The Muse- Jessie Burton

The Muse is a romantic drama revolving around a hidden tremendously talented artist, Olive Scholass. The story continuously shifts from the present day and almost three decades before.

In 1967, Odelle, a migrator who came from the islands to London with her friend Cynth to find work aspired to become a writer. She was stuck in a shoe shop with minimum wage and a rotting ambition. One day, she received a job from an art museum, The Skeleton which changed her life forever. She meets a man at her friend’s wedding party who introduces her to his mother’s painting. The painting had such a striking presence to it that Odelle suggests him to get it to the Skelton.

The year 1936, the Scholass family moves to the countryside of Spain. Harold Scholass, an art dealer is unaware that her daughter is one of the best artists one could ever see. Olive gets into the Slade School of Art but decides to not tell her parents. For some reason, she wants her talent to herself and the countryside suddenly inspires her to explore her artistic capabilities to the fullest. They hire Teresa as their new housemaid. Her brother Issac , is a revolutionary and fights for the downtrodden against the upper-class people of their area. Olive falls in love with Issac, and a series of unfortunate incidents start to happen.

Olive trusts Teresa, and tells her secret love for art that mesmerizes Teresa but she betrays her trust and decides to expose her friend’s talent to the world. This enrages Olive and to keep her secret, a secret she makes Issac the artist and starts painting in his name. This is against Issac’s morals and he is deeply affected by it, but it helped him to help poor kids through the money he got by the paintings which started getting at his conscious.

On the other hand, Odelle’s boss Marjorie Quick loses her wits when she sees the painting that Lawrence has which triggers something fateful in her. Is there a connection between Marjorie and the painting? Odelle gets suspicious when she is warned by Marjorie to keep away from Lawrence. The mystery of the painting deepens when Odelle gets to know about the artist, named Issac Robles.
What connection does the painting hold to Marjorie and Lawrence? Why Olive wanted her talent to be a secret? Why Marjorie doesn’t want the painting to ever come out? What happened to Olive Scholass? These are some of the mysterious questions that the novel holds in the end. The Muse is a quirky, very mysterious novel that will enthrall you in the end. The book exemplifies betrayal, Love, Remorse, and Secrets. Though the book gets a little lengthening in between, and one might lose interest here or there, but towards the ending, it will keep you hooked without blinking. I will give it a 6/10.