“If I were to lose my sight,
I wish there was a paradise of colors in my head… … ”
A girl's enchanting art gallery journey to capture the beauty of the world.

A novel that captivated publishers around the world.
An artistic version of "Sophie's World," with added sophistication and sensibility._Livre Hebdo

The Korean edition of "Mona's Eyes," a hit that swept across Europe immediately after its publication, has been published.
It was praised as an artistic novel that brilliantly combined literary quality, emotion, and intelligence.

Thomas Schlesser's novel Mona's Eyes is a work that depicts a year in the life of Mona, a girl on the verge of losing her eyesight, and her grandfather, Henri, who decides to go to the art museum with his granddaughter every week.
Since its publication in France in early 2024, it has received rave reviews from readers and has sold approximately 300,000 copies to date.
Publishers from all over Europe, the UK, the US, and Asia showed great interest, and the book was licensed in 37 countries around the world. It was also introduced as a hot topic at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world's largest book fair, and all copies were sold out.
The press in France, Italy, and Spain praised it as "a literary phenomenon," "a story that encompasses the entire world, not just an art novel," and "a unique novel that combines literary quality, sensibility, and intelligence, far from being clichéd."

Thomas Schlesse is a French art historian.
He has taught art history for about 20 years and supports the art world as a board member of the Artung-Bergman Foundation, which builds on the legacy of the contemporary painters Hans Artung and Annaeva Bergman.
In addition, he has written various books, mainly researching the relationship between art and politics in the 19th and 20th centuries, and won the 2025 Trophée des Éditions Author of the Year, a French publishing culture award, for his second full-length novel, Mona's Eyes.
"Mona's Eyes" is a masterpiece that brilliantly expresses his values ​​that art can truly help human life, and is a decisive work filled with his earnest desire to write a good novel.

The pile of rocks behind [La Gioconda], the monkey carved behind Michelangelo's [The Dying Slave], the surprised expression of the blond curly-haired child to the right of [Oath of the Horatii], the strange gelatinous kidney of Goya's [Lamb], the clods of earth in Rosa Bonheur's [The Ploughing in the Nivernais], Whistler's butterfly-shaped signature in his mother's portrait, the tottering little posterior of a church painted by van Gogh... ...and Kandinsky's colors, Picasso's cracks, Soulage's ultra-black.
All of this came pouring in like signals, each pleading to be seen, heard, understood, and loved.

--- p.32

The two walked hand in hand toward the most famous room in the Louvre Palace.
Countless tourists flock there, bewildered, hoping to experience something, but most of them fail, as there are no particularly effective clues to interpret the work.
Henry had thought about this.
The expectations for this painting, so famous and reproduced millions of times, are bound to be enormous, and the disappointments are proportionately high.
So everyone is asking themselves in a state of frustration.
Why is this the most widely known, most highly regarded, and most admired work of art? Why does it not resonate with my sensibilities?
--- p.49

“Vermeer worked alone, content to create whatever scenes he could in the small rooms of his Delft house.
So he never had to leave his quiet life, and when he died, there were almost no records or materials left about him.
So it took time to properly evaluate his worth and discover his truly unique qualities.
I would say that it also required the genius of some viewers.
“Great geniuses need a sharp and perceptive audience, Mona!”
--- p.117

“It is the duty of this good clown to provide entertainment to the people by being faithful to his role, but somehow he seems to be straying from that role.
Every festival has a backstage, and we're in the heart of that backstage.
And that heart is not crushed.
It's still there.
Oh, what the painter depicts is not dark misery.
“I just drew the blank expression of someone tired of entertaining others.” “Harvey, that [Clown] is so sad… … With his nose and cheeks all red, it looks like he just cried… … How can we tell him that we like him?” “Just look at him like you are doing now.”
--- p.153

“This work was a cry in the hushed atmosphere of the social world.
It was a call to gather for a new role for art, and a call for such art to 'walk proudly' without being crushed by the conventions of criticism or the academy.
This cry from the depths of the lungs, filled with sincerity, is called 'realism'.
An artistic movement that, above all, vows to reproduce the truth, while trying to make us feel all the aspects of reality, even its harshness and contradictions, as they are.
Life is inherently imperfect.
But there is a joy in living there.”
--- p.254

Mona was particularly drawn to the bright tones that gave the animals' fur a quivering vibrancy.
I also looked closely at the furrows of the cultivated land bordering the grassy ground, the soil of which was a dark brown.
Mona reproached herself.
'Oh! Harvey is urging us to look at the work intellectually, and I'm thinking of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate River from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!' The child's mouth watered.
(…) Rosa Bonheur used glassy techniques to achieve an almost appetizing effect, so that the furrows covered with large, clods of earth looked like cacao beans.

