The author of this story is Henry James, who was born in
1843 in New York. He has lived in both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, where he was born
and also in Massachusetts where he is bury. He used a lot phases refers to
thought and conscience, this method is use, nowadays by writers like James
Joyce and Virginia Woolf.
The story starts in the house of a painter, who was
visited by two special persons, they were Mr. and Mrs. Monarch, they looked
like if they were rich, and he thought that they wanted to buy a painting but
actually they were unemployed and they needed money. The painter was
recommended by Mr. Rivet. They finally convinced he to be their models and they
started to pose for him. The painter also has another model, she is Mrs. Church
which is the best model ever, she can be whatever you want.
One day, A little
Italian guy, Oronte, comes to the house and he ask for a work and the painter
told him that he needed a servant and Oronte started working for the painter and
also he used to help him like models for
his paintings. His painting of the Monarch
were showed to a very good friend of the painter, Jack Hawley, and he said that it was wrong and he needs
inspiration and their models didn´t give it, so he had to change Monarch and
painted Oronte, the Italian, and Mrs. Church. He tried to lay out Monarch but
they did all to avoid this and they started to be like servant, and They
continuous working .
In my opinion, it ´s a good novel because it explain
the society of this time and the form that appearance it´s the most important
thing. There are some aspect that I don´t understand very well because is a physical
literature and there are a lot of reflexions and thoughts.