Yet its epic sweep takes in the changing of a nation, the fight for women’s suffrage and the questioning of steadfast beliefs. It is then that the beautiful, frustrated Mrs Coleman makes a bid for greater personal freedom, with disastrous consequences, and the lives of the Colemans and the Waterhouses are changed forever.Ī poignant tale of two families brought reluctantly together, Falling Angels is an intimate story of childhood friendships, sexual awakening and human frailty.

And worse, befriend the gravedigger’s son.Īs the girls grow up and the new century finds its feet, as cars replace horses and electricity outshines gas lighting, Britain emerges from the shadows of oppressive Victorian values to a golden Edwardian summer. To their mutual distaste, the families are inextricably linked when their daughters become friends behind the tombstones. The Waterhouses revere the late Queen and cling to Victorian traditions the Colemans look forward to a more modern society. FALLING ANGELS begins January 1901, the morning after Queen Victorias death, the morning that her son, the dandy King Edward VII becomes monarch. The novel starts off with the death of Victoria. It tells of how radically societies can change within the space of just a decade. One is decorated with a sentimental angel, the other an elaborate urn. Falling Angels is Tracy Chevaliers third novel. January 1901, the day after Queen Victoria’s death: Two families visit neighboring graves in a fashionable London cemetery. A compulsively absorbing story of love, art, religion and power set in Florence during the Renaissance and told through the passionate voice of a heroine with.

Falling angels tracy chevalier summary