Balzac
Published on 22. September 2000
Book
Paperback/Softback
576 pages
978-0-330-32015-3 (ISBN)
Description
Graham Robb has produced a masterpiece literary biography in which Balzac bursts into life on every page.
The living manifestation of the colourful and varied world he described, yet at the same time its most astonishing exception, Balzac is the perfect subject for biography. Robb skilfully interweaves the life with the work to paint an indelible and brilliantly compelling portrait of one of the great tragicomic heroes of the nineteenth century, a man whose influence both in and outside his native France has been and is still immense.
The living manifestation of the colourful and varied world he described, yet at the same time its most astonishing exception, Balzac is the perfect subject for biography. Robb skilfully interweaves the life with the work to paint an indelible and brilliantly compelling portrait of one of the great tragicomic heroes of the nineteenth century, a man whose influence both in and outside his native France has been and is still immense.
Reviews / Votes
Graham Robb does a superb job in bringing Balzac to life in all his preposterousness, while still letting us appreciate his genius. * Sunday Independent * Robb's Balzac is a fine achievement: an impressive work of scholarship and an enormously enjoyable read. In a well-paced narrative, he blends solid evidence with amusing anecdote, patient evaluation with witty aside. * Guardian * Intellectually thrilling, psychologically acute and very wittily written: a worthy offering to its subject. * Observer *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Pan Macmillan
Target group
Interest Age: From 18 years
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 203 mm
Width: 127 mm
Thickness: 34 mm
Weight
684 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-330-32015-3 (9780330320153)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Graham Robb was born in Manchester in 1958 and is a former Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. He has published widely on French literature and history. His 2007 book The Discovery of France won both the Duff Cooper and Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prizes. For Parisians the City of Paris awarded him the Grande Medaille de la Ville de Paris. He lives on the English-Scottish border.