Lisa Merrill

MH wore unconventional clothes, a half cross-dressing likely inspired by George Sand , which attracted frequent comment. She dressed like a man from the waist up, wearing tight, lapeled bodices, handsome waistcoats, and elegant bow...

Cushman had spent a week elsewhere with Emma Stebbins the previous month. MHthreatened to bring a suit against her for damages resulting from a broken literary career—she alleged she had sacrificed a certain position...

The setting and dates of the novel draw substantially on the relationship between Hays and Cushman . As Lisa Merrill notes, the very streets on which they lived in Rome . . . are described...