Why read L'Origine?

Book cover of L'Origine: The Secret Life of the World's Most Erotic Masterpiece

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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.

“L’Origine got me hooked—what a story! Milgrom brings the reader right along on her adventures as a copyist of one of the most well-known…

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Why read it?

1 author picked L'Origine as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Barbara Linn Probst

Author

L’Origine 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 Courbet’s L’Origine du monde, a painting known as “the world’s most erotic masterpiece,” along with its effect on a young woman (the author) who set out to be its official “copyist.” Ultimately, it is the painting itself that liberates and transforms the protagonist—just 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…

From Barbara's list on The best books about how art and artists have inspired women on their journey toward personal fulfillment.