Mona Lisa

Wow, I was absolutely stunned by this novella. Spanning about 88 pages long (in the eARC at least), the storytelling was tight as it focused on the young Bougainville and his quest to first uncover the identity of Leonardo da Vinci’s elusive portrait and then to save her. I really felt for Bougainville, he really was certain of his own feelings and went through great lengths to find her and to keep her safe. Unfortunately things come to head as reality and conviction end up clashing in quite a climax. I should note that whilst the story was very much about Bougainville’s quest, the historical backdrop in which the story is set it was quite fleshed out, you could feel the precarious political situation that these characters were living at the time.

Interwoven throughout Bougainville’s quest are thoughtful ponderings of love and ideas surroundingly courtly love and the Renaissance attitudes towards women, deeper ponderings about smiling (who would’ve thought?) and the images we form about other people (who they are, their backstories, how we perceive them, etc.). I was quite moved by Bougainville’s reflection on love towards the end of the novella. While thoughtful and sad at some parts, the story was also pretty hilarious at some parts (Leonardo da Vinci’s ponderings early in the novella was quite the amble) and the author’s own wittiness also makes an appearance here (the footnote he added about men’s trousers in this period greatly amused me).

I don’t know what else I can say about this novella except that it’s fantastic, it was short but I found it to be quite a powerful piece; I could not put it down once I started reading it. I can definitely see why this book was described as “Quixotic” on the book blurb. I highly recommend this book if you’re into translated literature, classic turn-of-the-century literature, novellas, or just looking for a new literary title to read :)

p.s. The illustrations by Neil Gower peppered throughout were absolutely wonderful too! I thought they added to the story in their own way :)

Rating: 5/5

Thank you Net Galley. The author's take on the enigma that is the Mona Lisa is well written and enjoyable and captures the nature of obsession very well.

This is a quite strange but compelling novella, or perhaps short story, which gives a possible explanation for the Mona Lisa’s enigmatic smile. Written in 1937 by Austrian writer Alexander Lernet-Holenia (and we have the wonderful Pushkin Press to thank for reviving the fortunes of yet another writer who had largely disappeared from view) it tells of a French campaign in 1502 led by Marshal Louis de Trémoille which arrives in Florence and begins to look for booty to take back to Louis XII. One of the entourage, Philippe de Bougainville, ends up in the studio of Leonardo da Vinci where he falls madly in love with the portrait of the Mona Lisa and becomes convinced she is still alive and sets off the find her. It’s a new and amusing take on that famous smile and on one level it’s a fairly inconsequential book. But at its heart it’s about art and the power of art, obsession and love, and is in turn poignant, funny, and thoughtful.

I have not been reading since mid-March and once I started to read this, I can't stop. Mona Lisa is a short read, yet a very addictive one. Started it on my Monday commute to work and finished it on the way back the same evening.

This book was written in German by Alexander Lernet-Holenia in 1937. I'm honestly surprised it took so long for it to be translated and published in English. It's a short story on the famous painting Mona Lisa, and how a man (Philippe de Bougainville) while on a campaign for Louis XII, fell in love with an unfinished painting of Mona Lisa.

Bougainville was so infatuated with the smiling Mona Lisa that it led to his ruins. I wondered whether while Leonardo finished the painting, it took away some of the mystical powers of the smiles which made Bougainville crazy, just to prevent other men from falling into the same time end.

A really enjoyable novella, amusingly telling of the French soldiers en route to liberate Naples from the Spanish, and who think on the off-chance to pop in on Leonardo da Vinci's rooms in Florence, where they find a captivating picture of a beautiful woman… What follows may be quite breathless at times, the pell-mell action coming across really easily in this small, large-print (and illustrated!) volume, but it's good fun for the whimsy. In the end it offers grand discussions about the value of love, but I had been entertained enough in getting to that stage to not need any moral. It would have been more welcome, perhaps, if the main part of the story had not all been at the same energised, frenetic pace, with the tendency to be at one note, and with all the dialogue seemingly shouted or at least exclaimed. Still, having never heard of this author, the welcome return to the shelves of this volume is more than welcome. Four and a half stars.

And yet again, Mona Lisa has another one who falls for her, very hard!
This time it is a young nobleman, Philippe de Bougainville, who is part of Marshal Louis de La Trémouille's entourage to gather objets d'art for Louis XII. As he becomes obsessed in finding the woman in the painting, willing to do everything so he can profess his love to her, things escalate quickly.

Alexander Lernet-Holenia wrote this gem in 1937 and the translation into English was by Ignat Avsey (well known for his translations of The Karamazov Brothers and The Idiot by Dostoevsky and another of Lernet-Holenia's, I Was Jack Mortimer, 1933).

It was an amusing and well-paced read. In the end...you have fallen for her too.

"The reason I’ve called her Gioconda is because she smiles, for in Italian the word means the happy or the smiling one."

Review copy supplied by publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a rating and/or review.

Set at the time Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa, a French soldier sees the almost-finished painting and falls in love with the woman in the painting.

He sets off on an adventure to find her, setting Florence into a tizzy.

This short story presents this adventure written in a straightforward style, that makes the story, which could be quite absurd fun, but not silly.

A wonderful explanation of a mysterious smile...