Author(s): Camille Laurens (Author) , Willard Wood (Translated by)

Art | Les Fugitives

She is famous throughout the world, but how many know her name? You can admire her figure in Washington, Paris, London, New York, Dresden or Copenhagen but where is her grave? She danced as a 'petit rat' at the Paris Opera. She was also a model, she posed for painters and sculptors - among them Edgar Degas. Taking us through the underbelly of the Belle Epoque, Laurens casts a light on those who have traditionally been overlooked in the study of art, and opens a space for essential questions. She paints a compelling portrait of Marie van Goethem and the world she inhabited, in the 1880s; a time when art unsettled the hypocrisy of society.

Review: "An evocative tribute to a model, a man, and a moment. Sensitive, human, and profound, this vivid recreation of the sights, sounds, and smells of the nineteeth-century art world is underpinned by solid research, and written in a style that is assured and decisive." - Catherine HEWITT, author of Renoir's Dancer: The Secret Life of Suzanne Valadon "A fascinating hybrid of art history and art appreciation, a personal narrative that reads like a novel...quixotic, but also magical.' - NEW YORKER (Briefly Noted). "Good artists transform private obsession into something that can be shared: Nicholson Baker on John Updike, John McPhee on geology, Karl Ove Knausgaard on himself, or the French writer Camille Laurens on Edgar Degas, the (sort of) subject of her new book, 'Little Dancer Aged Fourteen'.... a strange hybrid of art history and art appreciation, a personal narrative that reads like a novel ...She has not solved a mystery (even if she turns up some interesting tidbits from various archives), but Laurens has done something more challenging: she's captured what it feels like to think. Her enthusiasm, the million little connections that she makes between the dancer, the artist, and her own life, subsume the reader... Unanswered are the questions of what art is for, who Marie was, and even whether or not Laurens likes Degas. I take this as a measure of her success as a critic. Some questions can't be answered, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be asked.' - Rumaan Alam, THE NEW YORKER 'Laurens is one hell of a writer. Beyond the facts, it's an era that she reconstructs, the harshness of which brings a lump to your throat.' -ELLE (France) 'The essence of late 19th century art: Famous man paints nameless woman, her body and image becoming a mantle upon which his notoriety hangs. Who were these women? Typically, no one cares. So it's refreshing to see an author like Camille Laurens who does.' (Claire Fallon) 'Little Dancer pierces through Degas' rose-tinted reputation to depict an artist who is no hero and a subject who is no ghost.' (Priscilla Frank) - HUFFINGTON POST "[E]rudite investigation into the story behind Degas's masterpiece...[Laurens] provides a glimpse into the art world of 19th-century Paris." (WALL STREET JOURNAL). "Part exegesis, part history, largely speculation, the book insightfully examines themes of gender, class, power, and beauty, against the backdrop of Belle Epoque Paris. The third act examines the author's own project, with inconclusive but absorbing results." (The New Yorker, Briefly Noted). "A fascinating look at the girl who inspired Degas's 'Little Dancer' sculpture"... part historical chronicle, part artfully discursive personal response and part imaginative close reading of the sculpture's past and present... the book is full of thought-provoking insights and revelations... Laurens herself arguably displays similar ambition in this book, which acknowledges cruel truths, displays critical virtuosity and stimulates thought with observations that can be both intriguing and unsettling." (WASHINGTON POST). "Laurens vividly sketches out a history of the abuses of child labor in Paris in the 1880s....Laurens brings her commentary up to date in a telling comparison of Degas' work to images of Marilyn Monroe. In 1956, Monroe donned a tutu and posed next to the statue.... insightful..." (Kirkus Reviews). 'Laurens' project is not simply a matter of adding another voice to the myriad artistic critiques of Degas' work.(...) Under the pen of an author intent on uncovering all there is to be known of Marie's life, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen develops into a curious form of investigative literature, exposing the unspoken moral failings of nineteenth-century culture in its search for Marie. The criticism throughout, if implicit, is certain.(...) Its status as a passion project, though, takes nothing away from the achievement of Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. Reverting to the author's own life in its closing moments, this book wills its reader to look beyond the surface, to discover the writer behind the writing, and the girl behind the sculpture.' - The Arts Desk, four starred review

Author Biography: Camille Laurens's fiction and non-fiction has been published in France since the early 1990s. In 2000, she won the Prix Femina, one of France's most prestigious literary prizes, for the autofiction IN THOSE ARMS, which was published in the UK in 2004, and was translated into twelve languages. Her most recent novel, WHO YOU THINK I AM (2016), was adapted for the cinema in the eponymous film starring Juliette Binoche. In 2020, Laurens became a member of the Academie Goncourt. She lives in Paris.

Promotional Information: IN THOSE ARMS (2004) was critically acclaimed in the GUARDIAN LITTLE DANCER AGED FOURTEEN was selected as A HUFFPOST "Fall 2018 Books We Can't Wait to Read", A SPECTATOR USA "Books of the Year 2018, One of ArtNet News' "Surprising, Macabre, and Illuminating Books for Art Lovers to Read Over the Holidays", WORLD LITERATURE TODAY Editor's Pick UK edition front cover illustration from an original woodcut by Jessica Jane Charleston