Choir of Muses

By Etienne Gilson Choir of Muses manifests Etienne Gilson’s intimate familiarity with aesthetic theory and the creative process. In a manner simultaneously thought-provoking and often charming, Gilson describes the relationships between artists and the source of their work’s inspiration: the women they love. From Wagner and Mathilde to Petrarch and Laura (and touching frequently upon Dante and Beatrice) Gilson examines the effects of these authors’ affairs on their writing, the concept of what constitutes a Muse, and the place of artists’ lovers as both passive and active forces of influence. Throughout the book, Gilson presents the figure of a Muse as an envisioned ideal, inseparable from the woman herself yet only identical to her in the eyes of the artist.  “The Muse is the poet’s shaping of the woman into the being of his dreams, ideal and yet also real, desirable and inaccessible like the perfect beauty he seeks to create.” –Etienne Gilson Etienne Gilson (1884–1978) was a French