Left Bank: Art, Passion, and the Rebirth of Paris, 1940-50 by Agnes Poirier
Left Bank: Art, Passion, and the Rebirth of Paris, 1940-50 by Agnes Poirier
In this fascinating tour of a celebrated city during one of its most trying, significant, and ultimately triumphant eras, Agnes Poirier unspools the stories of the poets, writers, painters, and philosophers whose lives collided to extraordinary effect between 194- and 1950. She gives us the human drama behind some of the most celebrated works of the twentieth century, from Richard Wright's Native Son, Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, and James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain, to Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot and Saul Bellow's Augie March, along with the origin stories of now legendary movements from Existentialism to the Theater of the Absurd, New Journalism, bebop, and French feminism.
We follow Arthur Koestler and Norman Mailer as young men, peek inside Picasso's studio and trail the twists of Camus's, Sartre's, and Beauvoir's epic love stories. We witness the births and deaths of newspapers and literary journals and peer through keyholes to see the first kisses and last nights of many ill-advised bedfellows. At every turn, Poirier deftly hones in on the most compelling and colorful history without undermining the crucial significance of the era. She brings to life the flawed, visionary Parisians who fell in love and out of it, who infuriated and inspired one another, all while reconfiguring the world's political, intellectual, and creative landscapes. With its irresistible blend of clear-eyed historical narrative and often juicy anecdotal charm, Left Bank transports readers to a Paris teeming with passion, drama, and life.
Henry Holt & Co., Hardcover, 1st Edition, 1st Printing, 2018, 331 pages
THIS IS A BRAND NEW BOOK. THERE IS A BLACK "CLOSEOUT/REMAINDER" MARK ON THE BOTTOM PAGE EDGES.