The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women & the Artists They Inspired [Paperback]

Francine Prose (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 2003

All loved, and were loved by, their artists, and inspired them with an intensity of emotion akin to Eros.

In a brilliant, wry, and provocative book, National Book Award finalist Francine Prose explores the complex relationship between the artist and his muse. In so doing, she illuminates with great sensitivity and intelligence the elusive emotional wellsprings of the creative process.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In The Lives of the Muses, Francine Prose writes a spirited and enlightening exposé of nine women who fired the imaginations of some of the most inimitable artists and thinkers of the 19th and 20th centuries. With wicked wit, she shows how these women were both exemplars of their times and iconoclasts struggling to assert their own identity within the unconventional relationships they formed with these men. In doing so, she undertakes an examination of the concept of the muse in all its permutations--from the static nine Muses of classical Greek mythology, through Dante's oft-recycled Beatrice, to its ironized figuration in contemporary popular culture.

In addition to Alice Liddell, Prose looks at the following women: Hester Thrale, a long-suffering brewer's wife whose romantic friendship allowed the depressive Dr. Samuel Johnson to continue writing; the tormented Elizabeth Siddal, an opium-addicted artist who became Beatrice to Pre-Raphaelite painter and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti; Lou Andreas-Salome, who captivated and aroused a triumvirate of original thinkers: Friedrich Nietzsche, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Sigmund Freud; the "imperious" Gala Dali, who continued to sleep with her ex-husband, poet Paul Eluard, even as she transformed herself into a phenomenal marketing machine for surrealist Salvador Dali; Lee Miller, a model who mastered the techniques of Man Ray and others, and became a talented photographer; Suzanne Farrell, a ballerina who incarnated, animated, and was inspired to great heights of artistry by the compositions of choreographer George Balanchine; Charis Weston, one in a long line of the erotically restless Edward Weston's cast-off art wives and lovers; and the infamous Yoko Ono, who fought fiercely for recognition as an avant-garde artist as she sought to subserve John Lennon into the role of muse.

Prose draws on photographs, diaries, correspondence, memoirs, and original works of art that reveal the complexity of these artist-muse relationships, and that direct her readers to other books should their curiosity be piqued (as it undoubtedly will). Author Prose has a talent for writing provocative, invigorating prose that engages and excites the reader, inspiring them to undertake wider reading. --Diana Kuprel, Amazon.ca --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

"I have never seen you without thinking that I should like to pray to you," says the poet Rilke. The object of his devotion is the astonishing Lou Andreas-Salom‚ the woman who played muse not only to Rilke, but also to Nietzsche and Freud. The idea of the muse seems an initially quaint, if not flatly sexist charge. Acclaimed novelist Prose (Blue Angel, etc.) confronts that honestly when she asks: "Doesn't the idea of the Muse reinforce the destructive stereotype of the creative, productive, active male and of the passive female?" Politically incorrect or not, the muses, as Prose presents them, genuinely "illumine and deepen the mysteries of Eros and creativity, as each Muse redraws the border between the human and the divine." In nine biographical narratives, Prose examines a range of relationships between artists and the women who gave them their divine spark. Though the artists, among them Lewis Carroll, Salvador Dal¡ and John Lennon, can easily be viewed through the lens of obsessional pathology, Prose makes a remarkable case for the exceptionality of these women in their own right. Lee Miller for example was not merely the muse to Man Ray, but an accomplished photographer, and Suzanne Farrell, Balanchine's muse, a virtuosic ballerina. Prose's project is to probe the mystery of inspiration, not to solve it once and for all: "one difference between magic and art is that magic can be explained." From Samuel Johnson's caretaker and trusted friend Hester Thrale to Dali's wife, Gala, Prose demonstrates the strength and unique quality of influence each muse had on her artist.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (October 7, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060555254
• ISBN-13: 978-0060555252
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #441,908 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Francine Prose is the author of sixteen books of fiction. Her novel A Changed Man won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and Blue Angel was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her most recent works of nonfiction include the highly acclaimed Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife, and the New York Times bestseller Reading Like a Writer. A former president of PEN American Center, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Francine Prose lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant, Provocative and Delightful Book, October 25, 2003

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women & the Artists They Inspired (Paperback)

"Muse" is a concept that brings to mind lovely women inspiring incredible works of art, literature and philosophy. The nine Greek muses embodied a liminal space somewhere between the realm of humans and the realm of gods. But what about those famous (and infamous) human muses who have inspired the creative works of some of the most revered artists? In THE LIVES OF THE MUSES, Francine Prose explores the idea of the mortal muses and the artists who relied on them. She asks questions about their own creative impulses and their identities, both in relation to their artists and alone.

