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Title: The Lives of the Muses : Nine Women & the Artists They Inspired by Francine Prose ISBN: 0060196726 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 17 September, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.73
Rating: 4
Summary: O Muse, art thou Woman or Artist?
Comment: Taking a cue from the Greeks and their nine muses, author Francine Prose selects nine muses of nine famous artists of one sort or another, and writes short biographies of each. They include Hester Thrale (Samuel Johnson), Lou Andreas-Salomé (Rilke, Nietzsche, Freud), Suzanne Farrell (George Balanchine), Lee Miller (Man Ray), Alice Liddell (Lewis Carroll), Elizabeth Siddal (Dante Gabriel Rossetti), Yoko Ono (John Lennon), Gala Dali (Salvador Dali), and Charis Weston (photographer Edward Weston). Missing is that serial muse Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel who married each of her artists; perhaps she's missing because she has already been written about so much.
Prose makes the point that many of these women had artistic ambitions of their own, although most of them abandoned or stifled their own wishes in order to be the source of inspiration for their men. The most interesting tales are those of the women who inspired photographers and the author's musings about photography are informed and engaging. [Let us not forget that although Lewis Carroll is, of course, remembered primarily for the 'Alice' books, equally memorable are his photographs of his 'child friend', Alice Liddell.]
Prose has hit upon a clever and attractive means of examining one of the factors that may inspire artistic creation. And not coincidentally she casts light on the damage that being a 'muse' can bring to these women's lives.
Rating: 4
Summary: Evocative, provocative vignettes of fascinating women
Comment: In "The Lives of the Muses," Francine Prose uses 9 brief biographical vignettes to explore what it means to be a great man's muse. She shows how the role of muse has evolved along with women's societal roles, and how intense artist-muse relationships, marked by longing and obsession, take their toll on muse and artist alike. The women, and their relationships with the men they helped make famous, are so diverse that at times the book is a bit disjointed, but overall it succeeds well. Prose is hardly an unbiased observer; it is clear what she thinks of each of her subjects, and her opinionated stance makes an interesting subject that much more lively.
Rating: 5
Summary: Discovering What it Means to be a Muse
Comment: THE LIVES OF THE MUSES examines how eight women (Hester Thrale, Elizabeth Siddal, Lou Andreas-Salome, Gala Dali, Lee Miller, Charis Weston, Suzanne Farrell, and Yoko Ono) and one little girl (Alice Liddell) provided essential inspiration to their artist companions. While artistic inspiration can come from many sources (music, fasting, prayer, meditation, romantic love), Francine Prose's book examines the romantic kind of artistic inspiration which arises between men and women -- with men typically playing the role of artist to the woman's role of muse.
And who, exactly, is a muse? Francine Prose writes, "The muse is often that person with whom the artist has the animated imaginary conversations, the interior dialogues we all conduct, most commonly with someone we cannot get out of our minds." Francine Prose delves into some of the most intimate details of the muses' and artists' sexual lives, yet never loses touch with the vision of her book as a guidepost to better understanding the art of being a muse. While muses are chosen by artists, and therefore seemingly have no ability to chart muse-dom as a career path for themselves, they appear to share certain qualities with one another. For one thing, many muses have been intensely disliked by their contemporaries -- perhaps because people can intuitively sense that there is an unusually strong bond of love between an artist and his muse.
If the subject of this book at times makes one feel uncomfortable, that is no doubt due to the fact that the interaction between artists and muses take people to the very greatest emotional heights and depths. The passions felt between artists and their muses are so tremendous that they sometimes provoke people's behavior to go completely out-of-control... yet these same passions present artists with some of their greatest sources of inspiration. Francine Prose's extraordinary book, THE LIVES OF THE MUSES, shows us a unique vision of how artists' lives are shaped and driven by the love and inspiration of their muses. It is the gift of the muse to offer her artist "that rare and precious spark ignited by genius and passion."
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Title: The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber ISBN: 015100692X Publisher: Harcourt Pub. Date: 16 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Hell Hath No Fury: Women's Letters from the End of the Affair by Anna Holmes, Francine Prose ISBN: 0786710373 Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Art Lover: A Biography of Peggy Guggenheim by Anton Gill ISBN: 0060196971 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 02 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Republic of Dreams : Greenwich Village: The American Bohemia, 1910-1960 by Ross Wetzsteon ISBN: 0684869950 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 06 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Blue Angel : A Novel by Francine Prose ISBN: 0060953713 Publisher: Perennial Press Pub. Date: 19 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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