Present Epithetical Books The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women and the Artists They Inspired
| Title | : | The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women and the Artists They Inspired |
| Author | : | Francine Prose |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 448 pages |
| Published | : | October 7th 2003 by Harper Perennial (first published September 1st 2002) |
| Categories | : | Nonfiction. History. Art. Biography. Womens. Writing. Essays. Art History |
Representaion Conducive To Books The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women and the Artists They Inspired
The Barnes & Noble ReviewIn the classical world, the muses -- all nine of them -- were daughters of Zeus who inspired poets, musicians, and other creative types to produce works of genius. Today, says Francine Prose, the word has been weakened and is used almost exclusively to refer to the chic women who help fashion designers inform their latest lines. But in her scholarly account, Prose (a National Book Award finalist for her novel Blue Angel ) presents nine real women who moved men to greatness and who were not mere catalysts but worthy of note on their own, in many cases deserving a share of the credit for the work they helped create.
Each chapter is a mini-biography of a woman's life and the way a male artist figured into it. We see the muse as prompter and creator in her own regard, like memoirist Hester Thrale, whose letters to Samuel Johnson helped form his later works. In Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the muse is at her most passive, asserting her independence of the child-loving author only by failing to remain seven years old forever. And with Yoko Ono, there is the muse as artist in her own right, who claimed not to have heard of the Beatles before meeting John Lennon, and whose avant-garde tendencies some blamed for his musical downfall.
To hit the mystical nine, Prose stretches a bit. For every Suzanne Farrell collaborating on ballets with George Balanchine, or every Gala Dal� cosigning canvases with spouse Salvador, there are personae only a graduate student would be likely to know. We learn of "serial muse" Lou Andreas-Salom�'s involvement with Friedrich Nietzsche, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Sigmund Freud, and of how Charis Weston had to vie with a toilet for the attentions of her photographer husband, Edward. But these lesser-knowns help make the book a complete analysis of notable women who motivated men of achievement -- usually at the expense of their own -- and lived with the consequences. iKatherine Hottinger/i
List Books Concering The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women and the Artists They Inspired
| Original Title: | The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women & the Artists They Inspired |
| ISBN: | 0060555254 (ISBN13: 9780060555252) |
| Edition Language: |
Rating Epithetical Books The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women and the Artists They Inspired
Ratings: 3.72 From 829 Users | 105 ReviewsPiece Epithetical Books The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women and the Artists They Inspired
In this insightful, brilliantly researched, and immensely enjoyable book the author examines the phenomena of the muse, the individual who focuses or inspires her artist to create, who is a pivot of their creativity. This book does it a bit differently from how you would expect however: exceedingly well written, it looks at nine individual muses beginning in 1766 and ending in 2000 and it questions the relationship in quite individual ways.What is a muse anyway? We first look at the muses asA Review in Three Sentences (Because My Brain Is Tired)The concept of this book is more interesting than its execution. I had never heard of some of the artists or their muses, which made it less engaging. Also, when it came to the artists that had visual work, it would have been nice to have visuals included. (Show, don't tell.) Not recommended!
This was well written and sporadically interesting. I think the subject of "muse" is slightly misleading if you think of a muse in the sense of a positive inspiration because of lot of these stories are rather depressing. Well, we are talking about artists, aren't we, a lot of them are just pretty weird people in general.
I gave up making angry notes in the margins after three chapters. The women are interesting, but Prose decides to focus on their worst parts or the general facts that are known. She contradicts herself ever time - like stating "well generally this and this is written about this woman and that's bad and we should treat her differently" and then continues writing exactly that what she just criticised. Also I think I just read the umpteenth anecdote of Ruskin's first wedding night, the Elizabeth
This was disappointing, but I think that is mostly b/c I misunderstood what the subject matter would be. I was hoping for a collection of biographies on the "muses" themselves, but they were secondary to the content on the artists. The background of each woman is only briefly mentioned and they are mostly described only in their relationships to the artists. In almost every case the woman is depicted darkly (bordering on cruelly). There are countless biographies written about famous artists but
I've never read Prose's fiction, but love this book! Each essay is a biographical sketch of the relationship between a muse and her artist. Prose does a great job examining the problematic nature of muse relationships, especially for women and the different ways women reacted/profited/grew or were destroyed by/from these associations. The most contemporary muse is Yoko Ono, but honestly while I loved the book so many of the critical observations Prose made in each of the essays seemed to repeat
Proses The Lives of the Muses is a mediocre take on the worlds of nine women who inspired (respectively) authors, poets, musicians, philisophers, and painters. From the titular Alice in Wonderland (and her Lewis Carrol), to the photographer Man Rays infatuation with Lee Miller, females have inspired male artists since the dawn of art. (Prose herself makes the case for the men inspiring the women, but she does not spend nearly enough time proving this thesis.) Also featured are Yoko Ono. Suzanne
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