Francine Prose is the author of 15 books of fiction, including Goldengrove, A Changed Man, and Blue Angel, a finalist for the National Book Award, and the nonfiction New York Times bestseller Reading Like a Writer. Her latest book is Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife. A former president of PEN American Center, she lives in New York City.
"Racy, intensely imagined, and highly readable . . . Prose brings to Caravaggio a fresh and unflinching eye." -- New York Times Book Review"Combines astute examination of his work with just a plain good yarn about a street tough who painted transcendent pictures." -- Entertainment Weekly"Elegant . . . [Prose] fills out the intrigue of Caravaggio's own life and writes terrifically about the paintings." -- Hartford Courant"Tautly written and insightful." -- Seattle Times"In this engaging and informative short biography . . . Prose vividly brings [Caravaggio's] paintings to life." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review"Matching gorgeous prose to gorgeous artworks, Prose responds to each image as a moment of theatrical revelation, sensual or spiritual." -- Boston Sunday Globe"Everything a casual reader needs to know about flamboyant Baroque artist Caravaggio... Makes you want to go to the museum." -- U.S. News & World Report"Prose's concentrated interpretation... clearly and descriptively explicates the pioneering painter's unique perception of the miraculous in everyday life." -- Booklist"Fine biography--and a study of why revolutionary art can be reviled in its own time and revered in another." -- Kirkus Reviews
"Racy, intensely imagined, and highly readable . . . Prose brings to Caravaggio a fresh and unflinching eye." -- New York Times Book Review"Combines astute examination of his work with just a plain good yarn about a street tough who painted transcendent pictures." -- Entertainment Weekly"Elegant . . . [Prose] fills out the intrigue of Caravaggio's own life and writes terrifically about the paintings." -- Hartford Courant"Tautly written and insightful." -- Seattle Times"In this engaging and informative short biography . . . Prose vividly brings [Caravaggio's] paintings to life." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review"Matching gorgeous prose to gorgeous artworks, Prose responds to each image as a moment of theatrical revelation, sensual or spiritual." -- Boston Sunday Globe"Everything a casual reader needs to know about flamboyant Baroque artist Caravaggio... Makes you want to go to the museum." -- U.S. News & World Report"Prose's concentrated interpretation... clearly and descriptively explicates the pioneering painter's unique perception of the miraculous in everyday life." -- Booklist"Fine biography--and a study of why revolutionary art can be reviled in its own time and revered in another." -- Kirkus Reviews
This biography of 17th-century Italian painter Caravaggio (1571-1610) is part of HarperCollins's "Eminent Lives" series of brief, compelling biographies on canonical figures by distinguished authors. Novelist and National Book Award finalist Prose (A Changed Man) aims to provide an engaging, general introduction to the popular and influential artist for a wide range of readers by touching on all aspects of Caravaggio's life and works. While to a limited extent she covers the social and historical contexts that may have largely shaped his career, she mainly focuses on his artwork, often giving subjective, inconsistent, and insufficiently documented insights about the man and the patrons of his many oil paintings. Including a bibliography of mostly English-language academic references but lacking chapters, endnotes, and an index, this nonscholarly text belongs in public libraries that wish to augment their art collections with a highly readable and concise though in many ways nonauthoritative account of the painter's life and works. [Forthcoming in the series is Edmund Morris's Ludwig van Beethoven, scheduled for release in October. Future titles will feature Bill Bryson on Shakespeare, Karen Armstrong on Muhammad, and Christopher Buckley on Mark Twain.-Ed.]-Cheryl Ann Lajos, Free Lib. of Philadelphia Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
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