Patrick Bringley discusses his best-selling book as part of the Rava Memorial Lecture series (Tamiah Woodfork | Staff Photographer).

The New York Times best-selling author Patrick Bringley spoke about his book “All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me” in a nearly full Umrath Lounge on Monday, Feb. 16. In the event hosted by the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Bringley spoke about his memoir, which details his life journey from working for The New Yorker magazine to becoming a full-time guard in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) in New York. 

Bringley became a guard following the death of his brother because he said he wanted a straightforward and simple job. The move meant leaving his event-planning position for The New Yorker, where he had hoped to take up writing for the magazine eventually.

“What turned me into a writer in the end was getting a job that had nothing to do with writing, [a job] you would [totally not] expect someone who was ambitious to do,” Bringley said. “And you just can’t predict the winding path that you might take.”

AnaElda Ramos is a senior majoring in Communication Design whose capstone is adapting the first three chapters of “All The Beauty in the World” into a graphic novel format. Ramos said she believes the book gained massive popularity because of its message.

“I think it’s just kind of an antidote to what he calls ‘the noise of today’s world,’ or ‘the bustle’ and the high-achieving mindset that we’ve all been wired to pursue,” Ramos said. “And I think I’ve [also] struggled with those ideas.”

Bringley had the opportunity to see Ramos’ project before the show, which already has three completed pages. The graphic novel incorporates fantastical elements to convey Bringley’s feelings, including a panel with Bringley as part of the scene in Johannes Vermeer’s “A Maid Asleep.” 

A page from Ramos’s capstone (photo courtesy of Ramos).

“It looks beautiful,” Bringley said. “I’m so excited. She’s doing things with her adaptation I wasn’t able to do in the book because, of course, she has a visual medium, and I’m just ‘talk talk talk.’”

“All the Beauty in the World” has achieved critical acclaim, such as being listed in the Financial Times’ best books of 2023 and the New York Public Library’s best books of 2023. Bringley said his book’s success originated from its relatability.

“I wanted people [to be able to] identify with the narrator, with the main character,” Bringley said. “Even though you might not be a guard in an art museum, you still know what it’s like to be a solitary individual in a great big place, and sometimes to be a little quiet, shut your mouth, and look around and think ‘my God, what a big and strange and mysterious world this is.’”

Bringley’s wife, Tara Lohr-Bringley, graduated from Washington University in 2005. Her WashU Italian professor, current faculty member Rebecca Messbarger, organizes the Rava Memorial Lectures. She was the one who invited Bringley to speak, and she said that he drew in a crowd that required 40 additional seats to be added at the last minute.

First-year Ryleigh Hill attended the event with her classmates, who read “All the Beauty in the World” for Messbarger’s first-year seminar, “Italy’s Invention of the Modern Museum.” 

“I like how he really focuses on the simplicity of art and applying that to life, especially in such a fast-paced world,” Hill said. “He really engages the audience throughout.”

Orhan Erdogan is a senior majoring in computer science who also attended the lecture.

“Seeing those behind-the-scenes stories was really interesting,” Erdogan said.

Bringley graduated from New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study with a customized concentration on the impact of poetry. In an interview with Student Life before the event, he spoke about what he sees as the importance of humanities programs to universities.

“I feel like the humanities [are] where you most get to see that big breath of what the world is, and that big breadth of what human beings are,” Bringley said. “It’s so valuable, and it should not be cut.”

Editor’s Note: Anaelda Ramos is the Managing Illustration Editor of Student Life and was not involved with the writing, editing, or reporting of this piece.