Muri��lle

The story is an intimate glimpse into the life of the young model whose charming innocence and demeanor enamored the Romanticist artist John William Waterhouse. Her statuesque beauty with a lovely profile and long hair inspired the artist's romantic painting La Belle Dame sans Merci (front cover 1893) based in part on the epic poem of the same name by John Keats (1819). I met a Lady full beautiful a faery's child. Her hair was long. She took me to her elfin grot and there we slumbered on the moss (excerpted from the poem). Muriélle is a story of sexual awakening in the 1890s when despite moral and social inhibitions art history was littered with liaisons between artists and models. The fin-de-siécle era of Victorian morality was one of fast changing attitudes life styles and behavior for young women that had been traditionally unacceptable. Muriélle is a naive young woman who bridged gaps between adolescence and adulthood but not without trials and tribulations. When coming of age she was forced early on into conflict with her moralistic upbringing the objections of a pious mother and the challenges of sitting as a figure model. First published in 2000 the rewritten 2004 edition adds an in-depth treatise on the poem the poet and the painter that speaks further of the romanticism of nineteenth century art and literature.