THE MUSE

The Muse is the “Sunday Times Best Seller” by Jessie Burton, author of “The miniaturist”. The historical fiction novel was published in July 2016 by Picador.

SYNOPSIS On a hot July day in 1967, Odelle Bastien climbs the stone steps of the Skelton gallery in London, knowing that her life is about to change forever. Having struggled to find her place in the city since she arrived from Trinidad five years ago, she has been offered a job as a typist under the tutelage of the glamorous and enigmatic Marjorie Quick. But though Quick takes Odelle into her confidence, and unlocks a potential she didn’t know she had, she remains a mystery – no more so than when a lost masterpiece with a secret history is delivered to the gallery.

The truth about the painting lies in 1936 and a large house in rural Spain, where Olive Schloss, the daughter of a renowned art dealer, is harbouring ambitions of her own. Into this fragile paradise come artist and revolutionary Isaac Robles and his half-sister Teresa, who immediately insinuate themselves into the Schloss family, with explosive and devastating consequences . . .

REVIEW

A massive return after the debut novel of Jessie Burton. Here with “The Muse” the plot itself becomes more interesting, characters are better intertwined for a more appreciable results.

“The Muse” will get you from the first pages throughout the lives of this two young women, whom are battling with the reality itself to find a place in a men’s world ruled by money and presumption, secrets and first experiences, one thirty years away from the other.

1967, London. Odelle is a gifted writer from Trinidad, that moved to London in the 60s and started working for the Skelton art gallery and her co director Marjorie Quick, an enigmatic woman that will push Odelle beyond her barrier and the one that will make her believe in her writing skills.

 As soon as she meet Lawrie, Odelle start being drawn into the mystery of “Rufina and the Lion”, the only remaining thing that Lawrie’s mother left him. When Quick sees the painting everything seems to change, a ghost reappeared and will remain a mistery until the end.

“As an image it was simple and at the same time not easily decipherable—a girl, holding another girl’s severed head in her hands on one side of the painting, and on the other, a lion, sitting on his haunches, not yet springing for the kill. It had the air of a fable.”  

Rufina and the Lion 

1936, Spain. Olive is talented painter, daughter of Harold, a famous Viennese art dealer and the British heiress Sarah. Because of the fact that her father had always diminished women’s painter, she never had the chance or the confidence to express herself or make herself known.

“Her father always said that of course, women could pick up a paintbrush and paint, but the fact was, they didn’t make good artists. Olive had never quite worked out what the difference was…But right now in Paris, Amrita Sher-Gil, Meret Oppenheim and Gabriele Münter were all working – Olive had even seen their pieces with her own eyes. Were they not artists? Was the difference between being a workaday painter and being an artist simply other people believing in you, or spending twice as much money on your work?”

But after the family moves to Arazuelo in Spain, in a big villa at the far end of the village, the two young care keepers, the Robles, will insinuate into the Schloss family, bringing both opportunity and peril to the foreign family. The Robles, Isaac the politician and painter/lover and the young Teresa, care keeper of the finca and later friend to Olive.

At the beginning of Spanish Civil War, the daily life of the people in the finca become more and more dangerous and obsessive, until the very end when the civil war struck on the family with an unpredictable ending.

The Muse is a piece of art, well researched from the author. The two stories intertwines themselves bringing up in the reader the needs to keep reading, to fulfill the mistery and secrets.

“in the end, a piece of art only succeeds when its creator possesses the belief that brings it into being”

AUTHOR

Jessie Burton was born in 1982. She studied at Oxford University and the Central School of Speech and Drama, and has worked as an actress and a PA in the City. She now lives in south-east London, not far from where she grew up. In 2014 she debuted with her first novel “The Miniaturist” and during 2016 will be published her second novel “The Muse”. For any further information about the author this is her website.