Such is the Verdict

About the Book

The novel is set mainly in New York City and the Hudson Valley between the 1840s and the 1880s and evokes the atmosphere of the “art world” of that period. While recounting the careers, private lives, and personal crises of its characters, it also explores disputes about the nature of “originality” in art that were an important concern in the nineteenth century. The central character is a famous landscape painter whose conscience is tormented by the possibility that his whole career has been a fraud. To assuage his feelings of guilt and examine his motives, he writes a private, confessional memoir, and when this document is eventually discovered, its revelations lead to a series of conflicts, including a lawsuit, that threaten to ruin his reputation. Intertwined with the story of this painter and his fate, are the lives of several other major characters – among them a flamboyant and widely-admired actress who becomes his sister-in-law; a successful art dealer who becomes his agent; a dissolute assistant who worries him; a rival landscape painter who both envies and despises him; and his aristocratic wife, who idolizes him. To give the story a flavor of authenticity, it is written in a style that might have been used by a nineteenth-century author.

About the Author

J.J. Pollitt is the author of three previous novels that are set against the background of controversial movements and issues in nineteenth century America. He has also published books in the field of Classical art and archaeology, most notably Art and Experience in Classical Greece.