About the Book In this moving and tragic love story, Berthe Morisot, the only female French Impressionist painter, is a woman ahead of her time. Melancholy, driven, and talented, she is deeply in love with the great painter Edouard Manet. However, hes also a married man, which keeps them apart. Book Synopsis Paris in the 1860s: a magnificent time of expression, where brilliant young artists rebel against the stodginess of the past to freely explore new styles of creating--and bold new ways of living. Passionate, beautiful, and utterly devoted to her art, Berthe Morisot is determined to be recognized as an important painter. But as a woman, she finds herself sometimes overlooked in favor of her male counterparts--Monet, Pissarro, Degas. And there is one great artist among them who captivates young Berthe like none other: the celebrated genius douard Manet. A mesmerizing, breathtaking rogue--a shameless rou, undeterred and irresistible--his life is a wildly overgrown garden of scandal. He becomes Berthes mentor, her teacher...her lover, despite his curiously devoted marriage to his frumpy, unappealing wife, Suzanne, and his many rumored dalliances with his own models. For a headstrong young woman from a respectable family, an affair with such an intoxicating scoundrel can only spell heartbreak and ruin. But Berthe refuses to resign herself to the life of quiet submission that Society has dictated for her. Undiscouraged, she will create her own destiny...and confront life--and love--on her own terms. Review Quotes With deft brush strokes, Elizabeth Robards creates a wonderfully vivid portrait of the Second Empire and the dawn of Impressionism. -- Tracy Grant, author of Beneath a Silent Moon Set among the beauty and majesty of Paris at the height of its articits period, Robards novel weaves the story of passion and lust among the historical events. A masterpiece in itself, With Violets is a delightful novel. -- Times Record News (Wichita Falls, Texas)