This forgotten classic from Germany was a best-selling novel in 1905 and translated into many languages.

It was also widely read for nearly three decades – until the story of a fallen girl from a bourgeois family who sees no other way to survive but prostitution was pushed into the abyss of oblivion because it didn’t fit into the ideal and virtuous image of Germans that Nazi propaganda created. Mute films made of it had the same fate although the 1929 film of G. W. Pabst starring Louise Brooks is much appreciated by enthusiasts like the editor of the again available English edition of the book.

Please click here to read the full review on my main book blog Edith’s Miscellany!

Only a few years before becoming a famous silent-film star and an icon of her generation, a fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks leaves Wichita, Kansas, to study with the prestigious Denishawn School of Dancing in New York. Much to her annoyance, she is accompanied by a thirty-six-year-old chaperone, who is neither mother nor friend. Cora Carlisle, a complicated but traditional woman with her own reasons for making the trip, has no idea what she’s in for. Young Louise, already stunningly beautiful and sporting her famous black bob with blunt bangs, is known for her arrogance and her lack of respect for convention. Ultimately, the five weeks they spend together will transform their lives forever.

I love historical fiction especially when it's inspired by the life of silent-film star Louise Brooks or LuLu, what she was known as in the 20s; the actress that made the hair bob with bangs famous.

I started listening to the book as an audio book on a Greyhound trip but wasn't able to finish it on my vacation. I returned the audiobook to the library with the intent on rechecking it out but I forgot. Months later, I remembered that I hadn't finished it so I checked out the hard cover version and read the book. Even though it was months later, the reader's voice from the audio book was the voice that I used for the characters.

After you read the book you'll probably want to learn more about Louise Brooks; I know I do.