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The Masterpiece

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The Masterpiece

Written by: Émile Zola
Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
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About this listen

Perhaps the most autobiographical of Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle of novels, The Masterpiece is a hard, bleak, and raw portrait of unrecognized artistic genius. Claude Lantier, brother to Nana and son of Gervaise, is a struggling painter who dreams of conquering the Paris art scene with his revolutionary "open air" style of painting. Discouraged and mocked, Claude retreats to the countryside with a young woman from Clermont, with whom he has fallen in love, before returning to Paris, where he continues to experience rejection at every turn. Zola's depiction of a frustrated artist is said to have drawn heavily on the real-life experiences of Edouard Manet and Paul Cezanne, the latter of whom broke off his friendship with the author upon reading the novel.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Public Domain (P)2020 Naxos Audiobooks Classics Fiction Literary Fiction France
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Brilliantly narrated, but it wasn't my cup of tea

I really wanted to love this book because it came highly recommended to me as a brilliant classic. While the story seemed to be well written, I just could not engage with the protagonist, Claude.. nor did I feel for his character's obsession or the others caught up in it. I thought Leighton Pugh did a phenomenal job narrating this book though. And Pugh was the sole reason why I finished the book. I'm sure there are lots of people who loved this Masterpiece, but I'm not one of them. If you love Zola -especially his Rougon-Macquart saga, then I'd recommend this book to you. I am willing to give this author another try (I have his saga in ebook) and definitely will listen to Pugh again..

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