As a female working in a male-dominated art world, Claudine Hirst submitted her work under the name Claude in order to conceal her femininity and be taken seriously as an artist. The hyperrealistic style in "An Interesting Book" exemplifies the traditional technique of trompe l’oeil, French for “deceives the eye.” Hirst’s skill in rendering tight contours, tonal values, reflections, and textures resulted in successful illusionistic images. At the time, trompe l’oeil works were typically painted by and for men, and Hirst portrayed objects associated with masculine culture (hunting, pipe smoking) - but critiqued them instead of celebrating them. Trompe l’oeil works were more likely to be found in bar rooms (the domain of men) than in gallery auctions, which is why so much of the imagery in these still-life paintings is predominantly male-oriented. Throughout her career, Hirst also included books in her compositions, in the foreground, unlike many of her counterparts at the time who used books as props. Many of these texts were by early progressive women writers. Unlike her male counterparts, however, Hirst rendered books with legible pages and illustrations, drawing viewers’ attention to the beliefs she is thought to have championed as a woman and an artist. Hirst was the only woman of her era to gain acclaim using the trompe l’oeil technique.