My New Year's Day was meant to be spent reading all day long. My first book of the year was meant to be Camille Laurens' slim book, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen about Edgar Degas' famous sculpture. I had it all planned out ahead of time. A day of reading, one short book, a good start to the new reading year! But you know how easily reading plans can get derailed.
The problem was other books, of course. I was in bed contemplating the coming day and my gaze caught sight of the unsightly mess my bedside book piles had gotten. I have a bedside pile (well two actually) and then against the wall next to my bed I have a small bookcase that has grown stacks of books to one side and in front. Things had gotten a little out of control. I meant only to do a little sorting and shifting and tidying. And one thing led to another and all of a sudden the better part of the day was over. I got in very little reading on that last day of my vacation.
It was not time wasted however. Part of the pleasure of owning books and reading is spending time perusing them and sorting bookcases and bookpiles (and rediscovering books that have been long hidden on the bottom of piles that are behind other piles). So now, for a while at least, my book piles are nice and tidy and books have been shifted so books that are most interesting to me at the moment are nearest at hand. There is space between bed and wall/bookcase and I can see what is actually in that corner of my bedroom once again.
Now I am reading the Laurens book and enjoying it immensely as I suspected I would. It is a biography of sorts. And an art book and maybe a little social history thrown in as well. You could probably read it in a few short sessions, which is what I have been doing. I am curious about how Laurens managed to find out so much about the model that Degas used for this sculpture, and perhaps she will go into that at some point (or I will look through the notes at the end).
Is it surprising that at the time the original sculpture was exhibited it was derided and frowned upon? It was actually a wax sculpture and Degas tucked it away then not to show it again or allow it to be sold. Now she is a beloved little ballerina and much admired, but the reality of her life was quite something else. Degas had started as a painter but as his eyesight failed he took to sculpting instead. So the book moves back and forth between the life and times of Degas and the world in which he was working and the world of young Marie Genevieve Van Goetham.
Marie was the middle of three sisters all of whom danced in the Paris Opera as a "little rat" as they were known. Each sister would have different success and deal with different failures. Her elder sister fell on hard times but her younger sister met with some success and became a ballet teacher. The young women who were little rats did not have enviable jobs and children of the era were not treated as children are today. They had no rights, little access to education and were sent out to work as soon as they reached the tender age of twelve or so. And they were, too, prey for the men who came to the Opera for more than watching. The descriptions of their lives and the working conditions are actually quite harrowing--Degas' drawings and painting of the ballerinas seem so romanticized, so this is an eye opening and very interesting read.
"Marie Van Goetham, then, joined the Paris Opera. The terms of the contract for such a spindly girl would have been harsh. She worked ten or twelve hours a day, six days out of seven, going from ballet class to rehearsals to performances. The 1841 law setting a limit on the length of a child's workday did not apply to the Opera. The ballet school stipulated in its regulations that a student must absolutely live within two kilometers of the Palais Garnier, because their daily stipends of two francs would not cover the cost of a tram or omnibus: Marie came on foot every day--and it is likely that she never ventured beyond her neighborhood during her childhood."
I am hoping to find a sunny window in which to sit this weekend to read--hopefully finish this book and make some headway on a few others. I am enjoying all my new starts for the year, so it is exciting to know I can pick up just about anything on my night table and lose myself in the story.