Series: Critical Lives

Aldous Huxley delves into the life and work of one of the twentieth century's most insightful thinkers. In this new biography, Jake Poller presents a rich and lucid account of the different phases of Huxley's career. From the early satirist who captured the glamorous despair of the postwar generation, Huxley evolved into a committed pacifist during the 1930s. The 1940s...

The celebrated art nouveau architect Antoni Gaudí was a contradictory figure: a deeply religious, politically right-wing man who nevertheless created revolutionary, lyrical buildings. This book explores Gaudí's life, work, and influences, from Catalan nationalism to the Industrial Revolution. Michael Eaude expertly guides readers through Gaudí's dozen great works, including the Sagrada Familia, which attracts millions of tourists to Barcelona each...

In this biography of one of the twentieth century's most enigmatic personalities and idiosyncratic thinkers, David A. Shafer takes readers on a chronological voyage through Artaud's life. Yet, as Artaud navigated through the first half of the century in the company of many of France's most influential cultural figures, his own journey was a lonely and largely isolated one, an...

In this new book, David Ellis traces Byron's life from rented lodgings in Aberdeen to the crumbling splendours of Newstead Abbey and then on to his grand tour of the East. Describing his exile from England after a disastrous marriage, and subsequent travels in Italy and Greece, he shows how completely Byron's experiences coloured his writings, drawing out the tension...

In this new interpretation of the life and work of the American poet, short-story writer, and novelist Charles Bukowski, David Stephen Calonne examines Bukowski's writings, colourful life, and the desperate conditions of his lifestyle. He looks at the literary traditions that influenced Bukowski and discusses his unique place in world literature. Bukowski was born in Germany and raised in the...

Dylan Thomas, the author of some of the century's greatest poetry, stories, and film scripts—as well as one of the greatest radio features ever broadcast, Under Milk Wood—is often characterised as self-indulgent. This concise and up-to-date biography challenges this depiction with a fresh portrait of the artist as a consummate professional. John Goodby and Chris Wigginton locate the source of...

Hannah Arendt is one of the most renowned political thinkers of the twentieth century and her work has never been more relevant than it is today. Born in Germany in 1906, Arendt published her first book at the age of 23, before turning away from the world of academic philosophy to reckon with the rise of the Third Reich. After...

Ernest Miller Hemingway (21 July 1899 - 2 July 1961) enjoyed a life of literary triumph set against a backdrop of some of the grandest landscapes in the world. Ernest Hemingway by Verna Kale offers a new, narrative portrait that challenges some long-held assumptions about his life and craft. It re-examines the writer, sportsman, and celebrity through the stages of...

As a young man, Fernando Pessoa wrote 'be plural like the universe'. Staying true to this, he went on to invent over 100 fictional alter-egos, which he called heteronyms. This philosophical biography navigates Pessoa's early days in Lisbon and South Africa, reveals a philosopher-poet and pioneer of Portuguese modernism, and delves into the birth of Pessoa's heteronymic universe. Bartholomew Ryan...

Ford Madox Ford (1873–1939) lived among several of the most important artists and writers of his time. Raised by Pre-Raphaelites and friends with Henry James, H. G. Wells, and Joseph Conrad, Ford was a leading figure of the avant-garde in pre-WWI London, responsible for publishing Ezra Pound, Wyndham Lewis, and D. H. Lawrence. After the war, he moved to Paris,...

In this concise yet comprehensive critical biography, Ritchie Robertson examines the work of Friedrich Nietzsche within the context of his life. The book traces Nietzsche's development from outstanding classical scholar to cultural critic, who measured Imperial Germany by the standards of ancient Greece. It follows him thence to prophet (in the persona of Zarathustra) and savage polemicist against modern liberal...

H.D. (Hilda Doolittle, 1886-1961) was one of the first writers of free verse in English, best known for her sparse Imagist poems. For over forty years, she wrote poetry that resurrected forgotten ancient goddesses and autobiographical prose that explored her trauma, her desires, and the unique struggles of a twentieth-century woman writer. She was also a scholar of religion, mythology,...

