From the #1 internationally bestselling author of The Miniaturist comes a captivating and brilliantly realized story of two young women—a Caribbean immigrant in 1960s London, and a bohemian woman in 1930s Spain—and the powerful mystery that ties them together.
England, 1967. Odelle Bastien is a Caribbean émigré trying to make her way in London. When she starts working at the prestigious Skelton … prestigious Skelton Institute of Art, she discovers a painting rumored to be the work of Isaac Robles, a young artist of immense talent and vision whose mysterious death has confounded the art world for decades. The excitement over the painting is matched by the intrigue around the conflicting stories of its discovery. Drawn into a complex web of secrets and deceptions, Odelle does not know what to believe or who she can trust, including her mesmerizing colleague, Marjorie Quick.
Spain, 1936. Olive Schloss, the daughter of a Viennese Jewish art dealer and an English heiress, follows her parents to Arazuelo, a poor, restless village on the southern coast. She grows close to Teresa, a young housekeeper, and Teresa’s half-brother, Isaac Robles, an idealistic and ambitious painter newly returned from the Barcelona salons. A dilettante buoyed by the revolutionary fervor that will soon erupt into civil war, Isaac dreams of being a painter as famous as his countryman Picasso.
Raised in poverty, these illegitimate children of the local landowner revel in exploiting the wealthy Anglo-Austrians. Insinuating themselves into the Schloss family’s lives, Teresa and Isaac help Olive conceal her artistic talents with devastating consequences that will echo into the decades to come.
Rendered in exquisite detail, The Muse is a passionate and enthralling tale of desire, ambition, and the ways in which the tides of history inevitably shape and define our lives.
more
Another good book from Jessie Burton. I was not disappointed since I liked The Miniaturist, that this book also captured my imagination. I loved the art angle set against the Spanish Civil War.
I started this one a few days ago after seeing the author mentioned on the “best of 2016” list of a blogger I follow (The Bloggess, if you’re interested – she’s darkly hysterical and sometimes heartbreaking). I have seen The Miniaturist mentioned a few times but it never grabbed me – this one, on the other hand, really has so far… It’s got two separate storylines so far, set in different time periods/settings, and both characters are exceedingly well written and engaging. I don’t know if they’ll somehow come together (I didn’t read the jacket blurb that carefully – I’ve started not, as I like not having any idea what’s coming), or if they’ll remain parallel, but I’m really liking Burton’s writing style and her lush characterizations of women whose (so far) quiet strength surprises even themselves…
My thoughts
Wow, this is some book, I’m still trying to get a grip on what I just read. This was certainly a muse, just as the title suggests, I found it very amusing. So we have two stories here. 1967 when Odelle spreads her wings and flies over to England, London. She had been applying for jobs and received a letter of acceptance. Her boss, Marjorie Quick. Now Quick, as she is known in the story is quite a lady and you get a sense of wonder and mystery about her. I’m not the only one, Odelle, also, is of in awe of Quick. Quick, in the story sees Odelle like a small rose that needs to blossom, so educates Odelle with a few of her own stories. Quick seems to be in the know of fashion, art and has lived a colourful life. Odelle writes her own poetry, but she doesn’t see herself as an accomplished writer. Quick, is quick to pick up on that and many other things when it comes to Odelle, warning bells ring when Odelles new love has in his procession a painting, but this is not an ordinary painting. So what future holds for Odelle? Does she type profusely, pounding those typewriter keys? What about those warning bells? Are they wedding bells, or burglar alarm bells?
We then bounce back to 1936, Spain, where Teresa and Olive become friends, how, is even more intriguing. What’s a word for even intriguing even more? Because Isaac is the painter of these mysterious paintings and everything from there goes pretty much pear shaped.
As I was reading this book, what sprung to mind was bits and pieces of Dan Browns, Da Vinci Code, by far, not as fast paced as that, but definately in the same calibre and also not as religious.
There are so many twists and turns in this book, that it’s like a bramble bush.
This has definitely been the most “musing” stories that kept me thinking and puzzling over in quite some time, full of deceit, sinister events, murder, love, grief, loss and a very surprising ending.
Recommendation
Readers who like art will love this one as it mentions names I’ve vaguely seen, eg, Klimt, Kirchner and Klee. Infact the whole book is centred around several paintings which is the highlight of the book. For those who like Foreign language, there is a bit of Spanish in this book. For those who want to dash away to Spain and for those who want to exercise your brains instead of your eyes, and lastly for those that want a book full of mystery and wonder as this will certainly serve you well and with a mingle of Historical Fiction that was cleverly woven into the story line.
