I Am Madame X

In her memoirs, Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau tells of her life from young girl in New Orleans to celebrated beauty in Paris to scandal-causing portrait sitter.

This book was a rather interesting read. The initial framing device didn't seem all that necessary, but I appreciated how the fake memoir made the tone so conversational and frank. While the main character is fairly frivolous and shallow, concerned almost entirely with looks and high society, it was a neat peek into the cultural milieu of Paris, France during the time -- specifically the upper class and artists' worlds.

An author's note at the end explains how she was intrigued by the famous painting of "Madame X" and wanted to learn more about the subject but couldn't find show more enough historical documents about her, so she wrote this historical fiction novel rather than her usual biographies. There were times when that transition was obvious, with some rather expositional parts relaying dates and numbers, but overall it's an engaging novel.

The audiobook read by Lorna Raver was exceptionally done. She made it seem even more so like you were sitting down with this person and hearing her story. Raver spoke with passion and bravado when needed, with laughter in her voice for humorous parts, and so on. She also did a great job with all the French pronunciations.

There was a weird glitch in my copy at least, where several tracks on disc 7 were out of order so that a party never before mentioned was being canceled, then we enter the salon with the portrait being exhibited for the first time before hearing it's the end of the disc -- and then three or so more tracks pop up in which the story of the party being planned is presented. Disc 8 begins in the middle of the salon again. Certainly an oddity but not a major inconvenience. show less

With this book I once again traveled to 19th century Paris. One of personal favorite periods of history in terms of art, artists and the cultural revolution that was taking place. The painting of Madame X by John Singer Sargent was unveiled at the Paris Salon of 1884. Being accustomed to the negative critique of the “new” art it was no surprise that this painting caused an uproar among critics. However, the scandalous and provocative subject also shocked the public (and put an end to Mr. Sargent’s career as an artist in Paris). The mysterious Madame X was modeled by Virginie Gautreau, herself as scandalous and promiscuous as the painting.

Although this is definitely a work of fiction it is obvious that Diliberto is familiar with show more the scant amount of actual history known about Virginie Gautreau. She fleshes the character out very well (no pun intended). As much as I enjoyed my trip back in time to Paris I was equally, if not more so, enthralled with the post civil war description of life in Louisiana. The flavour of that time and the voices of the characters were excellent. A very good read, particularly for fans of works by Tracy Chevalier or Susan Vreeland. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but putting words to a picture makes one heck of a good read. show less

This is the story of Virginie (Mimi), who posed for a famous portrait, considered scandalous at the time, by John Singer Sargent. The author considered writing a biography of Mimi, but couldn't find enough source material. (This hasn't stopped other authors from writing biographies, but I digress). Ms. Diliberto decided to fictionalize Mimi's life.

It is a good story; a portrait of an American woman trying to make a life for herself in France during and followign the American Civil War. The author has created a very real image of that time, and what choices women had.

I couldn't even force myself to finish this one. Read about 1/3, then just skimmed to the end. I was anticipating something a little richer and interesting, but instead the author gives a character study of someone without much character. There's never a sense of place in the novel and the main character doesn't seem to have much of a personality--as strong (read: stubborn and selfish) as she seems at times, she's also incredibly passive. I picked this up because I was hoping for something centered around the painting and the scandal, but this turned out to be a vehicle for generic historical fiction that may not have had much to recommend it otherwise.

A well-written, fictionalized account of a painting by John Singer Sargent that was considered scandalous in its day. According to the author, the book began as a biography, but transmogrified into a novel when she couldn't find enough material about her subject. The fictional aspect of the book is not intrusive, and Dilberto gives a good account of the contemporary critical reaction to Sargent's portrait of "Madame X."

I really enjoyed this historical fiction account of Madame X, the subject of John Singer Sargent’s famous painting. Now I want to go to the Met to see it in person!!

This is a novel of historical fiction, about John Singer Sargent's model Virginie Amelie Avegno Gautreau who posed for the painting called "Portrait of Madame X" hanging in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Little survived about Madame Gautreau's life, so Diliberto developed a story based on what facts are known, plus what she imagined might have occurred. It was an interesting story of Parisian life at the end of the 19th Century, and about the famous painting, model, and artist.