Henri Toulouse-Lautrec: A Life

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Superb! Frey brings Toulouse-Lautrec to life in her brilliant book...

Recaptured the Past

I hate Freud when applied to people the author never met

Nothing New

Borrowing heavily from Perruchot

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec: A Life
Julia Frey
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de | ( S-U ) | Artists, A-Z | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 067080844X

Book Description

Debauched aristocrat, cabaret painter, accidental dwarf: Julia Frey's definitive, superbly researched biography strips away the myth of Toulouse-Lautrec to reveal the tortured man beneath. A remarkable and compelling portrait, featuring 135 photos and illustrations. Julia Frey earned her Ph.D. from Yale University. An expert on 19th-century French literature and culture, she has taught at Yale, Brown, Sarah Lawrence, and the University of Colorado; she currently divides her time among New York, Boulder, and Paris. A Pen Award-winning writer, she is also the author of Writers and Puppets in Nineteenth-Century France. 600 pp 6 x 9 50 color & 85 b/w photos & illustrations

Customer Reviews:

Superb! Frey brings Toulouse-Lautrec to life in her brilliant book..........2005-12-31

Briefly, what Julia Frey manages to do is to bring the soul and genius of Henry Toulous-Lautrec to life. Compounding fact on fact, she slowly reveals the life and times of a complicated son, man, artist and genius, who lived in a major transitional time period as social classes were dissolving and artistic trends and beliefs were being wrenched from their moorings. This 'little man'-who evokes our pathos as well as love-broke down more walls than any army could have, and he did it with style, guts and humor. It's an intense journey which could easily bog down in the details, yet I came away feeling like I knew his soul, could feel his deepest despair and witness his drive, ambition and frustation. What a marvel! His art is illuminated by Frey in a fresh way as she helps explain how he almost single-handedly invented posters-as-art, but also why he was a brilliant painter who created a style that was bold and unique.

What Frey manages to do is to humanize Toulous-Lautrec so that he's not a cartoon character, not the oddity that he's often reduced to. This is a brave man, an honorable man, a complictaed man who came from a complicated family. Bravo for them for sharing these letters, and for Julia Frey for putting the puzzle together afresh with such respectful illumination. It will break your heart but it will lift you higher. And you will feel like you lived in Paris in the late 1800s with the most phenomenal docent...one of the greatest artists of all time, Henry Toulouse-Lautrec!

Recaptured the Past.......2004-10-08

What I loved about this book was how it seemed to capture the spirit of the Montmartre during the "gay nineties". For me it was the next best thing to actually having been there.

I hate Freud when applied to people the author never met.......2003-01-02

I must agree with some of the other reviews that have appeared on this book. I got this book with the intention of learning something more about Toulouse Lautrec. I really like all aspects of his work and wanted to find something that would be more true to life than the the movie "Moulin Rouge." Usually in most biographies of artists there is a more than passing interest in the work. I did not find this aspect in this book. Instead the author focuses on rather facile Freudian looks at the paintings themselves. As Freud himself observed, "sometimes a cigar is only a cigar." Elements of composition are subjected to a desire to demonstrate some sort of unified field theory toward Toulouse Lautrec's art. I am still looking for a book that illuminate's Toulouse Lautrec's art and life for this clearly is not it.

Nothing New.......2001-01-05

I was excited with the prospect of reading a well written, well researched biography of one of the great artists. Well I was put off from the first. Referring to Henri's body as tiny, painfully deformed. I thought "Oh boy!" "Here we go again". It made me wonder how many people with disabilities she had ever met and that way of thinking that poor Henri could never find true love because of his size. Hmmm? What about Danny De Vito, Paul Williams, even throw in Truman Capote. All of these men are(were) small of height and ther lives were NOT dictated by the fact of not being six feet tall. Other than that their were no fresh insights, maybe just a tidbit here and there. Also did we really need those wonderful photos of Henri defecating on the beach?

Borrowing heavily from Perruchot.......2000-03-31

I read Frey's work on Lautrec and enjoyed it very much, but then read Henri Perruchot's work, published in 1962, and felt like I was rereading Frey's book. This leads me to believe that Frey used Perruchot's work as an outline and fleshed it out with the originally unpublished letters of Lautrec to his family.

If you want the definitive work on Lautrec, find an old copy of Henri Perruchot's work, which is more consise. If you can't find a copy, Frey's work is good, but more drawn out in unnecessary details.

Book Description

These richly illustrated art books cover several centuries of great artists and their masterworks. From Rubens to Dali, each artist's life and times, influences, legacy, and style are explored in depth. Each book analyzes a particular painting with regard to the history surrounding it, the techniques used to create it, and the hidden details that make up the whole, providing a thorough look at each artist's career. Included is a bibliography, a chronological reading of principle works, a brief life history, and listings of public collections featuring each artist.

