If you find a muse, let her go

The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women and the Artists The Inspired

By: Francine Prose

(Union Book)

On a trip to Amsterdam, during a leisurely walk I happened by a small bookstore simply called, New English Bookstore. No matter how long my TBR list might be buying books while traveling is one thing I cannot pass on. It is always intriguing to see what the rest of the world is interested in and what makes it on their bookstores’ shelves because it is an indication of who this society is at that moment in time. There is nothing more gratifying than being in a random bookstore on the other side of the world, picking up a book you have never heard of and ending up actually enjoying it. A black and white self-portrait of American photographer Elizabeth Lee Miller entitled Muses, It Women on the cover just about sealed the deal for me instantly, the book was The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women and the ArtistsThey Inspired by Francine Prose.

The topic of the muse is one that has lost its glamour in today’s technologically fast-paced age, with the world in hyper-connectivity mode mystery surrounding a person is no longer accessible nor is it relevant, and mystery is a muse’s superpower. Historically, every great writer, painter or musician has had a person-of-interest or ‘muse’ be the inspiration for their work and while the world marvels at these masterpieces to this day those inspiring figures are left in the shadows, forgotten, their powers greatly unappreciated. Prose brings nine of them to the spotlight, making them the main protagonists in life-stories that otherwise either depict them as sideshows or does not feature them at all. She follows the history of the muse from Greek mythology to modern day artists and gives a rather broad perspective on the somewhat vagueness of the topic.

In an effort to understand the moment of inspiration the Greeks picked nine goddesses, all sisters, and portrayed them as more private and distant than their other heavenly counterparts, they were endowed with the divine power to inspire. In her book Prose brought it down from the heavens and picked nine mortal women who were the love-interests of some of the great artists and writers of our time revealing their stories and allure, she explains; 

“Since falling in love is the closest that most people come to transcendence, to the feeling of being inhabited by unwilled, unruly forces, passion became the model for understanding inspiration.”

It is never satisfying enough for those we witness art to believe that inspiration comes from nowhere and so the quest to find those who inspire will always be an intriguing one.

Prose touches on musedom as a profession and how feminism and the fight for gender equality could have been a detrimental factor in its demise. For when one thinks of a muse it is instinctively a woman, how many male muses have you heard of? She see it as the case because the artist requires certain characteristics such as nurturing, supporting and encouraging, which are mostly female. She counters the idea of feminism’s murder of the muse with stories of muses who throughout their lives with their subsequent artists have they themselves become inspired, one of which is none other than the woman featured on the cover of this book, photographer Lee Miller, who went from being a model to becoming a brilliant and highly acclaimed photographer on her own right leaving behind Man Ray compulsively painting and repainting her lips for his painting Observatory Time: The Lovers. 

Man Ray, "Observatory Time - The Lovers" 1936

Prose emphasizes the idea that the artist rarely creates for the muse, rather he creates for the world and uses the muse for emotional highs and lows that keep the creativity alive. The muse once possessed loses her power to inspire and therefore she is the unattainable love with the profound power to grant or withhold inspiration.

The Lives of the Muses includes the story of Alice Liddell who was Lewis Carroll’s inspiration and motivation to write Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a story sheathed with suspicions of pedophilia. The life of Gala Dali who was a muse to many including her husband Salvador Dali who signed most of his paintings with his and her names saying “it is mostly with your blood, Gala, that I paint my pictures.” The list of inspiring women goes on ending with Yoko Ono, John Lennon’s happiness and muse who was by far the most reviled and despised by the artist’s fans. Prose takes an alluring topic, alien to young readers, elevates it with thorough research, and a diverse selection of images, and brings it all together with a storytelling approach that makes you forget that the book in your possession is indeed non-fiction. This is a book that you will come back to dip in and out of finding a new gem every time.