Actresses channel their favorite literary heroines for charity.

Celebrity portraits just got a little more interesting. Montblanc has commissioned celebrity photographer Roger Moenks to shoot a series of actresses, all inspired by quotations about their favorite literary heroines. The leading ladies have all posed in ravishing gowns (that are not at all costumey) for a series of limited edition photographs to be auctioned to raise funds that combat illiteracy. Susan Sarandon poses as Prosper Merimee’s Carmen, and Jessica Lange channels Mary Queen of Scots. Helen Hunt appears as a “happy-go-lucky” Anna Karenina, and Milla Jovovich stuns in a bright Christain Lacroix gown, but, asks the New York Times, “how does this relate to Esmerelda, the 16-year-old gypsy girl with a trained goat act, who is hanged as a witch in Notre Dame de Paris?” And some of the actress’ selected quotations are a little, um, narcissistic—Andy MacDowell’s choice from Don Quixote begins: “Nowhere on earth is there a damsel more beautiful…”