Mademoiselle Victorine: Debra Finerman

When Edouard Manet burst onto the Parisian art scene in the late 1800's, his paintings were a shock to the senses and delighted very few. Much of this can be attributed to his use of his favorite model, Victorine Meurent, both clothed and unclothed. Victorine caused a sensation with her modeling but unfortunately for her, the author of Mademoiselle Victorine only chose to use her first name and her career as Manet's model; the rest of her life has been shamelessly altered under the name of "composite characters".

The novel centers on Victorine Laurent who arrives in Paris as an orphan. She takes a job in a brothel at a young age and then moves to the Paris Opera as a ballet dancer. Her primary goal is to attract a wealthy patron (a sugar-daddy in modern parlance) who will support her. Along the way she becomes friends with Manet and his circle of painters and writers. Her goal throughout the novel is to attract the wealthiest patron possible so that she will be cared for in high style. To that end, though she sits for Manet, she will not sleep with him. She doesn't want any rivals for his affections either though.

Large portions of the novel are taken up with great detail about Victorine's clothing, which grows more impressive with each successive and wealthier patron. When she finally becomes the kept woman of a duke there is a great to-do about the house that is purchased for her and the items that are brought to fill it. Not only that but the duke himself is quite fond of and even insistent on picking Victorine's outfits. It is made all too apparent that she is a purchased prize, and she has the audacity to chafe at this, though she fought for it.

As must be apparent, I am not terribly pleased with this novel. Taken on its own, it's a little piece of fluff that won't hurt your brain. If you're at all a history person though, as I am, you won't be pleased. The author has declared to have somehow crammed Victorine Meurent in with Virginia Oldoini, Countess de Castiglione who had a brief affair with Napoleon III from 1855 to 1857 which is well before the heroine's rise to fame. Not to mention the way that she has decided to play fast and lose with Manet's own history which has gone well beyond minor fudging into straight up make-believe. It seems that the author would have done better by using the actual historical information rather then deconstructing fact and re-creating history as she thought it should be.
-------------------------
Publisher: Three Rivers Press (July 24, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0307352838
ISBN-13: 978-0307352835
Buy the Book