A new, critical biography of the innovative and influential French artist Henri Matisse. Henri Matisse's experiments with form and colour revolutionised the twentieth-century art world. In this concise critical biography, Kathryn Brown explores Matisse's long career, beginning with his struggles as a student in Paris and culminating in his celebrated use of paper cutouts and stained glass in the last...

J.-K. Huysmans (1848-1907) now stands firmly recognised as a significant and influential writer, often hailed as a pioneer of modernism. While his novel A rebours (Against Nature) remains infamous for its reclusive protagonist retreating into a realm of artifice and dreams, Huysmans' literary contributions are far-reaching. Ruth Antosh explores Huysmans' life and work, illustrating how it reflects France's era of...

This new critical biography provides a complete picture of German novelist, playwright, and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The book offers fresh, thought-provoking interpretations of all the major works, including novels such as The Sorrows of Young Werther and The Elective Affinities, plays such as Egmont and Iphigenia in Tauris, and Goethe's greatest work, Faust. Alongside these works, the incidents...

Mysterious, esoteric, and baffling, John Ashbery is notorious for the seeming difficulty of his work. However, Ashbery is also entertaining, humorous, even charming, and always responsive to his shifting social and political contexts. This biography charts Ashbery's rise from a minor avant-garde figure to the most important poet of his generation. Jess Cotton provides a legible and accessible roadmap to...

Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990) was one of twentieth-century music's most successful and recognisable figures. In a career spanning five decades, he conducted many of the world's leading orchestras and composed scores for landmark musicals such as Candide and West Side Story. Published to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Bernstein's birth, this engaging new biography provides a concise overview of the...

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, born on 30 November 1835 in Monroe County, Missouri, was never one to let the facts get in the way of a good story. A natural-born storyteller, Mark Twain freely adapted the incidents of his life and the stories he heard as a youth to embellish his fiction, as well as his travel writing and autobiography. However,...

An illuminating reappraisal of Belgian surrealist artist René Magritte. The Belgian surrealist artist René Magritte redefined the way we think about art. Famous for his men in bowler hats, Magritte's witty and provocative work inspired generations of later artists, from Andy Warhol to Jasper Johns. In this illuminating new biography, René Magritte, Patricia Allmer radically repositions Magritte's work in relation...

Brilliant, hard-working, immensely productive and influential, the naturalist Richard Owen was a great promoter of science and played a large role in shaping London's Natural History Museum. An often difficult and arrogant individual, he was accused of plagiarism and bullying, and is the only man whom Charles Darwin claimed to hate. Although strongly opposed to Darwin and Thomas Huxley's theories...

However much his work has been reviled or contested, Sigmund Freud remains one of the most significant thinkers of the last one hundred and fifty years. He founded psychoanalysis, and his vision of human behaviour and the unconscious mind provided a compelling paradigm for the understanding of society for much of the twentieth century. In this gripping new account, Matt...

At various stages of his life, the celebrated American writer William Faulkner (1897-1962) presented himself as a literary dandy, a shabby bohemian, a wounded war veteran, a humble farmer, a courtly lover, and a genteel but aloof Southerner. In private and public, he was masterful at making people wonder who he really was. As Kirk Curnutt acknowledges, Faulkner was first...

Before he had turned 21, Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) upended the house of French poetry and left it in shambles. What makes Rimbaud's poetry important, argues Seth Whidden, is part of what makes his life so compelling: rebellion, audacity, creativity, and exploration. Almost all of Rimbaud's poems were written between the ages of fifteen and twenty. Against the backdrop of the...

Christopher Isherwood began writing modernist novels before evolving into a pioneer of autofiction, which mingles fiction and autobiography. His novel Goodbye to Berlin inspired the hit musical Cabaret. Everything changed when Isherwood emigrated to America in 1939. He had become a pacifist and was studying to be a Hindu monk. Although Isherwood resumed his career as a writer, the novels...

This book offers a concise yet comprehensive look at D. H. Lawrence's turbulent life and writing career. Tracing his journey from a mining village outside Nottingham to his death at 44 years old in the South of France, it provides fresh perspectives on his major works. David Ellis covers all essential aspects of Lawrence's life and work and presents a...

