Why did I love this book?
LâOrigine by artist and writer Lilianne Milgrom is a unique, well-researched, and absolutely compelling book. Part history and part memoir, it tells the story of Gustave Courbetâs LâOrigine du monde, a painting known as âthe worldâs most erotic masterpiece,â along with its effect on a young woman (the author) who set out to be its official âcopyist.â Ultimately, it is the painting itself that liberates and transforms the protagonistâjust as it will liberate and transform the reader! It certainly did that for me, cutting through all my ideas about the role of art and its depictions of the female bodyâin much the same way that Georgia OâKeeffeâs paintings, and the nude photographs she posed for, liberates and transforms the protagonist of my own novel.
1 author picked L'Origine as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Winner of 5 major book awards, including the Publishers Weekly U.S. 2021 Selfies Award for Best Adult Fiction and winner of the IndieReader 2021 Discovery Award.
âLâOrigine got me hookedâwhat a story! Milgrom brings the reader right along on her adventures as a copyist of one of the most well-known paintings in all the world.â âHarriet Welty Rochefort, author of French Fried, French Toast, Joie de Vivre, and Final Transgression
The riveting odyssey of one of the worldâs most scandalous works of art.
In 1866, maverick French artist Gustave Courbet painted one of the most iconic images in the historyâŚ