RAISING LIBERTY

A French artist dreams of creating a monumental sculpture in Hudgens’ historical novel.

Egypt, 1862: French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi has arrived hoping to build a colossal monument to stand beside the pyramids at Giza to flatter the current ruler of Egypt (and to make a name for himself as a great artist). “I picture monumental art works for the modern age,” he tells his mistress, Rachelle Arceneaux. “I want to resurrect the greatness of Architecture, of massive works of art as expressions of mankind’s dreams, and I want to do it here in Egypt, the birthplace of monumental architecture.” Unfortunately for Frederic, the Pasha already has his architectural monument—the in-progress Suez Canal—and the sculptor returns to Paris in defeat. Frederic clings to his dream while weathering the rejections of the Parisian art world, wondering if he can ever marry the half-Haitian Rachelle, who he knows his mother will never accept. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln a few years later spawns an ambitious notion among a group of French thinkers: Why not build a statue, one that commemorates not only the death of the great American statesman but celebrates the revolutionary connections between America and France? Frederic seizes on the concept and attempts to make it a reality—he plans to build a massive statue dedicated to liberty, as big as the Colossus of Rhodes, right at the entrance to the Suez Canal (and Rachelle will be his model). Frederic’s plan—and his personal life—implode several times over the next two decades, even as his dream of monumental immortality edges ever closer to reality. In 1886, a colossal woman will hold a torch above a harbor, but what woman will serve as her model, and what harbor will she stand astride? Perhaps most importantly, who will get the glory for constructing this wonder of the modern world?

Even given the fame of his creation, Bartholdi’s story will likely be unknown to most readers, and Hudgens has fun fleshing out the historical context in which his statue came to be, as well as some of the famous figures whose paths intersected with the sculptor’s. Here, Bartholdi meets a future collaborator with a disappointing handshake: “Gustave Eiffel placed what Frederic took to be a dead fish into his palm, and let it lie there limply. Frederic was too surprised by the clammy feel to squeeze it or do anything but let it gasp there, dying. ‘Enchanté,’ Eiffel said, and withdrew the dead hand.” Hudgens has clearly done the research, but the novel can’t help but feel less like a fully realized fictional work than a fictionalization of history—a fixed tale in which the events of Frederic’s life feel inevitable rather than a product of his choices. (Several leisurely chapters are built around meetings in which various figures offer exposition-filled dialogue about the events of the day or serve as sounding boards for Bartholdi’s ideas.) Even so, readers will learn much about Lady Liberty and the man who created her, as well as the milieu from which they sprung.

An edifying novel about the man who built the Statue of Liberty.