Another Book with Pictures

If you have read Audrey Niffenegger's book Three Incestuous Sisters you already have a bit of insight into her strange imagination. Her new book, The Adveturess, is just plain weird. But the weirdness does not detract from the beauty of the artwork. Here is an example: The story probably has fewer words than most children's books, the words are just there to explain the pictures. The adventuress doesn't have a name. Her father, an alchemist, made her. She is seen one day by a mean man who takes her away and makes her marry him. She escapes, but only temporarily. She is imprisoned and escapes again by becoming a moth. She ends up in Napoleon's library. She changes from a moth back to her old self and she and Napoleon become lovers. If you want to know what happens after that, you will need to read the book. The images in the book are, like Three Incestuous Sisters aquatints. A note from the author at the end of the book explains that The Adventuress is her first book. She made it while in art school. The original edition was of ten copies all hand printed and bound. If you loved Time Traveler's Wife, Niffenegger is at work on a second novel but says she is a very slow writer and easily distracted. For those of us eagerly awaiting the second novel, The Adventuress is a nice snack, but hardly filling.