Then, Maisie shares, her mother began collecting strays. Maisie states that the upper floors were living quarters with many rooms and that the entire bottom floor was studio and gallery space. The reader learns that in the year following her father's death, that her mother moved from their lavish Manhattan residence to a renovated warehouse in Red Hook in Brooklyn. Maisie Lord, Harriet's daughter, is interviewed by Hess. Clark was sure that it been some sort of mental lapse. She had dinner a few times with the Lords, and that at one particular dinner party, Harriet had ranted and raved about philosophy. Clark shares that she only had a few limited encounters with Burden, but that she was never all that impressed by her work or her personality. The reader learns that Harriet has a brilliant mind and has always been a talented artist, but that her art was never promoted or supported by her husband, Felix.Ĭynthia Clark is interviewed by Hess in order to gain perspective on Harriet. She writes that she has been creating dolls and fetishes, all of them seemingly phallic in nature. Now, recovered from his death, Harriet, who has reclaimed her maiden name of Burden, and has dropped her dead husband's last name of Lord, has entered a frenzied creative phase. In this section the reader is introduced to Harriet Burden Lord, whose husband, Felix, a prominent art dealer, has died the year before. Reasons for this become clear throughout the reading of the novel. However, her children, Ethan and Maisie Lord, produced nearly 25 journals/notebooks that their mother had kept over the years.
Unfortunately, Burden, herself, had passed away from cancer two years previously and was not available to be interviewed.
Hess contacted Harriet Burden's family who graciously offered to speak with Hess. Hess reveals himself/herself as the author of the book, The Blazing World, and states that he/she has compiled the work based on the fact that he/she stumbled across a reference to an artist that Hess had little information for. The novel begins with an Editor's Note, which is part of the overall work and is not a true editor's note.
The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt is a tour de force novel chronicling the ficticious life, love, and work of Harriet Burden, an artist whose lack of recognition fueled her desire to lash out at the art world.
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