Christine Coulson spent twenty-five years writing for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her final project was to write wall labels for the museum’s new British Galleries. During that time, she dreamt of using the Met’s strict label format to describe people as intricate works of art. Her first experiment with this idea described an imaginary woman called Kitty, who became the unlikely protagonist of One Woman Show.
‘Brilliant. Christine Coulson’s tragicomedy of manners is an immense delight … Coulson captures her character’s gentle decline with the precision of Edith Wharton and evokes the eras she traverses with such clarity, even wisdom, describing a woman’s changing (or unchanging) role in the world with an acuity that left this reader astonished time and again’ Andrew Solomon, author of Far from the Tree
‘Heartbreaking and funny … Coulson’s language is perfection … so many moments made me laugh. Truly masterful and patient and insane, in the best way’ Leanne Shapton, author of Swimming Studies
‘This novel’s formal audacity is an impressive feat of imagination … a moving story of privilege, womanhood, and the sweep of the twentieth century told through a single American life. I loved this book’ Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind
PARTICUL AR BOOKS
PENGUIN PRESS ONE WOMAN SHOW
one
woman
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Prized, collected, critiqued. One Woman Show revolves around the life of Kitty Whitaker as she is defined by her potential for display and moved from collection to collection through multiple marriages. Christine Coulson, who has written hundreds of exhibition wall labels for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, precisely distils each stage of Kitty’s sprawling life into that distinct format, every brief snapshot in time a wry reflection on womanhood, ownership, value and power. Described with wit, poignancy and humour over the course of the twentieth century, Kitty emerges as an eccentric heroine who disrupts her privileged, porcelain life with both major force and minor transgressions. As human foibles propel each delicately crafted text, Coulson playfully asks: who really gets to tell our stories?
Jacket design by Alison Forner. Cover photographs: Details, Five-Figure Group of the Five Senses, Meissen Manufactory, Hard-paste porcelain, c. 1750. Author photograph © Jackie Neale.
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SPINE WIDTH: 20 mm
•Estimated •Confirmed FORMAT
Demy Octavo 216mm X 135mm PRINT
CMYK • • • • + Gold Foil Emboss FINISHES
Regular Coated Matte varnish to seal PROOFING METHOD
proofs •Wet only •Digital No further proof required •
christine c ou l s on I S B N 978-0-241-65990-8
Date: 17/08/2023 Designer: Jim/Æ Prod. Controller: Taryn Jones Pub. Date: ISBN: 9780241659908
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A Novel £00.00
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