{"product_id":"blue-arabesque-a-search-for-the-sublime-9780156033114","title":"Blue Arabesque: A Search for the Sublime","description":"\u003cp\u003eJust out of college, Patricia Hampl was mesmerized by a Matisse painting she saw in the Art Institute of Chicago: an aloof woman gazing at goldfish in a bowl, a mysterious Moroccan screen behind her. This woman seemed a welcome secular version of the nuns of Hampl's girlhood, free and untouchable, a poster girl for twentieth-century feminism. In \u003ci\u003eBlue Arabesque, \u003c\/i\u003e Hampl explores the allure of that woman, immersed in leisure, so at odds with the increasing rush of the modern era. Her tantalizing meditation takes us to the Cote d'Azur and North Africa, from cloister to harem, pondering figures as diverse as Eugène Delacroix, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Katherine Mansfield. Returning always to Matisse and his obsessive portraits of languid women, Hampl discovers they were not decorative indulgences but surprising acts of integrity. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMoving with the life force that Matisse sought in his work, \u003ci\u003eBlue Arabesque\u003c\/i\u003e is a dazzling tour de force. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHampl, Patricia:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - PATRICIA HAMPL is the author of four memoirs--A Romantic Education, Virgin Time, I Could Tell You Stories, and Blue Arabesque--and two collections of poetry. She has received a MacArthur Fellowship, among many other awards. She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.","brand":"Houghton Mifflin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50409793061138,"sku":"9780156033114","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_222a1b65-5020-49e1-94df-fcbfebe32ad9.jpg?v=1729294042","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/blue-arabesque-a-search-for-the-sublime-9780156033114","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}