And Only to Deceive

Fact vs. Fiction

I have taken the liberty of using several historical persons as characters in And Only to Deceive. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who once said, "Why shouldn't art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world," and his wife, Aline, are of course real. They were married at a city hall in Paris on April 14, 1890.

Emily's friend, Alexander Murray, was named Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum in 1886. His Manual of Mythology was recently reprinted as a facsimile of the original edition.

Lord Lytton was the British ambassador in Paris from 1887 until his death in 1891. He published fiction and poetry under the pseudonym Owen Meredith, his most successful work being a novel-length poem called Lucile. His father, Edward Bulwer Lytton, wrote Last Days of Pompeii, a book that was wildly popular in the nineteenth century.

Gordon Bennett, the publisher of the Paris Herald and son of the founder of the New York Herald, was responsible for financing Henry Stanley's famous search for Dr. David Livingstone. He immigrated to France after a scandalous drunken incident at his then-fiancée's house ended with him challenging her brother to a duel. No one was killed, but Mr. Bennett found himself no longer welcome in New York society. His behavior did not much improve upon his arrival in Paris, where he would pull tablecloths off restaurant tables if he found the service to be lacking. Nonetheless, he was handsome enough that the ladies were willing to overlook his shortcomings.

Charles Frederick Worth, though not precisely a character in the novel, was a man near and dear to the hearts of the nineteenth-century women fortunate enough to be in a position to afford the elegant dresses he designed, using the most luxurious fabrics and trims. He is often called the father of haute couture.