{"product_id":"mad-enchantment-9781408861974","title":"Mad Enchantment","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eClaude Monet's water lily paintings are among the most iconic and beloved works of art of the past century. Yet these entrancing images were created at a time of terrible private turmoil and sadness for the artist. The dramatic history behind these paintings is little known; Ross King's \u003ci\u003eMad Enchantment\u003c\/i\u003e tells the full story for the first time and, in the process, presents a compelling and original portrait of one of our most popular and cherished artists.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy the outbreak of war in 1914, Monet, then in his mid-seventies, was one of the world's most famous and successful painters, with a large house in the country, a fleet of automobiles and a colossal reputation. However, he had virtually given up painting following the death of his wife Alice in 1911 and the onset of blindness a year later. Nonetheless, it was during this period of sorrow, ill health and creative uncertainty that  as the guns roared on the Western Front  he began the most demanding and innovative pa\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn altogether enchanting tale. -- Dava Sobel, author of Longitude, on Brunelleschi's Dome\u003cbr\u003e[King] \u003cb\u003econsummately meshes biography with art history \u003c\/b\u003eas he turns the creation of one resounding masterpiece into a portal on the artist’s life … Writing with a historical novelist’s attunement to the interplay of peace, temperament, and society, King brings readers to Giverny … \u003cb\u003eKing sumptuously describes the pleasures of Giverny\u003c\/b\u003e … Never before has the full drama and significance of Monet’s magnificent \u003ci\u003eWater Lilies \u003c\/i\u003ebeen conveyed with \u003cb\u003esuch knowledge and perception, empathy and wonder’ \u003c\/b\u003e * Booklist *\u003cbr\u003eWriting with a historical novelist’s attunement to the interplay of place, temperament, and society, King brings readers to Giverny [and] sumptuously describes [its] pleasures …\u003cb\u003e Never before has the full drama and significance of Monet’s magnificent Water Lilies been conveyed with such knowledge and perception, empathy and wonder\u003c\/b\u003e * Booklist *\u003cbr\u003e[King] turns his mind, heart, and eyes to Claude Monet … King is ever the brilliant docent murmuring the right, telling details and critical backstories in our ear as we move through space and time. \u003cb\u003eHe ultimately brings the man and his work into perfect focus while increasing his audience’s interest in both all the more\u003c\/b\u003e … \u003cb\u003eThis work is essential\u003c\/b\u003e. * Library Journal *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eVivid\u003c\/b\u003e … King elegantly reveals the soul of a great artist, the last Impressionist standing at the end of one of history’s most remarkable art movements * Kirkus *\u003cbr\u003eKing is a skilled guide to Monet’s bastardy.  This book, like his earlier ones, is as much about the artist’s times as his work * The Times *\u003cbr\u003eThe closing decades of an artist’s life do not generally make the biographer’s heart beat faster, but Claude Monet is one of a handful of painters who bucks the pattern of an irrelevant old age. … A fine, fluent book …\u003cb\u003e A careful unpicking of cherished art-historical narratives\u003c\/b\u003e -- Katheryn Hughes * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003eRoss King has a track record when it comes to turning such art stories into gripping narratives … His method is expansive, including personal, political, social and cultural context in a way that would horrify some art purists.  Never mind, it works.  This latest, perfectly \u003cb\u003eengrossing\u003c\/b\u003e book is, at one level, simply the story of how the late lilies – hundreds of yards of them on a series of gigantic canvases – came to be painted.  At another level, however, it is the story of art and its meanings amid the carnage of the twentieth century * Sunday Times *\u003cbr\u003eA homage to how the genius of Monet’s extraordinary eye came finally to be realised … King has a skill for turning over unlikely narrative stones -- Lucy Lethbridge * Literary Review *\u003cbr\u003eRoss King’s Monet might not be an easy man to like, but King is also very good with the wider picture, and the fascination of this \u003cb\u003elively and entertaining\u003c\/b\u003e book lies as much in its portrait of first-world-war France as it does in its depiction of Giverny … But it is in the period detail and character portraits that \u003ci\u003eMad Enchantment \u003c\/i\u003ereally comes to life -- Honor Clerk * Spectator *\u003cbr\u003eLyrical and dynamic * Catholic Herald *\u003cbr\u003eRoss King lyrically explores the personal paradise that Monet constructed at Giverny … King’s title sounds overexcited, but he justifies it -- Books of the Year * Observer *\u003cbr\u003e‘\u003cb\u003eEngrossing\u003c\/b\u003e history … This scholarly story of Monet’s greatest project is told with \u003cb\u003etremendous humour\u003c\/b\u003e and is filled with \u003cb\u003efascinating insights\u003c\/b\u003e’ * History Today *\u003cbr\u003e[A] fine account of the making of Monet’s final masterpiece -- Paperback Must Reads * Daily Mail *\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing PLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49408013533527,"sku":"9781408861974","price":15.29,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781408861974.jpg?v=1730501270","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/mad-enchantment-9781408861974","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}