Prose examines nine muses, some obvious in their muse-hood such as Suzanne Farrell and Alice Liddell and other controversial figures like Gala Dali and Yoko Ono. Several are tragic figures and several are quite mysterious. And all have a unique and interesting biography, beautifully and honestly rendered by Prose. Prose's exploration of these nine muses is arranged in roughly chronological order. Each section gives readers insight into the life of the muse and the man (or men) she inspired. And each tale raises new and often difficult questions: Must a muse always be a woman? Must the muse always inspire a man? Is the muse's role active or passive? Does it always have a sexual component? And can a muse successfully maintain her own artistic identity and remain a muse?

THE LIVES OF THE MUSES begins with Hester Thrale, muse of English writer Samuel Johnson. An intelligent and outspoken woman, Thrale was married to another man, yet was a companion of Johnson for many decades. While it is unclear whether or not their relationship was sexual, it was intellectually passionate and for many years she acted as his caretaker. Their witty exchanges were famous and his letters to her reveal an emotional dependency and a creative debt. Their friendship was all but ruined when, after being widowed, she married another man Johnson did not approve of. Thrale is a prime example of a muse intellectually equal to her artist; in fact, she was an accomplished writer herself.

Other muses discussed by Prose are a bit more problematic. Take for instance Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's ALICE IN WONDERLAND. There is much speculation about the relationship between this little girl and this grown man. Prose is mostly concerned, however, with how Liddell functioned as a muse; in what ways she inspired and encouraged. The case of Alice Liddell raises questions about whether or not the artist always sees (or appreciates) the muse for who she really is as a person. The relationship between painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his wife Elizabeth Siddal demonstrates that the muse often loses her own identity in the one that the artist (and thus the audience) assigns her.

Each of the nine woman examined in this wonderfully written book is interesting on her own. But collected together, their stories and lives speak to larger and more philosophical themes. Prose does a good job of not letting the subject get away from her. The book is focused and well crafted, posing interesting questions and suggesting (though not insisting on) thoughtful answers. THE LIVES OF THE MUSES is so readable, entertaining and original it is truly hard to put down.

Not quite biography, not quite gender studies or philosophy, but something unique and enjoyable, Prose's delightful book will satisfy readers of all tastes. Prose will have readers rethinking the concept of "muse" altogether.

...

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More Biography than Philosophy, September 14, 2003

By 

Michael Allison (Layton, UT United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women & the Artists They Inspired (Hardcover)

I almost didnt buy this book. There were mixed reviews and the general tone of the negative reviews were that the book was superficial or possibly inaccurate. Well I bought the book in spite of those warnings. I am very glad I did. To begin with Prose has done an outstanding job of weaving together 9 separate and unique lives. She does not claim to have written the definitive work on artistic influence or motivation. She did not claim to corner the market on thoughts of Eros and Art. What she did was describe nine woman and the artists they inspired. It was clear from her references and asides that she had done research on far more than these women. She freely borrowed from other muses and interests in other relationships and wove together not only nine separate stories but craftily connected them into a thread that takes us from the most simple and reticent muse -- Alice Liddell to a modern woman artist whose own identity and influence is lost in the artist and his in hers, not always in a positive way -- Yoko Ono. I found that Prose walks briskly through each life but also is telling us a greater story. A story of feminine influence and the evolving way women have been viewed as muses, lovers, artists and people. Often I stopped to examine or reexamine an artist or their work. As Prose opens a new semiotic eye on a work, she looks not from the reader's perspective of the work, but from the artist's perspective and intent. Not so much to say what the artist was trying to describe to the viewer, but why he was creating it at all. I can't say if Prose' work is accurate or inaccurate. I dont know enough of these lives. I do know that I have a new perspective on some of the artists and a desire to learn more of these women and their influence. Buy it and read it.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Inspiring, Informative Miracle of a Book!, November 13, 2002

By 

Pete Dawson (Slidell, LA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women & the Artists They Inspired (Hardcover)

This book is brilliant, an engrossing, well-written and well-informed masterpiece. I'm giving it to ALL my artist and writer friends for Christmas. I never knew any of this stuff! And I majored in Art! It's utterly fascinating, the impact these women had on these great artists! I couldn't put it down. I wish I had 6 stars to give it.