By Camilla Sarra. Cover image Sertab Isabella Inceayan.

Eternal, magnetic, and endlessly fascinating, Marilyn Monroe remains the ultimate icon of allure — a woman who embodied both seduction and sweetness, sophistication and spontaneity. With her luminous beauty, platinum-blonde curls, and irresistible charisma, she conquered Hollywood and the hearts of millions, including baseball legend Joe DiMaggio and U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Yet behind the immaculate façade of fame and glamour lived Norma Jeane, a deeply complex soul — a survivor of a difficult childhood, a sensitive artist yearning for love, and a woman who turned her own vulnerability into power.

Now, Italian journalist and art historian Chiara Pasqualetti Johnson captures that tension — between myth and truth, glamour and depth — in her new book Marilyn. Goddess. Diva. Woman (White Star, out October 17, 2025). This large-format illustrated volume invites readers to rediscover the many faces of Monroe through a compelling narrative and more than 120 photographs by the world’s greatest masters of twentieth-century photography, including Richard Avedon, Milton Greene, Douglas Kirkland, Philippe Halsman, Ted Baron, Elliott Erwitt, and Lawrence Schiller.

Pasqualetti Johnson will present and discuss the book in conversation with Ginevra Barbetti, journalist and professor at Istituto Marangoni, during L’Eredità delle Donne — the Florence-based cultural festival — on November 23 at 6 p.m. at Libreria Il Libraccio, Via de’ Cerretani 16R.

Published simultaneously in six international editions (Italy, Spain, Germany, France, the UK, the US, and Lithuania), the book celebrates the upcoming centenary of Monroe’s birth (June 1, 2026) with what the author calls a “photographic novel”: a visual and emotional narrative that goes beyond Hollywood’s sparkle to reveal the real Marilyn — intelligent, ambitious, self-aware, and decades ahead of her time.

Who Marilyn Monroe Really Was — The Story of Her Reinvention

“Who was Marilyn Monroe, really?” asks Pasqualetti Johnson in her introduction. “To find her, I tried to look beyond the prejudices and tell her story without judgment. To see the real Marilyn, one must crack the image of the goddess and the diva — and let the woman emerge.”

At the heart of the book lies the story of reinvention — the journey from Norma Jeane Baker to Marilyn Monroe. Born into instability, passed between foster homes, and burdened by a mother’s absence, Norma Jeane turned her fragility into fuel. As Pasqualetti Johnson writes, “She learned early that survival meant reinvention. Every smile, every name change, every photograph was a small resurrection.”

This metamorphosis was not a denial of her past but a declaration of independence — a refusal to be defined by circumstance. In Marilyn’s transformation, the author sees a universal act of self-creation: the power of women to rewrite their narratives, even in the face of adversity.

The Making of a Myth: How Marilyn Mastered the Art of Her Own Image

Once inside the limelight, Marilyn was not content to be a passive muse. She became the architect of her own myth, orchestrating every visual and emotional detail of her public persona. Pasqualetti Johnson reveals how Monroe studied light, body language, tone, and rhythm with almost obsessive care.
“She was a perfectionist,” notes the author. “She knew exactly what she was doing with her image — and she did it better than anyone else.”

Decades before social media, Marilyn understood the politics of image-making. She transformed visibility into control, and glamour into authorship. The book presents her as a pioneer of modern identity-building — a woman who used performance not as escape, but as empowerment.

Beyond the Blonde: Rediscovering Marilyn as an Intellectual and an Artist

In the book, Pasqualetti Johnson dismantles the “dumb blonde” stereotype by showing us Marilyn the thinker, the dreamer, the autodidact.

“Marilyn read voraciously — Joyce, Freud, Whitman — not to impress, but to understand herself,” writes the author.

Behind the camera’s seductive gaze was a woman of introspection and irony, constantly seeking authenticity in a world that demanded illusion. “She founded her own production company,” notes Pasqualetti Johnson, “because she wanted to choose her roles, her directors, and the stories she told. That was her quiet revolution.”

Through this lens, Marilyn emerges not only as a muse but as a creator — a woman who dared to own her story in an industry built to silence her.

How Marilyn Monroe Turned Sensuality into a Revolutionary Act

One of the most powerful chapters in the book explores Marilyn’s sensuality as an act of rebellion and expression. “Her ‘sexitude’ — a mix of irony, desire, and vulnerability — was not submission, but communication,” writes Pasqualetti Johnson in her new book.

At a time when femininity was dictated by the male gaze, Monroe turned her body into her own stage. Every smile, every silence, every gesture was deliberate — a vocabulary of empowerment.
“She was aware,” adds the author, “that seduction could be power, and power could be art.”

Through this interpretation, Marilyn’s sensuality becomes revolutionary: not an object of consumption, but a tool of liberation. Her body spoke for her, and in doing so, she rewrote the grammar of desire.

A Voice for the Future: Why Marilyn Still Speaks to Women Today

As the book draws to its conclusion, Pasqualetti Johnson bridges past and present, showing how Marilyn’s story mirrors the struggles of modern womanhood. “For too long,” she writes, “we have believed that Marilyn was only a body. But those who look closely see something else — a brilliant mind, a free spirit, a woman ahead of her time.”

Monroe’s contradictions — ambition and affection, strength and fragility — make her profoundly relatable today. She anticipated the challenges of the digital age: self-representation, identity, control, and vulnerability.

“Marilyn isn’t an icon of the past,” concludes the author. “She’s a message for the future — a voice that speaks of freedom, identity, body, and redemption.”

Marilyn Monroe Beyond the Legend: a Lesson in Authenticity

With her elegant prose and artistic sensitivity, Chiara Pasqualetti Johnson — already celebrated for her portraits of Coco Chanel, Audrey Hepburn, Jackie Kennedy, and Frida Kahlo — crafts more than a biography. Marilyn. Goddess. Diva. Woman is a meditation on identity, courage, and self-expression, showing how an icon can remain modern by being unapologetically human.

As Pasqualetti Johnson beautifully writes: “Marilyn belongs to everyone because she had the courage to be true — fragile and powerful at the same time. Her light was not perfection, but authenticity.” And that authenticity — luminous, imperfect, and eternal — is what keeps Marilyn Monroe shining in every era.