The Painted Girls

By Cathy Marie Buchanan,

Book cover of The Painted Girls

Book description

A heartrending, gripping novel about two sisters in Belle Époque Paris and the young woman forever immortalized as muse for Edgar Degas’ Little Dancer Aged Fourteen.

1878 Paris. Following their father’s sudden death, the van Goethem sisters find their lives upended. Without his wages, and with the small amount their…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked The Painted Girls as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This historical work is fiction but based on the true story of Edgar Degas and his models. It was a revelation for me to learn about the brutish lives led by the dancers in the ballet and the hard lives of most women outside the middle and upper class in Paris in 1878. We are taken behind the scene in the ballet, into cramped, unheated, dirty living quarters, brothels, and prisons. Of the three sisters in the story, only one will manage to make a marriage that will lift her out of the inevitability of having to survive through a…

If you love The Painted Girls...

Ad

Book cover of The Ballad of Falling Rock

The Ballad of Falling Rock by Jordan Dotson,

Truth told, folks still ask if Saul Crabtree sold his soul for the perfect voice. If he sold it to angels or devils. A Bristol newspaper once asked: “Are his love songs closer to heaven than dying?” Others wonder how he wrote a song so sad, everyone who heard it…

Want books like The Painted Girls?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Painted Girls.

Browse books like The Painted Girls

Book cover of The Cater Street Hangman
Book cover of An Irish Hostage
Book cover of A Sunlit Weapon

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,952

readers submitted
so far, will you?

Ad

📚 If you like The Painted Girls, you might also like...

Book cover of Red Clay, Running Waters

Red Clay, Running Waters by Leslie K. Simmons,

Red Clay, Running Waters is the little-known story of John Ridge, a Cherokee man dedicated to his people, and his White wife Sarah, a woman devoted to his search for justice as they forge a path to the future for the Cherokee in their homeland. 

Grappling with universal themes of…

Book cover of Brighter Than Her Fears

Brighter Than Her Fears by Lisa Ard,

The 19th century women's rights movement and the rise of public education intertwine with one woman's story of struggle, perseverance, and love.

Alice Harris is pressed to marry a Civil War veteran twice her age when her family’s inn fails in 1882 in western North Carolina. She remakes herself by…

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in France, sisters, and teenage girls?

France 957 books
Sisters 210 books
Teenage Girls 135 books