The Writer As Explorer

Felix-Jacque Moulin’s “Female Nude” was an influential piece of art history in the mid 1800’s. Moulin was sentenced to a month in prison after some of his nude art was seized by the police. After his incarceration he took more caution with his work by registering his work with the government so that he could claim […]

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“Two Standing Female Nudes” by Félix-Jacques-Antoine Moulin is a daguerreotype from 1850. Moulin himself is one of the characters within Paris Red. In the novel, Victorine visits Moulin’s studio twice. The first time, with Nise, to be photographed as a pair and individually. Later, she revisits Moulin’s studio with Manet, to be photographed in the […]

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Félix-Jacques Moulin was a French photographer during the 1850s and 1860s, and was a character in the latest novel we read, Paris Red.  His work was largely based around taking pictures of young girls, most often in the nude.  In 1851, all of his works up until that point were confiscated, and Moulin was sentenced to prison […]

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The Martyr de saint Sebastien (Also known as The Martyrdom of St Sebastian) is an oil canvas painting of the religious art genre conceived by François-Guillaume Ménageot during the second half of the eighteenth century. Standing 52.5 inches in height and 38.3 inches in weight, it currently resides within the collection of the Patrick and Beatrice […]

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The Grand Odalisque (also known as Une Odalisque or La Grande Odalisque) is a painting currently located at the Louvre in Paris, France. It is 91 x 162 cm and was made in 1814 by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, a French Neoclassical painter who re-imagined Classical and Renaissance sources for more 19th century tastes. Ingres drew inspiration […]

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“The Hallway” was photographed in 2005 by Erwin Olaf, a Dutch-born artist.  Olaf was born in 1959 in Hilversum, Netherlands. After 500 of his works landed him a spot in the Rijks museum, he became a knight of the Order of the Lion for all of the work he had done. Many of his photographs included […]

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The story behind St Sebastian, who is a saint from the Roman age, became a martyr due to him not renouncing his Christian faith during a rampant campaign by Roman people to persecute Christians. He had concealed his faith until he could no longer. In the painting we see that he is shot with one arrow. In […]

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St. Sebastian (also known as the patron saint of athletes and archers) distinguished himself for his excellent service, he was promoted to serve in the Praetorian Guard to protect Emperor Diocletian. While serving in the Roman troops he made the dire mistake of convincing many of the locals to convert to Christianity. In 286 it […]

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The Sleeping Venus (also known as the Dresden Venus) is currently located at Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, Germany. It measures 42.7 in x 69 in and was painted in 1510 by Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco, otherwise known as Giorgione. The woman depicted in the painting is meant to be Venus herself and it is […]

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Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe (The Luncheon on the Grass) is a large oil on canvas painting created by Édouard Manet in 1862 and 1863. The painting consists of two women who are nude and nearly nude and two men who are fully dressed in a beautiful, almost ethereal, setting. This painting is housed in the […]

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Lorenzo Bartolini was an Italian marble sculptor who lived from 1777-1850. He is known for his neoclassicist, yet naturalistic style, and after the death of Antonio Canova in 1822, he became the leading Italian sculptor. He created a variety of works, including full-body portrait statues and commissioned monuments, but he was especially well-known for his numerous […]

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The painting Venus of Urbino was painted in 1534 by the Italian artist, Titian. It’s an oil painting currently located at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. What I found interesting about the painting, after I had chosen it, was how similar it was to the painting Olympia by Manet. Olympia reclines in the exact same position as Titian’s Venus—her left […]

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One of the primary themes of Paris Red is relationships– and the changes and struggles within them, as Victorine seeks to understand herself and in part explore her sexuality. From the first line, we get a sense of her libertine way of thinking, and an insight to her relationship with herself; “Today I am seventeen […]

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There were certainly mixed emotions as I read Paris Red, many of which changed and shifted over the course of the novel.  Most of this is around the constantly shifting relationships from the narrator, Victorine, as she moves between walks of life.  This, of course, begins with her relationship with her then roommate, Denise, and […]

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Paris Red is from the perspective of Victorine, a seventeen year old girl who sees the world through a very analytical lens. She is very bold but is very thoughtful about her actions and intentions, which is shown throughout the book as she interacts with other characters, especially when it comes to Manet and Nise. Both […]

