in its path...

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Vienna, the early 20th century. Rising star of the art world. and protégé of Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele is making a name for himself - but not without stirring up controversy. Even in a city full of new ideas and intellectual discussion among the glamorous social elite, Schiele's artwork is often seen as going beyond the bounds of propriety, but he is determined to follow his own path.

However, an artist is nothing without inspiration, and in this book Sophie Haydock gives voice to the women who loved and supported him, and made him famous - The Flames who set Egon Schiele alight. In a delicious blend of fact and fiction, Haydock introduces us to society sisters Edith and Adele, one of whom was destined to become his wife, despite the expectation that they would marry into wealth; to Gertrude, Schiele's unconventional sister; and Vally the young woman from the wrong side of the tracks who also modelled for Klimt. These women are immortalised in his work, but how much do his paintings and drawings tell us about the kind of people they really were?

The novel begins with an accident on the streets of Vienna in 1968, when a troubled young woman called Eva quite literally runs into an elderly and confused Adele. Haydock then gives each of the four women a chance to tell of their relationship with Schiele in compelling, and often heart breaking, successive first person narratives. The little pieces of their multiple perspectives of the artist, and each other, gradually come together to paint a many layered picture of a fascinating era in history - broken up by 'interludes' which follow Eva's short, but intensely moving time with Adele. 

Haydock immerses you the atmosphere of intellectual stimulation at the turn of the beginning of the 20th century, and she cleverly echoes the conflict between new ideas and old in how Schiele's passions, both artistically and romantically, frequently got him into hot water with the establishment. He was determined to challenge the status quo, and this did not make his rise to success an easy one, but this pales into comparison when it comes to what our four women had to endure in a world ruled by men, despite the slow dawning of new thinking when it came to women's rights.

I do not want to go into the lives of Edith, Adele, Gertrude and Vally too much, as they are much better at telling them themselves, through the words Haydock writes for them. Each of their storylines is tragic in its own way, but they thrum with fierce independence and personality. Haydock delves into their desires, and the complexities of their relationships with each other, and their voices drive you on through decades of heartbreak, to the time Eva and Adele meet.

Magic lies in the way Haydock weaves their stories together, and she throws up many thought provoking themes along the way. I have never really considered before how much what we see in the artist's sketchbook, or on canvas, is an interpretation shaped by their own motivations, ideas, and expectations. It comes across so clearly in this book that even though Schiele's models have been preserved for posterity, what we see has very little to do with who they were, but speaks volumes about him instead - even in death they are still overshadowed by the man who drew them. And there is a very interesting discussion to be had here about what constitutes 'art', and where the line between art and pornography lies when it comes to erotic subjects. Lots to talk about!

I adored this book. Haydock brings Edith, Adele, Gertrude and Vally alive and advocates for them in much the same way Hallie Rubenhold does in her stunning non-fiction book The Five, about the women murdered by Jack the Ripper.  I really felt like I came to know them well, shedding many tears while following their tales, and the way Haydock brings the book to an uplifting conclusion amongst all the sadness is superb. This truly is a stunning, beautifully written, and deeply emotional debut, with a glorious feminist core.

The Flames is available to buy now in hard cover, paperback, ebook, and audio formats.

About the author:

Sophie Haydock is an award-winning author living in east London. Her debut novel, The Flames, was published to great acclaim and was longlisted for the H WA debut crown . She is the winner of the Impress Prize for New Writers. Sophie trained as a journalist at City University, London, and has worked at the Sunday Times Magazine, Tatler and BBC Three, as well as freelancing for publications including the Financial Times, Guardian Weekend magazine, and organisations such as the Arts Council, Royal Academy and Sotheby's. Passionate about short stories, Sophie also works for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award and is associate director of the Word Factory literary organisation.