.
Follow/Contact me on
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/63985331-paulinereidbookreviewer
Blog https://paulinereidbookreviewer.wordpress.com/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/paulinereidbookreviewer
Twitter https://mobile.twitter.com/paulinereidboo1
Instagram http://www.instagram.com/paulinereidbookreviewer
You Tube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJEW7cB3Qc_-ERZ185dpckg
Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/2cbi4asNaEojhPaBCdglgd?nd=1
BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/profile/3251272351
PicsArt https://picsart.com/paulinereid_
Great story line, well-developed characters and just enough uncertainty to keep you engaged to the end. I don’t typically like books that jump back and forth in time, but once I got familiar with who was who, I was able to overlook that. Enjoyed.
I really enjoyed this book It had an unusual back story of the revolution in Spain and contemporary art. I recommend it as a good read for someone who doesn’t want rom-com.
A satisfying read
Here’s a delicious combination — historical fiction set during the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s interwoven with a surprisingly well-crafted mystery. I simply inhaled THE MUSE. Awarded four stars on Goodreads, but 4.5 is probably more accurate.
As a fan of her previous novel, The Miniaturist, I looked forward to picking up Jessie Burton’s THE MUSE. And I wasn’t disappointed. This historical novel takes place in two time periods — the late 1930s and the late 1960s. What ties the two together is a painting.
1936: A family of wealthy Austrian ex-pats (Harold, Sarah, and daughter Olive Schloss), living in Spain, meet a brother and sister (Isaac and Teresa Robles) who are sympathetic to the left-leaning forces struggling to change the country’s right-wing government. Isaac is an amateur artist and Teresa a teenager. In need of money to live, the two are hired by the Schloss family to cook, clean, and do odd jobs. Only their involvement with the Schlosses expands quickly.
1967: Trinidad born Odelle Bastien, a fledgling writer/poet, is thrilled when she lands an entry level job at an art gallery in London. Even better, one of her bosses, Marjorie Quick, seems to take a shine to Odelle. But it turns out there may be an ulterior motive in Quick’s interest. Odell also meets an attractive young man who has inherited a painting from his recently deceased mother. And what could be more natural than asking the experts at Odelle’s gallery for help in assessing its value?
I won’t divulge more about the plot, except you should expect romance, infidelity, betrayals, family secrets, and unexpected violence to touch all these lives. And while you try throughout to figure out how the story will be resolved, you’ll be proved wrong again and again, until you arrive at the surprising end. VERY highly recommended.
Another book that switches back and forth between eras. A mystery of the origins of a painting. Also, sheds light on WWII in an area you don’t often read about- Spain. A look also, at how women are perceived now and in the past.
Interesting characters and thought provoking plot. Explores women trying to find their creative voice. Sometimes successfully other times overlooked or not taken seriously as artists or writers. A dilemma that persists for women even now.Story flows back and forth from the time of the Spanish civil war to the seventies. Both women are expats navigating in different cultures than where they were originally from and a third woman that ties the past and the present together.
Great book! Developed characters and two engrossing timeline stories. Once again she does not disappoint. Her strong independent female characters, all ahead of their time, are women you root for.
The best of Jessie Burton, right here, great characters, a lovely story to lose youreslf in and a plot that will distract you in these lock down days!
After delving into the historical fiction genre and finding myself largely unimpressed with the pretty words that hid the lack of character depth and the largely uninspired plots, The Muse has fully restored my faith in the genre. The plot is not unbelievably original; I feel like a lot historical fiction focuses on an intergenerational mystery regarding elusive artists. The Muse takes this and remakes it anew: the plot centers around the reappearance of an art piece long since lost since the 1930s, made by a Spanish revolutionary that died before his prime. But instead of focusing around the white man who found the art or the life of the artist, the main storyline, told from a first-person perspective in an unusual choice for historical fiction, is about Odelle Bastien, a Trinidadian immigrant to London.
Jessie Burton is white, but Odelle’s narration is done with care, and the novel is equally about the mystery of the painting as it is about the unique experience of living as a person of color in a racially structured world. I did find it a little unusual that Odelle’s accent was written out sometimes phonetically and sometimes not, and whether this was a choice to differentiate Odelle from the white characters or a commentary on code-switching, I wasn’t sure. Odelle is an aspiring writer, having moved to London with grander dreams than the reality she finds, working in a shoe store.
