Falling Angels

Table of Contents

Praise for
Falling Angels

"Chevalier's ringing prose is as radiantly efficient as well-tended silver."

"Chevalier's tone is candid and immediate. Her enthusiasm for her subject, as well as her dedication to historical accuracy, keeps the reader engaged."

--
San Francisco Chronicle

"Chevalier not only authentically details the era's social mores, tensions, and contradictions, she writes the book we want to read."

"Part of the secret of Chevalier's success is her uncanny ability to bring a lost world to life... Just as Vermeer's work helps to explain his world in Chevalier's earlier novel, so the symbolic art of the graveyard beautifully illuminates Victorian culture in
Falling Angels."

--
The Baltimore Sun

"A thoughtful exploration of the ways people misread each other by being trapped in their own perspectives."

--
People
magazine

"Chevalier's second novel confirms her place in the literary firmament... This is a beautiful novel, not soon forgotten."

TRACY CHEVALIER is the author of the bestselling
Girl With a Pearl Earring.
An American originally from Washington, D.C., she currently lives in London with her husband and son.

Visit
www.tchevalier.com
and
www.pearlearring.com

"Brilliant ... a rich story that is true to the era."

"At once elegant, daring, original, and compelling."

"Her new novel may be called
Falling Angels,
but there is no doubt Tracy Chevalier is a rising star."

"
[
Girl With a
]
Pearl Earring
fans will love the evocation of atmosphere one would expect from this writer ... Chevalier gives the kiss of life to the historical novel."

--
The Independent
(London)

"The novel is as cleverly atmospheric as its predecessor ... Each separate voice is perfectly judged, reverberating in the mind's ear ... A well-researched, vividly imagined, and entirely credible tale."

PLUME
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2
Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182--190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England

Published by Plume, a member of Penguin Putnam Inc.
Previously published in a Dutton edition.

First Plume Printing, October 2002

Copyright (c) Tracy Chevalier, 2001

All rights reserved

REGISTERED TRADEMARK--MARCA REGISTRADA

The Library of Congress has catalogued the Dutton edition as follows:
Chevalier, Tracy.
Falling angels / by Tracy Chevalier.
p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-101-17489-0

1. Great Britain--History--Edward VII, 1901--1910--Fiction. 2. Highgate
Cemetery (London, England)--Fiction. 3. London (England)--Fiction. 4. Social
classes--Fiction. 5. Friendship--Fiction. 6. Children--Fiction. I. Title.
PS3553.H4367 F35 2001
813'.54--dc21
2001033474

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE AT QUANTITY DISCOUNTS WHEN USED TO PROMOTE PRODUCTS OR SERVICES. FOR INFORMATION PLEASE WRITE TO PREMIUM MARKETING DIVISION, PENGUIN PUTNAM INC., 375 HUDSON STREET, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10014.

JANUARY 1901

I woke this morning with a stranger in my bed. The head of blond hair beside me was decidedly not my husband's. I did not know whether to be shocked or amused.

Well, I thought, here's a novel way to begin the new century.

Then I remembered the evening before and felt rather sick. I wondered where Richard was in this huge house and how we were meant to swap back. Everyone else here--the man beside me included--was far more experienced in the mechanics of these matters than I. Than we. Much as Richard bluffed last night, he was just as much in the dark as me, though he was more keen. Much more keen. It made me wonder.