Wild Thing

A Life of Paul Gauguin

De: Sue Prideaux

Narrado por: Elizabeth Wiley

Paul Gauguin's legend as a transgressive genius arises as much from his biography as his aesthetically daring Polynesian paintings. Gauguin is chiefly known for his pictures that eschewed convention, to celebrate the beauty of an indigenous people and their culture. In this work, Sue Prideaux reveals that while Gauguin was a complicated man, his scandalous reputation is largely undeserved.

Self-taught, Gauguin became a towering artist in his brief life, not just in painting but in ceramics and graphics. He fled the bustle of Paris for the beauty of Tahiti, where he lived simply and worked consistently to expose the tragic results of French Colonialism. Gauguin fought for the rights of Indigenous people, exposing French injustices and corruption in the newspaper and acting as advocate for the Tahitian people in the French colonial courts. His unconventional career and bold art influenced not only Vincent van Gogh, but Matisse and Picasso.

Wild Thing upends much of what we thought we knew about Gauguin through new primary research, including the resurfaced manuscript of Gauguin's most important writing, the untranslated memoir of Gauguin's son, and a sample of Gauguin's teeth that disproves the pernicious myth of his syphilis. Sue Prideaux illuminates the extraordinary oeuvre of a visionary artist vital to the French avant-garde.

©2024 Sue Pridreaux (P)2025 Tantor Media

Authors Reading?

Why do authors read their own work? This is a great example of why they should not.
Secondly, I don’t believe the book offered any additional info on Gaugin not already available in bios of Van Gogh. Perhaps it was my inability to get past the readers’ tone? I regret money spent on this book and would NOT recommend it.

Gauguin had a momentous life, Peru, Paris, Papeete.

The reader’s voice was grating although the story was interesting. Useful for readers to learn how to pronounce commonly used Tahitian words for body wraps and thatching for huts!

Fascinating book, poorly narrated

Sue Prideaux's biography of Gaugin is outstanding and is THE book to read for all those interested in the life of this important artist. Unfortunately the choice of the narrator, Elizabeth Wiley, is a poor one for this book. It is painfully obvious that Wiley doesn't have a clue how to pronounce French names and doesn't seem to care. The delivery is pompous and overwrought. Given that the author is English, it would have been preferable to find an English (as opposed to an American) narrator who knows how to pronounce French names.