Customer Reviews:

a crippled genius.......2004-07-09

Toulouse-Lautrec is my favorite artist. He has always fascinated me the most, both his life and his work. He had one or two accidents as a child where his legs were broken and they stopped growing. As a result, he became a dwarf. This must have created a deep-seated inferiority complex in him that caused him, consciously or unconsciously, to draw unflattering caricatures of his contemporaries. But the drawing style was completely original and his own. He soon became famous for his lithographs or posters depicting entertainers at the Moulin Rouge, etc. He was highly productive but always a heavy drinker and inexhaustible party animal. In fact, it was his frequenting of brothels and romantic friendships with prostitutes that eventually did him in. He caught syphilis, a deadly 19th century venereal disease for which there was no cure in those days. However, he left behind some of the most unique Impressionist paintings of Parisian night-life ever painted.

Customer Reviews:

Receipes from Lautrec.......2005-09-24

The book is good for a biography of Lautrec but it seems to be a cookbook secondarily. The receipes really do not appeal to me, but the photos are nice. I think the Monet, Cezanne, Renoir, and Van Gogh "Table" are better.

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The tragic life of Toulouse-Lautrec,
Lawrence Hanson
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0007DYB0K

Henri De Toulouse Lautrec: The Reporter of Modern Life (Terrail Art)

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Henri De Toulouse Lautrec: The Reporter of Modern Life (Terrail Art)
Pierre Cabanne
Manufacturer: Vilo International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec 1864-1901 the Theatre of Life

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Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec 1864-1901 the Theatre of Life

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ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Henry de Toulouse-Lautrec: Life and work (Art in hand)

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Henry de Toulouse-Lautrec: Life and work (Art in hand)
Udo Felbinger
Manufacturer: Barnes & Noble Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 0760721572

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The National Fabric: Fashion, Britishness, Globalization (Dress, Body, Culture)
Alison Goodrum
Manufacturer: Berg Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 1845201868
Release Date: 2005-11-24

Book Description

British fashion is characterized by oppositions: punk versus pageantry, anarchy versus monarchy, Cool Britannia versus Rule Britannia. Why has British fashion come to be so contradictory? How are these contradictions employed to "sell British"? What do they mean for consumers who "buy British"? Through an examination of iconic fashion companies Paul Smith and Mulberry, The National Fabric provides telling insights into the culture of contemporary fashion and the dilemmas of "going global". Goodrum argues that 'Britishness' is characterized less through a particular look than through its ambiguities. She shows how the apparently straightforward and economically--driven process of globalizing British fashion is, in fact, far more culturally nuanced and locally embedded than has previously been suggested.

Book Description

A Garfield Classic!

Garfield may have gone through a few changes, but one thing has stayed the same; his enormous appetite for food and fun. So laugh along with the classic cat, because classics are always in style.

Book Description

Critics raved about the first edition of "DUMBTH"--a work that one described as "the ultimate how-to book." Now updated and expanded with twenty new ways to think better, this is Steve Allen's humorous and provocative examination of the increasing American tendency toward muddle-headedness and ineptitude, which Allen uniquely defines as "dumbth." After cataloguing a host of hilarious and sometimes alarming personal encounters with shoddy workmanship, bad service, failures to communicate, and the general breakdown in the capacity to reason, Allen offers 101 solutions to this widespread problem. He recommends that we add a fourth "R"--reasoning--to the traditional reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic. Always witty and thought-provoking, 'DUMBTH" makes a compelling case that thinking well, like any skill, requires study, practice, and application.

Customer Reviews:

Allen doesn't practice what he preaches.......2007-09-03

Honestly, I could not finish this book. It was too infuriating. This is without a doubt the worst book on critical thinking I have ever read.

First, let's get one thing out of the way: Steve Allen knows *how* to think critically. His advice for improving the reader's reasoning skills is generally not bad, which is the only reason I can give this book two stars. The problem, though, is that he doesn't actually *do* it. The book is chock full of examples of him failing to take his own advice -- lazy thinking, hasty generalizations, unsupported assertions, obvious biases, etc. So, even though it is clear that he knows how to think critically, and he thinks that it's important for other people to do so, he fails at it miserably.

For example, in the introduction, he goes off on a bit of a rant against people (particularly teen-aged girls) who frequently use pause-fillers such as "like" and "you know." He asserts that there is a correlation (which he calls a "direct" correlation, but he means an "inverse" one) "between the number of times a person will use the phrase 'you know' in a given sentence and his I.Q." This is pure fiction. He does not even attempt to support this by citing any scientific research. This claim is entirely a product of his own bigotry, yet he regards it in his own mind as being just as strong as an actual scientific finding.

This comes as no surprise, since he pompously (and incorrectly) refers to his book as a "study." This is a perfect example of the kind of thinking that he will later warn the reader against.

