I've just finished the book "Clara and Mr. Tiffany." However, I confusedly picked it up assuming that it was by the author of "Girl With a Pearl Earring" and "The Virgin Blue." Rather, it is the author of "Girl in Hyacinth Blue" and "The Passion of Artemisia," which I've also read. I keep confusing Tracy Chevalier and Susan Vreeland. Somewhat similar topics and titles, but I have to admit I like Tracy Chevalier a lot better as a writer. I feel very similarly about "Clara and Mr. Tiffany" as I did about "The Passion of Artemisia" - the topic is something I'm particularly interested in, so I'm willing to read the book just for that, but the writing doesn't thrill me. I feel like the author did exhaustive research on her historical characters and their time period - and then feels the need to stick every little detail that she's learned into the book, even when it interrupts the flow of the story. The details that interest her are mostly those that we know today, so the reader is constantly interrupted by tidbits such as that "America the Beautiful" is a new song, that the character feels that the poem just written for the Statue of Liberty's pedestal will one day be well-known, or that the music wafting out of a jazz club is a (still well-known) certain song. The thing is, it doesn't smoothly work - because the things that are of significance to people's daily lives are very rarely those that make history. A person is just as likely to be grieved for the death of a poet who will soon be forgotten to history as that of Walt Whitman, or to love a song which will be soon regarded as insignificant. (And, when facing a deep personal crisis, a person is unlikely to stop in front of a jazz club to mention what the song playing is.) A few relevant historical details help set time and place, but this is like an inundation. And while Clara comes vividly to life as an intriguing and vibrant character, too many of the minor characters seem to exist only as Examples of Types of People Who Lived in 19th-Century New York.
Still, I love the Tiffany aesthetic enough that I felt the book was worth reading - the details of the creative process and the practicalities of the craft involved in the workshop are fascinating, as are the financial, personal and social issues of the company, which Vreeland illuminates well.

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I enjoyed this book for many reasons:

The book added an interesting perspective to the Tiffany windows and lamps. The history of the Tiffany girls was an interesting one.

The book presented an interesting slice of New York city history and the artistic world at that time.

The main character is a strong, independent woman.

The descriptions of the glasswork and what it took to create these artistic masterpieces is fascinating.

I did not rate the book higher because there were times that it just seemed too long.

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Beautiful gift book.

Its 1893, and at the Chicago Worlds Fair, Louis Comfort Tiffany makes his debut with a luminous exhibition of innovative stained-glass windows that he hopes will earn him a place on the international artistic stage. But behind the scenes in his New York studio is the freethinking Clara Driscoll, head of his womens division, who conceives of and designs nearly all of the iconic leaded-glass lamps for which Tiffany will long be remembered. Never publicly acknowledged, Clara struggles with her desire for artistic recognition and the seemingly insurmountable challenges that she faces as a professional woman. She also yearns for love and companionship, and is devoted in different ways to five men, including Tiffany, who enforces a strict policy: He does not employ married women. Ultimately, Clara must decide what makes her happiestthe professional world of her hands or the personal world of her heart.

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I looked forward to reading this book, but was deeply disappointed. Clara, as she is portrayed in this novel is a jerk. She wants to be liberated, but calls the women she works with 'my girls'. She acts like she's honest and moral, but she goes for years seeing a man she thinks is married, but won't ask because she doesn't want to stop seeing him. She looks down on the immigrants and other poor that she encounters. She wants everything both ways. I really hope Clara was a better person than she is portrayed here.

This author (I've read other books by her) is unable to portray people with any depth or true understanding. The stories she chooses to tell could be so compelling if only she was able to develop the characters beyond two-dimensional

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How thoroughly enjoyable! The story of the famous leaded-glass Tiffany lamps, but also a peek into New York in the late 1800's and early 1900's which saw the end of the Victorian Era, electrification supplanting gas lights, the first NY subway, changes in construction, bicycles for all, and the beginning of the women's movement. This is a delightful read based a great deal upon recently found letters written by the real Clara Driscoll because all the historic Tiffany records had been destroyed by fire in 1957. They really should be called Driscoll lamps.

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