The Lioness of Boston

BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER

"Brings Isabella Stewart Gardner fully, intimately alive--irrepressible and avid for life. In this richly compelling novel, Emily Franklin beautifully conjures this extraordinary woman and her world."--Claire Messud, author of The Emperor's Children

A deeply evocative portrayal of the life of Isabella Stewart Gardner, the daring trailblazer who not only created an inimitable legacy in American art but also transformed a city.

By the time Isabella Stewart Gardner opened her Italian palazzo-style home as a museum in 1903 to showcase her collection of old masters, antiques, and objects d'art, she was already well-known for scandalizing Boston's polite society. But when Isabella first arrived in Boston in 1861, she was twenty years old, newly married to a wealthy trader, and unsure of herself. Puzzled by the frosty reception she received from stuffy bluebloods, she strived to fit in. After two devastating tragedies and rejection from upper society, Isabella discovered her spirit and cast off expectations.

Freed by travel, Isabella explores the world of art, ideas, and letters, meeting such kindred spirits as Henry James and Oscar Wilde. From London and Paris to Egypt and Asia, she develops a keen eye for paintings and objects, and meets feminists ready to transform nineteenth century thinking in the twentieth century. Isabella becomes her own person, painted by John Singer Sargent in a portrait of daring décolletage, and fond of such stunts as walking a pair of lions in the Boston Public Garden. With a mission to make art accessible to the public, Isabella becomes the first woman to open a museum in the United States.

The Lioness of Boston is a portrait of what society expected a woman's life to be, shattered by a courageous soul who rebelled and was determined to live on her own terms.

Author: Emily Franklin
Publisher: David R. Godine Publisher
Published: 03/19/2024
Pages: 408
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.32lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.83w x 1.26d
ISBN: 9781567928099

About the Author

Emily Franklin is the bestselling author of The Lioness of Boston, based on the life of trailblazer Isabella Stewart Gardner, and more than twenty other books including a poetry collection, Tell Me How You Got Here. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Kenyon Review, and The Journal of the American Medical Association, among many other places, as well as featured and read aloud on National Public Radio, and named notable by the Association of Jewish Libraries. Her next novel, Love & Other Monsters, will be published in April 2026.