A Life
"Sweeping . . . insightful . . . [a] passionate retelling of a life fully lived. . . . Arnaud's poetic prose, skillfully translated by Elkin and Mandell, sharp observations, and devotion to his subject make this an endlessly rewarding read and invaluable addition to readers' understanding and appreciation of Cocteau."-Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Arnuad's eloquent and loving portrait of his hero should persuade all but the most dogged of Cocteauphobes that we are denying ourselves a great deal of pleasure."-Kevin Jackson, Literary Review Longlisted for the 2017 Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award given by the PEN American Center Winner of the 2017 French-American Translation Foundation book award in the nonfiction category Won the 2017 Choice Award for Outstanding Academic Title "Jean Cocteau was the artistic ringmaster of 20th century Paris. Claude Arnaud has written the definitive-and fascinating-life of this artist and impresario, and along the way has clarified mysteries about his sexuality and his collaboration with the Nazis."-Edmund White "Arnaud's incisive and immensely readable biography of the brilliantly witty albeit flawed Cocteau is a triumph. Thank God this essential book has finally been translated. Read it and wallow in twentieth-century art and letters."-John Richardson, author of A Life of Picasso, vols. I-III "Claude Arnaud's cornucopian biography give us a marvelous, if in some ways consolingly familiar, portrait of the upper echelons of Parisian aristo artistic circles. . . . Simply everybody is here: from Mistinguett to Marcel Proust, Robert de Montesquiou to Anna de Noailles, Misia Sert to Natalie Barney, we wander through an enchanted period when talent seemed to earn immediate rewards, spiced by an undercurrent of discreet homosexuality. . . . Claude Arnaud's work is welcome for reminding us just how remarkable its subject was. It is also welcome for its argument that the twentieth century has left few artistic survivors."-Lachlan Mackinnon, Times Literary Supplement
Claude Arnaud is a writer and recipient of the 2006 Prix Femina Essai. He lives in Paris, France. Lauren Elkin is a lecturer in English and comparative literature at the American University of Paris. Charlotte Mandell is an award-winning translator of more than thirty books.