Frida Kahlo is a legendary figure in modern art: images of and by Kahlo, both photographs and self-portraits, are recognised world-wide. This book explores the life and art of Frida Kahlo, cutting through 'Fridamania' to look closely at the myths, contradictions, and ambiguities that riddle her story.

In Leon Trotsky, Paul Le Blanc delves deep to understand Trotsky's complex character, relationships, actions, and ideas. Interweaving dramatic historical events with Trotsky's multi-faceted personality, this book explores his involvement with and opposition to the Soviet bureaucracy, and his efforts to revitalise the revolutionary wing of the labour movement. Revealed here are his urgent warnings of Hitler's rise and the...

This wide-ranging and incisive biography unfolds the life and work of the much-loved twentieth-century composer Sergei Prokofiev. In it, Christina Guillaumier reveals Prokofiev's surprisingly optimistic spirit amidst a tumultuous backdrop of geopolitical chaos and ever-shifting musical landscapes. Guillaumier breathes life into the people and worlds that shaped Prokofiev's complicated life, capturing the unwavering passion of a musical genius whose love...

E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822) is celebrated for his supernatural fiction such as The Sandman as well as his musical achievements, notably the opera Undine. This book offers a concise yet comprehensive introduction to Hoffmann as a Romantic writer, composer, and public figure. It follows his life as a lawyer, theatre director, and senior judge in Berlin, where he clashed with authorities...

Jean Baudrillard, once hailed as a 'historian of the future', remains a vital figure for understanding modern life. Famous for ideas like 'simulation' and the 'hyperreal', linked to postmodernism and The Matrix, Baudrillard was both celebrated and controversial, known for bold pronouncements about events like the Gulf War and 9/11. Yet the man himself was enigmatic, leading a public life...

Gustav Mahler's status as an icon of fin-de-siècle Viennese music is assured, with his works now staples of the concert repertoire. His life story has been told in numerous biographies, films, and novels, yet he remains an ambiguous, provocative figure. Mahler was a composer who challenged musical form and style but identified with German Enlightenment and Romantic culture, disliking many...

Maurice Ravel is one of the twentieth century's most intriguing and contradictory composers. This timely new biography, published for the 150th anniversary of his birth, describes Ravel's journey from Parisian apprentice to global musical icon. Drawing on fresh research, Emily Kilpatrick reveals Ravel as both a daring provocateur and a reflective elder, his lifelong quest for originality driven by his...

The most celebrated French storyteller of the nineteenth century, Guy de Maupassant was a master of the modern short story. Offering an intriguing picture of French life, the enduring appeal of his stories derives from understated artistry, extreme craftsmanship and the universality of his characters and their aspirations and misfortunes. In this insightful and compelling biography, the only one in...

This concise biography offers a fresh portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson: frail Edinburgh child turned globe-trotting author of Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It charts his remarkable literary range from fiction and poetry to essays and letters crafted across three continents, often in poor health. Stevenson's adventurous life and memorable characters captured both...

Few artists have exerted such an influence on modern art as Paul Cézanne (19 January 1839 - 22 October 1906). Picasso, Braque, and Matisse all acknowledged a profound debt to his painting. This reassessment of Cézanne's life and art discusses the key events, artistic relationships, and friendships that shaped his work, placing his painting in the context of the debates...

A vivid, absorbing new biography of Dmitry Shostakovich. Dmitry Shostakovich was one of the most successful composers of the twentieth century - a musician who adapted as no other to the unique pressures of his age. By turns vilified and feted by Stalin during the Great Purge, Shostakovich twice came close to the whirlwind of political repression, and he remained...

Lenin (1870–1924) was the leader of the communist Bolshevik party and founder of the Soviet Union. He was a key revolutionary thinker and a man who, at one time, lived in exile for his political views and survived several assassination attempts. This concise biography of Lenin's life and outlook is based on wide-ranging new research that puts Lenin into the...

Yukio Mishima was the most internationally acclaimed Japanese author of the twentieth century: prodigiously talented, dazzlingly prolific and a prime candidate for the Nobel Prize. Yet in 1970, Mishima shocked the world with a bizarre attempt at a coup d'etat, which ended in his suicide by ritual disembowelment. In his radically new analysis of an extraordinary life, Damian Flanagan moves...