The Horror Of Life
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.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
What do Charles Baudelaire, Jules de Goncourt, Gustave Flaubert, Guy de Maupassant, and Alphonse Daudet have in common beyond their literary genius? According to Roger L. Williams, each of these towering figures of nineteenth-century French literature was consumed by a profound, often debilitating despair — a shared psychic wound that shaped their art as much as their lives. The Horror of Life presents a series of compelling biographical studies, arguing that the physical and psychological suffering endured by these writers was not incidental to their work, but absolutely central to it, tracing the intimate connections between disease, anguish, and artistic creation. Williams writes with scholarly rigour and genuine empathy, situating each subject within the turbulent social and cultural landscape of fin-de-siècle France. His analysis cuts through romantic myth to uncover the raw, often brutal realities behind some of literature's most celebrated names — revealing how syphilis, depression, and existential dread fuelled some of the era's greatest masterpieces. For readers who thought they knew these canonical figures, The Horror of Life promises to permanently alter the lens through which their work is read.
Author: Roger L. Williams
Format: Hardback
Published: 1980, University of Chicago Press
Genre: Biography
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Worn/faded, no tears
Pages: Good
What do Charles Baudelaire, Jules de Goncourt, Gustave Flaubert, Guy de Maupassant, and Alphonse Daudet have in common beyond their literary genius? According to Roger L. Williams, each of these towering figures of nineteenth-century French literature was consumed by a profound, often debilitating despair — a shared psychic wound that shaped their art as much as their lives. The Horror of Life presents a series of compelling biographical studies, arguing that the physical and psychological suffering endured by these writers was not incidental to their work, but absolutely central to it, tracing the intimate connections between disease, anguish, and artistic creation. Williams writes with scholarly rigour and genuine empathy, situating each subject within the turbulent social and cultural landscape of fin-de-siècle France. His analysis cuts through romantic myth to uncover the raw, often brutal realities behind some of literature's most celebrated names — revealing how syphilis, depression, and existential dread fuelled some of the era's greatest masterpieces. For readers who thought they knew these canonical figures, The Horror of Life promises to permanently alter the lens through which their work is read.