Draft:Mona's Eyes

Mona's Eyes
Editor	Albin Michel, Europa Editions
Author	Thomas Schlesser
Language	French, English, German, Spanish, Italian... +31
Genre	Novel
Publication date	January 31, 2024

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Mona's Eyes is a novel by Thomas Schlesser. It popularizes occidental art history. It was published for the first time on 2024, january 31th, at the Albin Michel.^[1] publishing house. The book is sold at more than 500 000 copies in France^[2] and, at more than 100 000 copies all over the world^[3].

Summary and reception

The book follows Mona, a young girl who is threaten to go fully blind, and his granfather in three great museums of Paris (The Louvre, the Museum of Orsay and the Pompidou Center) discovering art history together. Every Wednesday, the granfather takes his grandaugher to the museum and teaches her about art history, through one painting after the other. He also teaches her how to look at a painting and to analyse it. Thanks to that, a lesson of life can come out of any painting.

The public and critics became quicly very enthousiastic about the novel^[4],^[3]. It is even elected as the book of the 2025 for The Barnes and Noble, which is a première for a French book^[5]

The book is a path through occidental art history, with the three great museums of Paris and 52 paintings. The historic context and the analysis a the painting is done in a systemic manner, and it becomes an weekly ritual.

Here is the list of the paintings analysed in the book :

Vénus et les trois Grâces offrant des présents à une jeune fille, Sandro Boticelli
La Joconde, Léonard de Vinci
La Belle Jardinière, Raphaël
Le Concert Champêtre, Titien
Esclave mourant, Michel-Ange
La Bohémienne, Frans Hals
Autoportrait au chevalet et à l'appuie-main de peintre, Rembrandt
L'Astronome, Johannes Vermeer
Les Bergers d'Arcadie, Nicolas Poussin
Ex-voto, Philippe de Champaigne
Pierrot, Antoine Watteau
Le Môle vu du bassin de San Marco, Canaletto
Conversation dans un parc,Thomas Gainsborough
L'élève intéressante, Marguerite Gérard
Le Serment des Horaces, Jacques-Louis David
Portrait présumé de Madeleine, Marie Guillemine Benoist
Nature morte à la tête de mouton, Francisco de Goya
L'arbre aux corbeaux, Caspar David Friedrich
Paysage avec une rivière et une baie dans le lointain, William Turner
Un enterrement à Ornans, Gustave Courbet
Hommage à Delacroix, Henri Fantin-Latour
Labourage nivernais : le sombrage, Rosa Bonheur
Arrangement en gris et noir No. 1, James Whistler
Mrs Herbert Duckworth, Julia Margaret Cameron
L'Asperge, Edouard Manet
La Gare Saint-Lazare, Claude Monet
L'Étoile, Degas
La Montagne Saint Victoire, Paul Cézanne
La Roue de la Fortune, Edward Burne-Jones
L'Église d'Auvers-Sur-Oise, Vincent Van Gogh
L'âge mur, Camille Claudel
Rosiers sous les arbres, Gustav Klimt
Huile [Repos], Vilhelm Hammershoi
Meules de foin III, Piet Mondrian
Étude pour la couverture de l'almanach, Der Blaue Reiter, Vassily Kandinsky
Porte-bouteilles, Marcel Duchamp
Croix (noire), Kazimir Malevitch
Stries rouge, jaune et noir, Georgia O'Keeffe
Le Modèle rouge, René Magritte
L'Oiseau dans l'espace, Constantin Brancusi
Mutter (Mère), Hannah Höch
The Frame (Le cadre), Frida Kahlo
L'Aubade, Pablo Picasso
Peinture (Argent sur noir, blanc, jaune et rouge), Jackson Pollock
La Mariée, Niki de Saint Phalle
T 1964-H45, Hans Hartung
No 26-1976, Anna-Eva Bergman
Sans Titre, Jean Michel Basquiat
Precious Liquids, Louise Bourgeois
Vider son bateau, entrer dans le courant ; Dragon blanc : debout, Dragon rouge, assis, Dragon vert : couché, Marina Abramovic
La Vie impossible de C.B, Christian Boltanski
Peinture 200 × 220 cm, 22 avril 2002, Pierre Soulages

Notes and references

↑ "Les Yeux de Mona | Éditions Albin Michel". www.albin-michel.fr. Retrieved 2026-05-26.
↑ "Chagny. « J'ai mis dix ans à l'écrire » : l'auteur du succès littéraire "Les Yeux de Mona" se livre avant sa dédicace". www.lejsl.com (in French). 2025-09-09. Retrieved 2026-05-26.
1 2 "" Le triomphe du livre "Les Yeux de Mona", de Thomas Schlesser, s'apparente à un conte de fées bien réel. Comment l'expliquer ? "". Le Monde.fr (in French). 16/02/2024. Archived from the original on 2025-06-06. Retrieved 2026-05-26. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
↑ "Le phénomène littéraire "Les Yeux de Mona" : histoire de l'art et leçons de vie". France Culture (in French). 2024-02-28. Retrieved 2026-05-26.
↑ "'Mona's Eyes' Named Barnes & Noble Book of the Year — See the Rest of the List!". People.com. 13/11/2025. Archived from the original on 2025-11-13. Retrieved 2026-05-26. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

Category:2024 French novels Category:Books about the visual arts

[1] "Les Yeux de Mona | Éditions Albin Michel". www.albin-michel.fr. Retrieved 2026-05-26.

[2] "Chagny. « J'ai mis dix ans à l'écrire » : l'auteur du succès littéraire "Les Yeux de Mona" se livre avant sa dédicace". www.lejsl.com (in French). 2025-09-09. Retrieved 2026-05-26.

[:0-3] 1 2 "" Le triomphe du livre "Les Yeux de Mona", de Thomas Schlesser, s'apparente à un conte de fées bien réel. Comment l'expliquer ? "". Le Monde.fr (in French). 16/02/2024. Archived from the original on 2025-06-06. Retrieved 2026-05-26. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

[4] "Le phénomène littéraire "Les Yeux de Mona" : histoire de l'art et leçons de vie". France Culture (in French). 2024-02-28. Retrieved 2026-05-26.

[5] "'Mona's Eyes' Named Barnes & Noble Book of the Year — See the Rest of the List!". People.com. 13/11/2025. Archived from the original on 2025-11-13. Retrieved 2026-05-26. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

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