Mad Enchantment

Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies

By: Ross King

Narrated by: Joel Richards

Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

We have all seen, whether live, in photographs or on postcards, some of Claude Monet's legendary water lily paintings. They are in museums all over the world and are among the most beloved works of art of the past century. Yet, ironically, these soothing images were created amid terrible personal turmoil and sadness.

The extraordinarily dramatic history behind the creation of these paintings is little-known; Ross King's new audiobook tells that story for the first time and, in the process, presents a compelling and original portrait of one of our most beloved artists.

King tells the full history of the special circumstances in which Monet created the Water Lilies. As World War I exploded within hearing distance of his house at Giverny, he was facing his own personal crucible. In 1911, aged 71, his adored wife, Alice, died, plunging him into deep mourning. A year later he began going blind. Then his eldest son, Jean, fell ill and died of syphilis, and his other son was sent to the front to fight for France.

Within months a violent storm destroyed much of the garden that had been his inspiration for some 20 years. At the same time, his reputation was under attack, as a new generation of artists, led by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, were dazzling the art world and expressing disgust with Impressionism.

Against all this, fighting his own self-doubt, depression, and age, Monet found the wherewithal to construct a massive new studio, 70 feet long and 50 feet high, to accommodate the gigantic canvases that would, he hoped, revive him.

Using letters, memoirs, and other sources not employed by other biographers, and focusing on this remarkable period in the artist's life, Ross King reveals a more complex, more human, more intimate Claude Monet than has ever been portrayed and firmly places his water lily project among the greatest achievements in the history of art.

©2016 Ross King (P)2016 Audible, Ltd

A tale of two french giants ...

Excellent history of two complex but great human beings. The text, however, can become a tad boring (one cannot skip pages in an audiobook!) and Joel Richards' french pronunciation is dire.

Excellent

Very thorough and engaging. History doesn’t interest me generally, but the author effortlessly weaved in events and individuals that gave a grand picture. I received an education not only about the great Monet himself, but the world in which he lived. Delightful read.

PLOT

Por fin se desvelan todas las anécdotas que están atrás de esa obra maestra de Monet.
Muy buenas conexiones históricas; la narración entra a pleno en la vida del artista proporcionando todos los elementos que contribuyeron a su creación.
Buena interpretación del narrador. 100% aconsejado para todos aquellos que aman el Arte.

Good read for anyone interested in Monet

Any additional comments?

I was shocked to find that the book started after the death of his first wife. There was NO mention of childhood experiences or influences? Or even much about his early personal life with his first wife and his children while they were younger. that seems to be crucial missing information.

A Masterful review

Once again Ross King surpasses his subject matter with exquisite detail of the time described

One of the greatest biographical books

Love the story telling skill of the author. Line after line I felt captivated and immersed in the life of the artist even though I possess no artistic inclination whatsoever. It kept me craving for more detail and it kept coming back. Most awesome career and era defining by a single artist. Highly recommend this book.

Excellent Story, A Real Yarn of a Journey

I have high reviews for this one. Ross King has a word for everything, and the right word at that. He is honest to the narrative while pulling out obscure nuances that make this read more like a historical novel than a biography.

Unacceptable narration of French words

This narrator is fine in English, but very distractingly butchers the many French words & names. If you’re going to hire a narrator for a book with this much French, please get a reasonably competent one.

bad narration, monty pythonesque

like a bad amateur doing a monty python impersonation, he mispronounces English words ("librerry"?) and slaughters French words so badly it's hard to understand who or what we're hearing about (is it the artist Gour-GAY?), and the painting of OH-lumpia. His female voices are a demeaning caricature. How on Earth did anyone, especially the narrator himself, consider him remotely competent for this long reading? There are numerous French words and names in the book. I don't speak French but his accents are obviously tortured and clumsy. If you're a tolerant person, you'll cope with listening to it, it's an interesting story. Use it as a drinking game: down one each time he murders a word

Reading and Speaking French

WHY - WHY do producers who are dealing with books that are filled with foreign words, in this case French, select readers who have no competence in the language. Joel Richards attempts at French are horribly painful. This is a text that requires a reader with some skill in the language and Richards has none. Furthermore, Richards clearly has no knowledge of the material as is evident by numerous other mistakes in the reading and most egregiously evident when he pronounces Mary Cassatt as Mary KASS-it.,
Ross King is always a good story teller although in this case the tale is less about Monet and more about turn of the century France.