My enormous thanks to Louisa Treger for ensuring I received an early copy of her latest book The Paris Muse. I adored Louisa’s The Dragon Lady (reviewed here) and have Madwoman still waiting for me on my TBR. I’m delighted to share my review of The Paris Muse today.

Published by Bloomsbury on 4th July 2024, The Paris Muse is available for purchase in all the usual places including here.

The Paris Muse

‘Living with him was like living at the centre of the universe. It was electrifying and humbling, blissful and destructive, all at the same time.’

Paris, 1936. When Dora Maar, a talented French photographer, painter and poet, is introduced to Pablo Picasso, she is mesmerized by his dark and intense stare. Drawn to his volcanic creativity, it isn’t long before she embarks on a passionate relationship with the Spanish artist that sometimes includes sadism and masochism, and ultimately pushes her to the edge.

The Paris Muse is the fictionalized retelling of this disturbing love story, as we follow Dora on her journey of self-discovery and expression. Set in Paris and the French Riviera, where Dora and Pablo spent their holidays with their glamorous artist friends, it provides a fascinating insight into how Picasso was a genius who side-stepped the rules in his human relationships as he did in his art. Much to Dora’s torment, he refused to divorce his wife and conducted affairs with Dora’s friends. The Spanish Civil War made him depressed and violent, an angst that culminated in his acclaimed painting ‘Guernica’, which Dora documented as he painted.

As the encroaching darkness suffocates their relationship – a darkness that escalates once the Second World War begins and the Nazis invade the country – Dora has a nervous breakdown and is hospitalized.

Atmospheric, intense and moving, The Paris Muse is an astonishing read that ensures that this talented, often overlooked woman who gave her life to Picasso is no longer a footnote.

My Review of The Paris Muse

The fictionalised life of Dora Maar and her relationship with Pablo Picasso.

The Paris Muse is an intense, beautifully written and compulsive narrative. Louisa Treger’s prose is as artistic as those she is writing about so that she creates an almost painful relationship between the reader and the narrative. There were moments in this meticulously researched and convincingly conveyed story when I wanted to rage against Picasso and historical events and to yell my opinions at Dora to protect her, to berate her or comfort her. The plot is creatively embedded in historical events so that it feels thoroughly authentic. Reading The Paris Muse is to experience a dramatic era vicariously. It also sent me off researching people, artifacts and events because I found the story so stimulating. There’s nothing anodyne about Louisa Treger’s prose, but rather there’s a spellbinding intensity too powerful to break free from. 

I am entirely ignorant about art, and confess I didn’t even know of Dora Maar’s existence before reading The Paris Muse. Now she is a vivid, dynamic person whom I admire, respect and, had I known her in real life, a woman I may well have feared. Her first person voice is utterly convincing so that it feels as if one is reading her personal diaries rather than a work of fiction. There’s a stunning intimacy in how the book conveys Dora, who is such a mercurial individual that she created extremes of response in me as a reader. This is testament to the quality of Louisa Treger’s writing.

Picasso too is a rounded, complex and layered individual. The more I read, the more he took shape and the more negative my feelings towards him became. Within his relationship with Dora the lines between who is more sinned against than sinning become blurred and opaque. I thought Louisa Treger portrayed his explosive, bordering unhealthy, coercive and cruel relationship with Dora to perfection, but Dora is most certainly not just a victim of this toxic partnership and there are moments of great tenderness as well as selfishness from both characters. This is a portrait of a very real relationship.

If it doesn’t sound ridiculous, I wouldn’t classify The Paris Muse as a novel. It is more a living, breathing entity that has autonomy and life beyond the confines of its covers. I am not sure it’s accurate to say I always enjoyed it as it was so uncomfortably impactful. I was, however, both mesmerised and fascinated. At times it is exquisitely brutal and on occasion shocking and disturbing. It taught me so much about art, history, society, geography and, most importantly, about Dora Maar, and it lives on in my mind even now I’ve finished reading it. The Paris Muse is intelligent, interesting, intense and, often, unsettling. I thought it was itself a work of art every bit as valuable as one by Maar, Picasso or any other creative mentioned in the story. It’s a magnificent book, written with stunning skill and authority. Don’t miss it. 

About Louisa Treger

Louisa Treger is the acclaimed author of three novels, The Lodger(2014), The Dragon Lady(2019) and Madwoman (2022), which was a Book of the Month in the Independent and The Sunday Times. She has written for The Times, The Telegraph, Tatler, BBC History Magazine and English Heritage. Louisa Treger has a First Class degree and a PhD in English Literature from UCL, and currently lives in London.

You can find out more by following Louisa on Twitter/X @louisatreger, or visiting her website. You’ll also find her on Facebook.