Victorine is Drema Drudge’s debut novel, and a delight it is. She’s captured the spirit of Belle Époque France from the time of the American Civil War in the 1860s through the Siege of Paris by the Prussians in 1870-1871 and artist Manet’s death in 1883. Victorine Meurent models for Manet and other artists. Born into an artisanal family (her father runs a printing press, and her mother is a milliner), Victorine dreams of becoming an artist. Neither she nor her parents can come up with enough money to pay for art school.
She and Manet care for each other in a platonic way. She feels she helps him and other artists because, as a model, she participates in the creation of their art works; she voices her opinion and criticizes without hesitation, whether the artists she’s working with like it or not. Of course, the male artists don’t feel this is true. Manet paints her as Olympia, a euphemism for a prostitute, and captures her direct gaze. The painting creates a scandal. Manet flees Paris, leaving Victorine alone to deal with the aftermath.
This book encompasses women’s issues, class differences, the ideologies of art, and the male versus female gaze. Victorine pushes the societal limits of the time with her overt bisexuality and her bohemian lifestyle. She lives hard and loves hard. She uses alcohol, especially absinthe, hashish freely. Over time, she accepts her body with its fuller figure, her inquiring mind, and by cobbling together the tuition, she achieves her goal of becoming an artist.
I got so involved in Victorine’s struggles I stayed up until four a.m. reading all 362 pages.
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