A little further on, he makes the same type of error again, when he asserts that rock & roll music causes stupidity. I wish I were making this up. "[S]ome forty years of exposure to the newer, more mindless, repetitive, ungrammatical, poorly constructed songs has inevitably had an effect on the public consciousness itself [....] Taken all together, some four decades of brainwashing with such music is one more reason for the deterioration of intelligence in the United States."

It is important to note that he is asserting not just a correlation, which would be bad enough, but also an actual causal relationship. Again, he does not cite any scientific research to support this conclusion. It is based entirely on his own biases.

At that point, I started skipping around the book to get a sense of where it was going. I saw no evidence that there was any ebb in his hypocrisy, bigotry, and pomposity. I couldn't read any further.

Steve Allen was clearly an intelligent person, but as he himself warns the reader, even intelligent people can make errors in reasoning. In some ways, they are more likely to do so, because they overestimate their own intellectual prowess. Unfortunately, Allen himself provides a perfect example of this.

Fascinating/useful though Allen shows some dumbth of his own.......2004-03-18

My thoughts on this book are mixed. Generally, I think that this book has some useful, insightful and funny observations and theories about how to think well.

However, there is one glaring defect: Allen's irrational interaction with others. Perhaps in Allen's reading of human psychology, he missed the two most fundamental features of human thinking.

First, people almost all of the time are thinking only of themselves. What's that mean? Steve Allen is not the center of everyone's universe! They are! Allen practically expects people to drop everything to cater to him. For instance, a receptionist at the nerve center of a hotel is supposed to know everything about him. Guess what? The poor, underpaid receptionist has his/her phone ringing off the hook with hundreds of other Allens all of whom think that they're the most important people in the universe.

Second, nobody likes to be criticized. Nobody--including you, Steve. Would an intelligent person spin their wheels pointing out to someone that they had to repeat information or that their thinking is faulty? Only if you want to make them angry, unhelpful and waste your time. A smart person does what it takes to get the job done--maybe even repeating themselves. They don't waste their time with puerile games of intellectual posturing.

Here's something to think over. When one goes fishing, they bait the hook not with what they want to eat (in the case of Allen, marmalade jam) but with what the fish wants. If you want people to be cooperative, think about their perspective and how to give them what they want to accomplish your end. Typically, it's not all that difficult either. It can be as simple as being polite and complimenting them on doing something well rather than pointing out their faults.

But you can always bang your fists insisting that everyone stop to fetch your marmalade jam as if they care, but that's just dumbth.

Joining the intelligensia..........2004-03-01

It is often said that comedy serves the same role in society today that the court jester used to play in courts of old -- not just a person who helps to release tension and entertain, but also a prophetic voice, a truth-teller, someone who can deal with the unpleasantness of reality without becoming a threatening or problematic figure. Steve Allen definitely falls into the latter category -- while there is no question that Allen's talents in the entertainment field are considerable (he was the creator of the Tonight Show, which is still running, in addition to 'intelligent' shows such as 'Meeting of the Minds' for PBS), he brings an uncharacteristic intelligence to his productions (which includes more than 50 books, in addition the work in acting media).

Steve Allen coined the term 'Dumbth' for the earlier edition of this book. He speculates (in ways that might put professional educators to shame) on the level of ignorance and stupidity (not the same things) in society today. Allen was one of the originators of the 'Man in the Street' interview, asking such as questions as 'Would you vote for an acknowledged heterosexual?' and finding the most bizarre responses. Reality being twice as true but half as funny as most comedy, he highlights the difficulties children have with geography -- not only could half a class of children in Miami not find London on the map (and they thought the Falklands were off the English Coast, that Quebec was in Alaska, etc.) but also that eight percent of these kids -- in Miami, remember -- could not find Miami on the map...

After recounting tale after harrowing tale, Allen does something few comedians (and alas, sometimes few educators) do, and that is to suggest solutions! His earlier text suggested 81; in republication, Allen came up with 20 more solutions, for 101 in all. Some are simple logical propositions, well known to logicians and others trained in analytical reasoning -- beware of erroneous assumptions, drawing conclusions from insufficient evidence, etc. Others are more personal in nature -- not falling in love with the first answer, not looking for the easiest answer, not giving in to prejudice or superstition. Once could easily make a calendar out of these 101 rules, as they are each but a page or two in length, yet contain wisdom beyond common sense.

Rule 75 is perhaps the most important one -- it perhaps should be elevated to Rule 1 status. 'Stop thinking you "don't have time" to improve yourself.' This is good advice, not just for figuring out reasoning and intelligence skills, but for almost everything; the wise person will understand that there is time for the important things, and the designation 'important' is truly up to us.