--- p.271

“This wonderful name was originally a swear word.
In 1874, an art critic named Louis Leroy saw Monet's painting [Impression, Sunrise] and sarcastically described it as "impressionistic."
What I really regret is the vagueness of the picture, the touch that only hints at something and leaves it lacking in conclusion.
He was close to Monet and lumped together artists who painted in the same style as him, including Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, and Morisot, as "Impressionists."
What should I do after hearing such abuse? Resignation? Protest? Monet had a much smarter idea.
I took that and put it up as a flag.
He turned an insult into a boast.
Thus, today, Impressionism has become the most famous and most beloved school in the world.”
--- p.320

“What this work tells us is that life shouldn’t just be about living.
Life also needs to be danced.
It's okay if our actions, our movements, our behaviors sometimes deviate from the ordinary flow of things, the mechanical and endless continuity of conventions and constraints.
It's okay to fall a little bit.
“If that’s what it takes to dance your life.”
--- p.332

The child casts no shadows anywhere, and no element is pushed far into the background from the viewpoint.
All motifs have equal importance.
So you could draw a bird in the same proportions as a car.
This is because every time a child adds another motif, he or she wants to make the protagonist the same as the other one.
There is no way to subordinate weak elements to one strong element, or to elevate one over the other.
The same goes for Cezanne.
Mona burst out laughing.
"I didn't understand anything from my grandfather's explanation! Damn it," Henri grumbled instead of answering.
It's not easy, having to make the kids understand their own genius...
--- p.339

He asked his grandfather to lean over so he could whisper in his ear the impression he had received.
What suddenly struck me as so amusing was the thought that van Gogh had painted the buttocks of that sacred 12th-century building, that the artist, when painting a reclining beast, would frame the buttocks, not the head.
“Look, that’s a church butt!” My goodness, this kid’s imagination is truly out of control… … Henri thought to himself.
But it was a review that stood out for its intuitiveness.
I liked the way you saw Van Gogh as a troublemaker.
After all, isn't madness just a carnival full of troubles with oneself?
--- p.362

Mona found Guillaume infinitely beautiful, and as she felt his gaze on her, she felt as if she too was becoming beautiful through a mirror effect, a vaguely repulsive yet deeply ecstatic confusion.
With one accord they wanted to burst the shell of their childhood with a tremendous scream and embrace each other with both arms.
Mona remained silent and Guillaume said nothing.
Mona held her breath and Guillaume didn't move at all.
There was never a time when we could tell each other how wonderful it was that we had met like this in the early morning hours of life.

--- p.378

“It is the audience that creates the work.” The child smiled.
As I savored that decisive sentence, I realized that even I, a young girl, played an important role every time I went to the art museum.
The paintings, sculptures, photographs, and drawings stored in the museum became brighter and more vivid thanks to him.
They have gained their true form and even meaning thanks to you.

--- p.429

“What does Picasso do? He dislocates reality, turns its surface inside out.
In the process, reality ceases to be smooth and flat and suddenly becomes bumpy and angular, broken and bulging.
Mona, I actually think this.
Picasso said he wanted his paintings to have the same effect as the eyelashes in your eyes.
He probably wanted the audience to be overcome with visual discomfort when viewing his work.
Henri Matisse, Picasso's great friend and rival, once said that a painting is like a good armchair that relieves physical fatigue.
[Obad] is the complete opposite.
The painting plunges us into the harshness of the world.
“Here, even the mattresses are like a prison, as you said.”
--- p.497

The child would sometimes make this gesture as if he was sorry for being Mona.
I was worried that closing my eyes and experiencing Maria Abramović's installation might have upset Henri.
But he knew very well that Mona was trying to tame the misfortune that lurked in the dark by such actions.
But that was the most amazing part.
We actually did it.
Marina Abramović's work proved to the child that even in the darkness the abysses of the world still stir, that existence does not remain only in the light of day.
In other words, Mona enjoyed that dark moment, and rather than struggling in the darkness, she immersed herself in it and swam in it.
Being caught in the darkness has become a little less scary.
Just a little bit.

--- p.567