Cover of Marion: The Story of an Artist's Model

Marion: The Story of an Artist's Model

  • Free to read
  • 4 hours to read
  • 49 chapters
  • Reading level: 6th grade

"Marion: The Story of an Artist's Model" by Onoto Watanna is a novel written in the early 20th century. The story focuses on a young girl named Marion, who is navigating her childhood and aspirations against the backdrop of a large family living in Hochelaga, Montreal. As she grapples with her self-image and dreams of becoming an actress, the narrative explores themes of beauty, ambition, and family dynamics. At the start of the story, Marion is sent to buy groceries but feels embarrassed when a local grocer discusses her family in a way that makes them seem conspicuous. This sparks Marion's desire to be seen as pretty after a stranger calls her “remarkably pretty.” This moment ignites her aspiration to become an actress, distracting her from her duties at home. The opening portrays her family life, her interactions with her father, a struggling artist, and the challenges of poverty that they face. Marion's vivid imagination and daydreams about fame contrast with the harsh realities of her world, setting the stage for her journey toward self-discovery and ambition.

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  • Artists' models

Read the opening

Chapter I

“In dat familee dere are eleven cheeldren, and more—they come! See dat leetle one? She is très jolie! Oui, très jolie, n’est-ce pas? De father he come from Eengland about ten year ago. He was joost young man, mebbe twenty-seven or twenty-eight year ol’, and he have one leetle foreign wife and six leetle cheeldren. They were all so cold. They were not use to dis climate of Canada. My wife and I, we keep de leetle ’otel at Hochelaga, and my wife she take all dose leetle ones and she warm dem before the beeg hall stove, and she make for dem the good French pea-soup.”

Mama had sent me to the corner grocer to buy some things. Monsieur Thebeau, the grocer, was talking, and to a stranger. I felt ashamed and humiliated to hear our family thus discussed. Why should we always be pointed out in this way and made to feel conspicuous and freaky? It was horrid that the size of our family and my mother’s nationality should be told to everyone by that corner grocer. I glared haughtily at Monsieur Thebeau, but he went garrulously on, regardless of my discomfiture.

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Contents

Show all 49 chapters
  1. Chapter I
  2. Chapter II
  3. Chapter III
  4. Chapter IV
  5. Chapter V
  6. Chapter VI
  7. Chapter VII
  8. Chapter VIII
  9. Chapter IX
  10. Chapter X
  11. Chapter XI
  12. Chapter XII
  13. Chapter XIII
  14. Chapter XIV
  15. Chapter XV: Rat-a-tat-tat, on the big iron knocker. I called
  16. Chapter XVI
  17. Chapter XVII
  18. Chapter XVIII
  19. Chapter XIX
  20. Chapter XX
  21. Chapter XXI
  22. Chapter XXII
  23. Chapter XXIII
  24. Chapter XXIV
  25. Chapter XXV
  26. Chapter XXVI
  27. Chapter XXVII
  28. Chapter XXVIII
  29. Chapter XXIX
  30. Chapter XXX
  31. Chapter XXXI
  32. Chapter XXXII
  33. Chapter XXXIII
  34. Chapter XXXIV
  35. Chapter XXXV
  36. Chapter XXXVI: We were all sitting around the big hall stove, and papa said
  37. Chapter XXXVII
  38. Chapter XXXVIII
  39. Chapter XXXIX
  40. Chapter XL
  41. Chapter XLI
  42. Chapter XLII
  43. Chapter XLIII
  44. Chapter XLIV
  45. Chapter XLV
  46. Chapter XLVI
  47. Chapter XLVII
  48. Chapter XLVIII: “Dear Marion
  49. Chapter XLIX

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About this edition

This free edition of Marion: The Story of an Artist's Model by Onoto Watanna comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #57920, released 2018-09-17. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Novels.

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