Product Description

The Masterpiece is the tragic story of Claude Lantier, an ambitious and talented young artist from the provinces who has come to conquer Paris and is conquered by the flaws in his own genius. While his boyhood friend Pierre Sandoz becomes a successful novelist, Claude's originality is mocked at the Salon and turns gradually into a doomed obsession with one great canvas. Life - in the form of his model and wife Christine and their deformed child Jacques - is sacrificed on the altar of Art. The Masterpiece is the most autobiographical of the twenty novels in Zola's Rougon-Macquart series. Set in the 1860s and 1870s, it provides a unique insight into his career as a writer and his relationship with Cézanne, a friend since their schooldays in Aix-en-Provence. It also presents a well-documented account of the turbulent Bohemia world in which the Impressionists came to prominence despit the conservatism of the Academy and the ridicule of the general public.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46476 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Customer Reviews

reading this book is a great artistic experience, a journey
A human need for perfection was never described better: The attempts, The difficulties, the pain of the soul and the boby... The specific plot relates to Art but it brings a massage that is true for every human creation that might become to one's absession. Reading this book takes the reader on an amazing journey that begins as fine arts and crosses the lines to a tragedy. A full CATARSIS. recommanded :)

Too depressing
With all my respect to Mr Zola, I found this book too depressing, it took me sometime to recover from all the sadness and even madness of this poor painter who struggled all his life, and his poor wife. It did put me off from reading other novels/stories about painters (I enjoy art a lot though). It makes you realise how much pain is behind some of those most enjoyable paintings you see in the museums, but after reading this book you do not want to know this...Another book though helped me recover from the Masterpiece, A year in the Merde by Steven Clark, it's just hillarious, strongly recommend.

Great Literature
It is in itself a masterpiece . Although adequately translated here, it is a must read in the original tongue . Do not read this book if you are at all depressed, it goes from tragic to outright tragedy. You hope as you read this that the protagonist will ultimately find recognition, but this eludes him, even after death. Zola seems to be the Leonard Cohen of French literature.

The characters are particularly finely drawn; modern authors, please take note !