The World of Proust as seen by Paul Nadar
The World of Proust as seen by Paul Nadar Edited by Anne-Marie Bernard, translated by Susan Wise MIT Press (2004) $38 hardcover, $21.95 paper Proust insisted that “A La Recherche du Temps Perdu” (“In Search of Lost Time”) was a work of art, not an autobiography, and that his characters were invented rather than drawn…
Black Mountain: Experiment In Art Edited by Vincent Katz with essays by Martin Brody, Kevin Power and Robert Creeley.
Imagine an art school that functioned like no other. Located far from the bustling art scene of New York, it was nestled remote North Carolina, miles away from anything. Here, the student decided what classes to take and how long his course of study would last. A school that could not afford to pay its…
The Devil’s Cloth: A History of Stripes and Striped Fabric by Michel Pastoureau
Soon after reading Michel Pastoureau’s fascinating book, The Devil’s Cloth: A History of Stripes and Striped Fabric, I noticed that the inside of the cardboard container that holds Macdonald’s french fries is lined with a pattern of delicate yellow stripes. Utilizing the information in the book, I was able to trace the historical roots of…
Romanticism and Its Discontents, by Anita Brookner
Isaiah Berlin said that all the problems of our age could be traced back to Romanticism. Anita Brookner heard him lecture on the subject and decided to teach it herself. This took place at the Courtauld Institute where she was an authority on eighteenth century painting. She has written monographs on Greuze, Jacques-Louis David and…
