Lauren Groff is the author of seven books, most recently The Vaster Wilds, Matrix, and Florida. She lives in Gainesville, Florida.

"A little period gem of feeling and clarity . . . caught in the crystal of spare sensitive writing and carrying complete authenticity."--Christopher Wordsworth "The Guardian"

"Marvellous . . . Ann Schlee has created a haunting, and fastidiously delicate and yet plainly tough story which escapes any accusation of being a pastiche Victorian piece, though its sense of time, place and tone is perfect."--Anthony Thwaite "The Observer"

"Ann Schlee possesses a remarkable gift for enabling the reader to enter a past world, enlightened but unshackled by modern concepts and prejudices."--Isabel Raphael "The Times"

"Ann Schlee's prose flows mellifluous and limpid as the Rhine itself."--Kirsty McLeod "Country Life"

"In its em­pathic evocation of period, in its un­derstanding of people enchained by piety and caste, in the bite and luminosity of its style, [Rhine Journey] is entirely mature, and a finished work of art."-- "New Yorker"

"The writing in Rhine Journey is always taut and wonderful . . . graceful, economical, and emotionally acute, but, to me, the most astonishing aspect of this novel is the precision with which Schlee replicates the customs, language, and atmosphere of 1851, hewing so closely to the feeling that a book written in the early Victorian era stirs in the reader that, upon learning that Rhine Journey was only first published in 1980, I did a double take."--Lauren Groff, from the Foreword

"The sense of period is beautifully sustained, and we are never allowed to step outside it . . . A distinguished piece of work." --Graham Hough "London Review of Books"

"A fragile, decorously-paced novella about a middle-aged Englishwoman's sudden twist for independence from her repressive relations--the surprising by-product of a tourist Rhine journey of the 1850s . . . Charlotte's fantasies, given body and voice by this mystery man's presence, throb with heartache and latent fury . . . An appealing little tale, with immaculate period ambience."-- "Kirkus, Starred Review"