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Concealed within Maureen Gibbon’s novel Paris Red is a story about womanhood and innocence. It explores the concepts of power and sex through the intellectual lens of a young girl navigating through her youth and coming to terms with what it means to be a woman. It begins with the premise of Victorine and her friend Denise […]

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Paris Red by Maureen Gibbon gives an unconventional coming of age story. In most coming-of-age movies or books we meet the character as usually a naive young boy or girl that goes through some kind of struggle that makes them grow and makes us as readers consider our own evolutions. Paris Red  does not do […]

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Victorine and Griet are two narrators from the books Paris Red and Girl With the Pearl Earring. In a fascinating sense, Griet and Victorine have become a foil in the sense that they are observant, unreliable narrators and artists at heart.  Griet begins her story by explaining every molecule in her life. From the color […]

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Paris Red is a collection of moments in the setting of a story. We are shown these intimate moments alongside short conversations that seem to have no significance. These small conversations keep you wanting more and more from the relationship, but it never comes. There is no happy ending for the love between two people who could not work […]

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What intrigues me most about this book is Louise’s relationship between her independence and her dependence. From the age of 15, she made it clear to her parents that she wanted to make her own decisions and learn things for herself. Which is further expressed by her declaration of learning later in the book where […]

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While reading Paris Red, I found myself waiting for something immense and groundbreaking to happen. It took several pages before I was able to formulate any definite judgment–affinity or distaste–for Victorine. Ultimately, I arrived at distaste with a smattering of respect. Her independence and analytical skills are admirable, but her overconfidence borders on arrogance. From […]

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Paris Red by Maureen Gibbon was definitely not what I expected when I opened the book, especially when comparing it to Girl With A Pearl Earring. Readers are thrown into a world of art, mystery, and sex shown through the eyes of a 17 year old girl. There is little to be imagined. While reading this book […]

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Below are the questions you posed. I look forward to reading your blog posts and discussing these questions in class. Paris Red 1. Do you think that sex was needed to move the story forward? Was sex a necessity and what did it accomplish? 2. Is this story more about the exploitation of a young woman […]

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The central theme of this story, or at the very least its prominent content, is sexual desire. It’s intertwined into every word in every section on every page. Sex, desire, and the discovering of new experiences. We follow the tale of this young girl, only seventeen, named Louise (or Victorine as she calls herself) as she comes […]

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Maureen Gibbon’s Paris Red is a story about a young, poor girl who becomes involved with the much older, well-off painter Edouard Manet. At first, he courts both the narrator, Louise, and her best friend Denise simultaneously, taking pleasure in the idea of having them both, but this (predictably) fails, leading to a falling out […]

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The short story “Autumn at the Automat” by Lawrence Block follows an older woman as she eats her dinner at an automat. On its surface the story seems boring, but there are layers to her experience that keep the reader interested, and all the while it is clear that she is building to something. The […]

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“Autumn at The Automat”, by Lawrence Block, took me as a reader on a bit of a ride before settling on its final theme.  This is not to say that the author struggled to find one – the author, instead, took the reader on a journey and essentially made us work for the story.  They did this […]

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I’m intrigued by the complexity of each character and the man and woman’s shared desire to kill. Both the woman and her lover (?) are trapped in relationships they don’t really want any part in, but they both desire something from the other, just not love. This story reminds me of stories written to teach […]

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“Autumn at The Automat” by Lawrence Block reminds me of the calm before the storm. There is a sense of serenity and calmness while reading the piece even though it is about a woman’s devious ways of getting money. Block draws the reader in with descriptions of what is surrounding the character and what is […]

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Lawrence Block’s “Autumn At The Automat” introduced an interesting main character from an interesting perspective. The narrator is from an outside perspective, and pays very close attention to a woman sitting at a table drinking her coffee. Though the majority of the story is from the third person perspective, the beginning looks at things through […]

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Lawrence Block conveys a narrative using the properties of deception and trickery, and in turn, uses this to conceive a story that leaves the reader in the dark up to the very end. The motives of our main character, who remains unnamed, are concealed from the reader until she acts on them. It is through the perceptions […]

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Lawrence Block’s “Autumn at the Automat” opens with a woman sitting in the cafeteria and  observing people. From the beginning we know that this woman is not exactly alone. She is being haunted. This haunting isn’t from some ghoul or ghost but it is her memories. She hears Alfred talking to her and guiding her […]

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