Allen's warning in the final rule (be sceptical of the internet) as well as his concern about rationality and reason not being a cure-all (sometimes it is merely a placebo) deserve further treatment, alas, not from the great Allen himself, but perhaps some disciple shall. Allen states that sometimes the problem is not that people are not rational and reasonable, but rather too much so -- that they take the processes and results to such extremes that it becomes difficult to deal with; often this leads to another kind of problem of reason, the most insidious and difficult kind to deal with -- the problem of those who are correct.

An interesting text, a good and revealing trek through the state of current culture, done with humour and grace. This is not a text on logic, so don't go into it expecting such. Allen wraps much of his personal life and experience into his narrative, so do expect that -- Allen has lived an interesting life, and who among us hasn't seen the truly stupid taking place around us daily?

Before you buy, please read this...........2002-08-22

There are 2 books I have ever read that have brought fear to my darling pets. This is one of them(the other won't be mentioned). This book is the worst(not one of..) book on critical thinking I have ever read. My pets run now when I pick this thing up, since I am likely to throw it across the room on occasion. The wit in it? yes, decent enough, a chuckle here and there though I have to add a couple are AT the author/narrator and not with him. That is not to say that Mr. Allen isn't a good humorist, he is. I destictly enjoy his wit. But in this book the method used cannot possibly save him. He preaches Critical thinking(Good!, thank God!), and sets them about in rules, or guide/examples(Good, again! easy to read) and then defies the reader's reasoning ability by cutting too short, or by making generalizations, or(FOR THE LOVE OF GOD) talking about his life and where he was at such and such time, and why he joined the army! Its an assault, while it does make neat and easy to read points, it is a horrid basis for critical thinking. Mr Allen is affiliated with critical thinking societies(which, thank god are left out). With his background in critical thinking I cannot fathom how he messed this up so badly. I will try and break it down a bit:

to the lay-reader, new to Critical thinking: Read once, from a library, learn the over-view then forget this book happened.

to the quasi-thinker: yes, there is bad(and good)humor in this, good points too. Made badly though, shop around a bit more.

to the critical thinker: Skip it, for the love of god. Allen inserts 'personal' views and opinion in a phrasing like fact. Allen talks down, not to the reader in areas. Contains more bland blah-blah wording than a grocery-store mag...

..and if this isn't enough, before buying check it out at a library. Scan through for his italics, denoting a scientic test, or a test of teachers, or a reference of some sort. Note a couple and flip to the back of the book.. no bibliography. Nothing, nada. Mr. Allen defied the one true rule of critical thinking books, he omited sources(in an easy to find manner). If he weren't close to James Randi, I believe Mr. Randi would use his maxium opus: Put up or shut up.

Don't buy this book. Flim-Flam, by James Randi is a great place to start for anyone. As is Nearly anything by Micheal Shermer. Demon Haunted World(I think this is correct, the sub-title, Science as a Candle in the Dark, is what sticks with me most, a good search on either or both should do well), by Carl Sagan is a classic in critical thinking, and addresses similar points as Dumbth in a much better manner. For Advanced Critical Thinkers I suggest anything by Mr. Sagan, or by Stephen J. Gould. Any of the above mentioned is a sure-fire way to get more thought for your buck.

Thank you for your time.

Disappointing scholarship: what was he thinking?.......2001-08-24

For a book that presumes to teach us to think better, this is disappointing scholarship. Its flaws include: (1) The book includes only an anecdotal diagnosis of the problem, that as a society we are getting dumber. Scientific American has recently documented an overall rise in IQ scores, though: does this mean we're really getting smarter? This book doesn't even approach this kind of discussion: there's no attempt at objective or statistical analysis, just a long string of anecdotes on egregiously dumb behavior that anyone has seen, which may or may not mean anything. It looks like this book was slapped together in three weeks, not surprising considering how prolific the author was. (2) The analysis of what's causing the problem is superficial. He mentions TV only briefly. It deserves more serious and detailed consideration, comparable to (but with a less hysterical tone than) Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, by Jerry Mander. (3) The author fails to recognize that no matter how good the education system, it will still produce some dummies, and these people tend to be the ones with unglamorous jobs he rails against. One really ought to be kinder and more patient with these people than the author describes (e.g., in the incident when his room service help doesn't know what marmelade is), they're often doing the best they can. (4) The author gives 101 suggestions on how to get smarter, many of which are pretty good, but there is no summary, and no index. Their omission makes searching through such a long list too difficult for the book to be useful. This last problem is particularly thoughtless, since this book went through two editions. If you can afford only one book on critical thinking, get The Demon-Haunted World, by Carl Sagan, instead.

'dumbth', The Lost Art Of Thinking - With 101 Ways To Reason Better & Improve Your Mind

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'dumbth', The Lost Art Of Thinking - With 101 Ways To Reason Better & Improve Your Mind
Steve Allen
Manufacturer: Prometheus Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K1JWSU

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