10 Muses Who Inspired These Writers To Create Some Of The Best Literary Marvels

It is a universally acknowledged fact that, with great love, comes a great love story. Just so, unrequited love has often produced the greatest pieces of literature, influencing the authors to bring out their finest flair of creativity.

From Dante’s Divine Comedy to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, ‘the ones that got away’ have always been these writers’ muses, inspiring them to create great pieces of art. Apart from lovers, many authors have been greatly influenced by their friends, or certain other people, their muses.

These 10 muses of famous writers and poets influenced the authors to create some of the gems of the world of literature.

1. Fanny Brawne, John Keats’ lady love

 Img src 1, Img src 2
Img src 1, Img src 2

Frances ‘Fanny’ Brawne was the love of the poet John Keats life, literally. Their love was immortalized by the beautiful love letters that Keats wrote to her, which are in themselves masterpieces. One of Keats most famous sonnets, the “Bright Star” is thought to be written for her.

Fact Source

 

2. Beatrice di Folco Portinari, Dante’s childhood sweetheart

Image source
Image source

Dante Alighieri met Beatrice when he was just 9 years old and had forever been in love with her. After Beatrice’s untimely death, a grief stricken Alighieri poured his heart out in La Vita Nuova, a collection of poetry. He also brought Beatrice back in his masterpiece the Divine Comedy, as one of his guides in ‘Paradiso’, where she led him towards a beatific vision.

Fact Source

 

3. Shakespeare’s muses – the dark lady and the fair youth

Image source
Image source

In Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets, a ‘Fair Youth’ and a ‘Dark Lady’ not only get mentioned time and again, but seem to have much influence on him. It is widely believed that he was in a relationship with both, respectively. His apparent relationship (which he mentions as ‘deep friendship’) with the Fair Youth is assumed to be the evidence of his homosexuality. On the other hand, his relationship with the Dark Lady with beautiful eyes remains as mysterious as her name. Some attribute this title to the notoriously famous prostitute of that time, Lucy negro.

Fact Source

 

4. Jeanne Duval, Baudelaire’s mistress and lover

Image source
Img src 1, Img src 2

Jeanne Duval met the French poet Charles Baudelaire in 1842 after she came to France from Haiti, and they spent 20 years together. She remained one of the greatest influences both in Baudelaire’s writing and his life, with him dedicating many of his poems to her. Baudelaire called her his “Vénus Noire” (black venus), so enamored he was with her!

Fact Source

 

5. Zelda Sayre, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s wife

Img src 1, Img src 2
Img src 1, Img src 2

The writer of The Great Gatsby, met Zelda Sayre in 1918 in Alabama when he was stationed there, and they married in 1920. They had first met in a train station, which Fitzgerald later recounted in The Great Gatsby. In fact, his writing career was heavily influenced by Zelda, with him basing many of his female characters on her and incorporating excerpts from her diary into his writing.

Fact Source

 

6. Neal Cassady, Jack Kerousac’s best friend

Image source
Image source

Neal Cassady was one of the chief members of the Beat generation during 1950’s in America. He also heavily influenced the writings of his best friend, Jack Kerousac. The iconic character of Dean Moriarty was modeled on him in Kerousac’s On The Road. He came back time and again as different characters in many of Kerousac’s books.

Fact Source

 

7. Maud Gonne, the lady who broke of W. B. Yeats’ heart

 Img src 1, Img src 2

Img src 1, Img src 2

Yeats met this Irish Nationalist revolutionary in 1889 and was instantly smitten by her. He proposed to her a number of times between 1891 and 1901, but she never accepted. We can see the reflection of Yeats’ unrequited love in his poems of romantic yearning.

Fact Source

 

8. Lev Bekkerman, Ayn Rand’s first love

Img src 1, Img src 2
Img src 1, Img src 2

In her teenage, the author of The Fountainhead had a huge crush on her neighbour Lev Bekkerman. But it didn’t turn out well for her as Bekkerman was selfish and reckless, and didn’t exactly return Rand’s feelings. Rand based the equally destructive and dreamy character of Leo Kovalensky in her first published novel, We the Living.

Fact Source

 

9. Goethe’s lady love

Image source
Image source

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the German writer, was in love with a woman, who was engaged to someone else in his youth. His own suicidal tendencies were reflected in his first novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, where the protagonist shot himself to death in despair after his failed love affair. This also gave birth to the trend of copycat suicide, named Werther effect after Goethe’s novel.

Fact Source

 

10. Tom Lefroy, Jane Austen’s unrequited love

Image source
Image source

Jane Austen had a year of almost whirlwind romance with Tom Lefroy, who later became the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. This was the same period during which Pride and Prejudice was written, and it is widely believed that the main characters and their affair is heavily influenced by Austen’s own. All we know is that, their love was never fulfilled, and Austen remained single for the rest of her life!

Fact Source

John Keats had said that “the excellence of every art is its intensity”, and with intensity did these writers love.

Cover Image Source 1,2

📣 Storypick is now on Telegram! Click here to join our channel (@storypick) and never miss another great story.