Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Dedication JANUARY 1901 Kitty Coleman Richard Coleman Maude Coleman Kitty Coleman Lavinia Waterhouse Gertrude Waterhouse Albert Waterhouse Simon Field DECEMBER 1901 Richard Coleman MARCH 1903 Lavinia Waterhouse Maude Coleman Gertrude Waterhouse JUNE 1903 Maude Coleman Jenny Whitby NOVEMBER 1903 Kitty Coleman MAY 1904 Maude Coleman Kitty Coleman Lavinia Waterhouse Edith Coleman Simon Field JANUARY 1905 Jenny Whitby OCTOBER 1905 Gertrude Waterhouse FEBRUARY 1906 Maude Coleman Kitty Coleman APRIL 1906 Lavinia Waterhouse Maude Coleman Simon Field Jenny Whitby Lavinia Waterhouse Richard Coleman Kitty Coleman MAY 1906 Albert Waterhouse JULY 1906 Edith Coleman Maude Coleman Simon Field Jenny Whitby SEPTEMBER 1906 Albert Waterhouse OCTOBER 1906 Lavinia Waterhouse Gertrude Waterhouse Maude Coleman Kitty Coleman Simon Field Lavinia Waterhouse NOVEMBER 1906 Jenny Whitby Edith Coleman Richard Coleman FEBRUARY 1907 GertrudeWaterhouse Jenny Whitby JULY 1907 Maude Coleman FEBRUARY 1908 Kitty Coleman Dorothy Baker MARCH 1908 Simon Field Lavinia Waterhouse Maude Coleman Richard Coleman MAY 1908 Albert Waterhouse Kitty Coleman Richard Coleman Edith Coleman JUNE 1908 Lavinia Waterhouse Gertrude Waterhouse Maude Coleman Simon Field Kitty Coleman Lavinia Waterhouse Maude Coleman Lavinia Waterhouse Jenny Whitby Ivy May Waterhouse Simon Field Maude Coleman Kitty Coleman Simon Field John Jackson Richard Coleman Lavinia Waterhouse Gertrude Waterhouse Edith Coleman Jenny Whitby Albert Waterhouse Maude Coleman Dorothy Baker Simon Field MAY 1910 Lavinia Waterhouse Maude Coleman Simon Field Gertrude Waterhouse Albert Waterhouse Richard Coleman Dorothy Baker Simon Field Lavinia Waterhouse Maude Coleman Simon Field Acknowledgements Praise for Falling Angels “Chevalier’s ringing prose is as radiantly efficient as well-tended silver.” —Entertainment Weekly “Chevalier’s tone is candid and immediate. Her enthusiasm for her subject, as well as her dedication to historical accuracy, keeps the reader engaged.” —San Francisco Chronicle “Chevalier not only authentically details the era’s social mores, tensions, and contradictions, she writes the book we want to read.” —New York Daily News “Part of the secret of Chevalier’s success is her uncanny ability to bring a lost world to life… Just as Vermeer’s work helps to explain his world in Chevalier’s earlier novel, so the symbolic art of the graveyard beautifully illuminates Victorian culture in Falling Angels.” —The Baltimore Sun “A thoughtful exploration of the ways people misread each other by being trapped in their own perspectives.” —People magazine “Chevalier’s second novel confirms her place in the literary firmament… This is a beautiful novel, not soon forgotten.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune TRACY CHEVALIER is the author of the bestselling Girl With a Pearl Earring. An American originally from Washington, D.C., she currently lives in London with her husband and son. Visit www.tchevalier.com and www.pearlearring.com “Brilliant … a rich story that is true to the era.” —The Cleveland Plain Dealer “At once elegant, daring, original, and compelling.” —Kansas City Independent “Her new novel may be called Falling Angels, but there is no doubt Tracy Chevalier is a rising star.” —The Orlando Sentinel “[Girl With a] Pearl Earringfans will love the evocation of atmosphere one would expect from this writer … Chevalier gives the kiss of life to the historical novel.” —The Independent (London) “The novel is as cleverly atmospheric as its predecessor … Each separate voice is perfectly judged, reverberating in the mind’s ear … A well-researched, vividly imagined, and entirely credible tale.” —The Sunday Telegraph PLUME Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2 Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182—190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England Published by Plume, a member of Penguin Putnam Inc. Previously published in a Dutton edition. First Plume Printing, October 2002 Copyright © Tracy Chevalier, 2001 All rights reserved REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA The Library of Congress has catalogued the Dutton edition as follows: Chevalier, Tracy. Falling angels / by Tracy Chevalier. p. cm. eISBN : 978-1-10117489-0 1. Great Britain—History—Edward VII, 1901—1910—Fiction. 2. Highgate Cemetery (London, England)—Fiction. 3. London (England)—Fiction. 4. Social classes—Fiction. 5. Friendship—Fiction. 6. Children—Fiction. I. Title. PS3553.H4367 F35 2001 813’.54—dc21 2001033474 Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. PUBLISHER’S NOTE This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE AT QUANTITY DISCOUNTS WHEN USED TO PROMOTE PRODUCTS OR SERVICES. FOR INFORMATION PLEASE WRITE TO PREMIUM MARKETING DIVISION, PENGUIN PUTNAM INC., 375 HUDSON STREET, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10014. http://us.penguingroup.com For Jonatban, again JANUARY 1901