Medusa

The Shipwreck, The Scandal, The Masterpiece

AvJonathan Miles

E-bok

Engelska, 2012

144 kr

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Beskrivning

In June 1816, the Medusa, flagship of a French expedition to repossess the colony of Senegal from the British, set sail but ran aground off the desolate West African coast. The evacuation of the frigate was chaotic and cowardly - 146 men and one woman were herded aboard a makeshift raft which was then abandoned in mid-ocean, cut loose by the convoy of lifeboats which had pledged to tow it to safety. The drifting raft carried those who survived to the very frontiers of human experience. Crazed, parched and starving, the diminishing band slaughtered mutineers, ate their dead companions and organized a tactical extermination of the weakest among them. Among the handful of survivors from the raft were two men whose written account of the tragedy catalogued the trail of government incompetence, indifference, and cover-up. Their book became a best-seller which rocked Europe and inspired the promising artist, Théodore Géricault. Reeling from an illicit affair with his attractive young aunt, he threw himself into an exhaustive study of the Medusa tragedy.Set in the politically fragile world of Restoration France, the murk of Georgian London and along the dangerous West African coast where the French were covertly regenerating the outlawed slave trade, Medusa witnesses error and outrage turned into a bestseller, and that bestseller transformed into one of the masterpieces of Western art.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2012-02-29
Språk:Engelska
Filformat:EPUB
Kopieringsskydd:LCP
ISBN:9781448113842
Förlag:Vintage Publishing

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Mer om författaren

The cultural historian Jonathan Miles grew up in America, Canada and the UK and took a first from University College, London and his doctorate from Jesus College, Oxford. He has written, lectured and broadcast on cultural history and the political, historical and cultural aspects of St Petersburg all over the world, and travelled extensively, including frequent visits to the Soviet Union and Russia. He is the author of five previous books, including The Wreck of the Medusa, with its account of art, slavery and revolutionaries in early XIX century France, and The Nine Lives Of Otto Katz, the story of a flamboyant Soviet intriguer and spy.

Recensioner i media

A thrilling read Guardian A sensational tale Daily Telegraph In his intriguing book, Miles unearths the real tragedy that inspired the painting Sunday Times Absorbing and intelligent...a work of art history in the broadest sense -- Rupert Christiansen Literary Review The narrative is brilliantly meted out. Sections alternate among the wreck itself, the tortured and bizarre life of the artist and the political upheavals in France New York Times