The First Bohemian: The Life Of Henry Murger
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Edition: First Edition
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Markings: No markings
This richly detailed biography chronicles the turbulent life of Henry Murger, the nineteenth-century French writer whose semi-autobiographical sketches gave birth to the enduring myth of Bohemian artistic life in Paris. Robert Baldick presents a vivid portrait of a man who lived in genuine poverty among painters, poets, and musicians in the Latin Quarter, transforming his own hardships into the romanticized world that would later inspire Puccini's beloved opera La Bohème. Written with scholarly precision yet an engaging narrative warmth, the biography uncovers the painful irony at the heart of Murger's legacy — that the man who immortalized carefree artistic struggle died young, broken, and largely forgotten. Baldick illustrates how Scènes de la Vie de Bohème reshaped Western culture's imagination of the struggling artist, cementing an archetype that persists to this day. This authoritative account stands as an essential work for anyone drawn to the history of French literature, Parisian cultural life, or the complex relationship between art, myth, and biography.
Author: Robert Baldick
Format: Hardback
Published: 1961, Hamish Hamilton London
Genre: Biography
Edition: First Edition
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
Markings: No markings
This richly detailed biography chronicles the turbulent life of Henry Murger, the nineteenth-century French writer whose semi-autobiographical sketches gave birth to the enduring myth of Bohemian artistic life in Paris. Robert Baldick presents a vivid portrait of a man who lived in genuine poverty among painters, poets, and musicians in the Latin Quarter, transforming his own hardships into the romanticized world that would later inspire Puccini's beloved opera La Bohème. Written with scholarly precision yet an engaging narrative warmth, the biography uncovers the painful irony at the heart of Murger's legacy — that the man who immortalized carefree artistic struggle died young, broken, and largely forgotten. Baldick illustrates how Scènes de la Vie de Bohème reshaped Western culture's imagination of the struggling artist, cementing an archetype that persists to this day. This authoritative account stands as an essential work for anyone drawn to the history of French literature, Parisian cultural life, or the complex relationship between art, myth, and biography.