It was this storyline that entranced me the most. Odelle’s journey actually has very little to do with the artist and painting, and perhaps that’s why I liked it so much. Her world is rooted much in the present, although greatly influenced by history. Her entire experience in London is greatly influenced by the systemic racism she experiences and by her own feelings of personal inadequacy: she is one of the only ones to have made it to London, so why isn’t she doing more with this opportunity? Her friend Cynthia has already managed to secure happiness with a husband and enjoys her job, grows distant. Her relationship with her white boyfriend, Lawrie, the man who found the painting, can be tense, and her coworker Pamela means well but doesn’t understand her or her culture. The only person who seems to see her entirely and understand her is her new boss, Marjorie Quick. I felt like Odelle’s story could’ve actually been standalone, without the dips further into the past the novels take.
That being said, those detours into 1930s aren’t bad at all. These chapters revolve around a young woman named Olive living in Spain pre-WW2, who has just moved into a new house with her father, an art dealer, and her mother, a socialite addicted to pills. Two new servants change their lives: Isaac, a young revolutionary, and Teresa, his quieter sister. I mostly felt like these sections were underdeveloped: Olive’s father is Jewish, and there is very little mentioned about the atrocities that were beginning to happen in Europe to the Jewish population, and Isaac’s personality never really went beyond “fierce communist.” It’s when one of Olive’s magnificent paintings is mistaken for Isaac’s that our plot sets itself in motion. The only reason this novel wasn’t a five-star for me is this underdeveloped feeling about these chapters. There was a great opportunity to talk about how often women’s achievements in history are overlooked, how the lives of the ladies in this time are shackled to their male counterparts, and the novel skids towards these conclusions without ever doing the emotional work to affect the reader. A perfectly fine plot is left in place, but without the weight it could’ve had.
I found Odelle more interesting than Olive, but Olive was a great contrast to her. While Odelle is more of a realist, having realized that life rarely works out the way you plan and trying to make the best of things, Olive is younger, still concerned mainly with winning Isaac’s love and making herself sound smart in front of her father. Seeing Olive mature over the course of the novel as her fascination with Isaac expands her worldview, taking on his ideals as a revolutionary and growing close to Teresa, who has her own problems. I appreciated how she really felt like a nineteen-year-old, still finding her place in the world, still a little immature, but not in an insulting way.
I can’t say the end of the novel was surprising or as twisty as it wanted to be, but it was solid and well-earned. I was a little worried while reading that Odelle’s story would feel amputated or unfinished, as she is so separate from the meat of the plot, but her conclusion felt satisfying and served her character well. The Muse didn’t stun me with originality or passion, but it was a solid read and felt fresh about a disappointing bout with the genre.
review blog
Art is in the eye of the beholder. Or is it? Olive wants her work viewed by passersby, yet there is little importance for those viewers to know the work is Olive’s. Such torment, sadness, all consuming guilt, yet funding of the Resistance was the ultimate goal. And it was successful, until…
Interesting
This book was a mystery and a historical novel. At the same time it offers insight into the psyche of creative artists as well as writers. The book brings to the surface the fear within all of us…the fear of ridicule, indifference, failure.
‘The Muse’ is a story told over dual timeframes, and it is extremely descriptive and well-written.
You are first introduced to Odelle Bastian, a young woman living in the 1960’s. Odelle has been offered the role of typist for the famous Skelton Gallery in London. But with the new opportunity comes an unexpected encounter with a man and a painting, a mystery is awaiting to be unravelled.
Flashback to 1930’s Spain where you learn of Olive Schloss, a young talented English girl who has emigrated and is a budding artist. Olive aspires to be a professional female artist, but in an age where female artists are unheard of, Olive keeps her talent hidden… until she meets Teresa and Isaac Robles.
The Robles offer to work for Olive’s parents, and after gaining Olive’s trust, Teresa takes it upon herself to showcase Olive’s work. However, due to a misunderstanding a lie is created that spans over decades.
‘The Muse’ is a very detailed story that is well researched and full of lots of unexpected twists and turns. I learnt a lot historically and the book had me hooked.
I would recommend to all historical romance lovers, someone looking for a well written novel or anyone who fancies trying something different.
Loved loved loved this book
A beautiful book that flips between 1930’s Spain and 1960’s London. The tale of two female artists, one a painter and one a writer and how it was for them to be creating each with their own set of challenges and limitations. Definitely worth a read.
Can’t remember enough to review. It was ‘something to read before falling asleep’.
Fascinating and beautifully written. Still thinking about it months later.