Camille Claudel: A Novel
Alma H. Bond, Ph.D.
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2006 PublishAmerica
ISBN: 1424116708

A French sculptress remembers her fame & fortune during Le Grand Siecle era.

Born in 1864, Camille Claudel discovered the magic of sculpting as a child, & with her father's guidance & older artists as mentors, she matured into the most famous, & infamous, sculptress of her time. So much so, that 15 years after her death, when I was one of only two young maidens studying to be a sculptor at a London art school, the instructor daily cautioned us with tales about how sculpting was still “a man's world” & a very unladylike vocation, Barbara Hepworth, nothwithstanding.

Now remembered mostly as the Great Artist Auguste Rodin's muse & mistress, Camille Claudel's body of work has been overshadowed & forgotten. With this book, Dr. Bond has brought her back to life, complete with girlish voice, historical references, intense & enlightening insights into the world of sculpting, rivalries, art exhibits, government grants & show galleries, & a long look back to a life full of sound & fury, despair & glory.

Meet Camille, now a very old woman who has survived 30 years of involuntary incarceration in a lunatic asylum in the French countryside, as she “remembers” the first time she fashioned a family out of garden mud; how those figurines so impressed her father that he swore lifelong support; to Camille's memories of her mother's eternal grief at losing her firstborn son, & of her household & lifestyle; her sister Louise, her beloved baby brother Paul, who would in adulthood become a diplomat & writer of stature, & Helene, the family's live-in help -- la bonne, & the influence of a jumble of huge rocks left by retreating glaciers on a nearby moor.

Let Camille tell her tales of awakening to the passions that turned a Papa's girl with one leg shorter than the other, into a lusty woman with inexhaustible appetites & energy, as well as very human traits of longing, jealousy, rage, loneliness, despair, disappointment &, of course, love. Here too, she tells of how she met Rodin, & how he pursued, used & misused her, the dreadful event that marked the start of her downfall, & the decades of rage, addiction & psychosis.

Let her introduce you to what drives an artist & how they see the world, colleagues, lovers & family. & then stay to witness her reaching for the brass ring only to have the pain of rejection, both in her private & professional life, eat away at her confidence, her vocation & her sanity.

Psychoanalyst Dr. Alma H. Bond knows how to get inside people's minds, & in this fictional reminiscence, she recreates the passionate life & times of one of the most powerful artists of the early 20th century. As with The Autobiography Of Maria Callas: A Novel, the divine operatic soprano, Dr. Bond has breathed fresh life into a forgotten giant in her field of brilliance, & written a fascinating “memoir” of what drove a woman to break through the glass ceiling in a world ruled by men, & take the dire consequences.

Early last year, I was privileged to read this author's final draft. I shipped it back, covered with my red ink suggestions. Toward the end of the year, Dr. Bond answered my enquiry as to when she would publish it, with a plea for a cover blurb. Upon reading the manuscript I was once again entranced by the thrilling way in which she captured this amazing spirit's character. How I wished I could have walked with her to listen to her talk about how she “heard” Camille, & to get a glimpse of the wisdom this good doctor has gained from a career of guiding others to their healing. I did, however, come upon much that needed editing & a couple of scenes that needed to be included to complete the circle of the story. So I am thrilled to have been part of getting Camille Claudel: A Novel to print just three months since final editing courtesy of the marvels of POD & PublishAmerica.

Brava!

More from Alma H. Bond:
Why I Am A Writer
The Deadly Jigsaw Puzzle
The Tree That Could Fly
Tales Of Psychology
I Married Dr. Jekyll And Woke Up Mrs. Hyde
On Becoming A Grandparent: A Diary of Family Discovery
Who Killed Virginia Woolf?: A Psychobiography
Profiles of Key West
She recently recorded her new manuscript, Old Age Is A Terminal Illness, as an audio book.
(02/12/06)

Rebecca