The Undefinable: A Fantasia (Stevenson)

I was slightly confused by this short story. I was unsure if the narrator was a male or a female. I read the story as a male narrator and this reading for me was officially confirmed on page 287 when his servant says, "It is wonderful sir" (Grand). The narrator throughout the story ultimately discovers women in a new light because of this women model who come to his studio. When he first met the young women he did not find her particularly attractive. However, he is only unable to say no to her because of her voice. "It was not a voice of a common model" (266). This women model ultimately teaches the artist to sacrifice every delight of the body to keep his spiritual vision obscured; for there is not joy like this joy (286). Once the artist starts painting with the model she ends up leaving saying "you know know what you want" (286). On the last couple pages of the story the artist is able to reflect on the model and describes her as "a free woman, a new creature, a source of inspiration the like of which no man hitherto has even imaged in art or literature" (287). Making the narrator a male in this story was significant because the male comes to the ending conclusion of the "new women" that exist and the power she possess over man.