next »

[octoprof]

Inspired by this post on the "great" books you couldn't finish thread, I went to the library to find Irving Stone's The Agony and the Ecstasy, a novel of Michaelangelo.

I have seen the movie a couple or three times over the years and was intrigued. So, I thought I'd read the book, if I could get through it.

As it happened, I couldn't put it down. It was fascinating. The only real difficulty was keeping the Italian proper names of people and places straight, especially as several generations of some families were involved and they tended to name their sons after the previous generation, lots of Lorenzos, Gulianos, Gualinos, etc. and similar last names, lots of Medicis, for example.

I don't know exactly how much of the book is biographical (most, no doubt) and how much is fictionalized/romanticized by the author, but it was a good read.

Of course, I'll never be able to watch the movie again, as it was very odd casting (Charlton Heston as Michaelangelo, a very small man) given the book's descriptions of the artist and because it only viewed a portion of Michaelangelo's very long life (as I recall, I haven't seen it in years).  The long string of popes during that time was particularly difficult and interesting to follow.

Anyone else read this book?

[galactic_hedgehog]

I haven't, but I'd like to.  I'd also like to read some of his others, particularly The Origin, his novel about Darwin.  Opinions?

[octoprof]

I haven't, but I'd like to.  I'd also like to read some of his others, particularly The Origin, his novel about Darwin.  Opinions?

I started Lust for Life, yesterday. This is his novel of Van Gogh. I think this was his first biographical novel?

[prytania3]

Isn't that the movie that became a recurring theme in Annie Hall?

[octoprof]

I don't know about that, prytania.  I can't remember a bit of Annie Hall, now. You do make me curious, though.

I do know that in the movie based on the book, Charlton Heston did a pretty good job of portraying the intensity and passion of the sculptor/painter, but didn't bear any physical resemblance to him, whatsoever.

[fiona]

The Sorrow and the Pity, Marcel Ophuls's film, is what's mentioned in Annie Hall. It's a 4-hour-or so film about the Holocaust.

I read Lust for Life a long time ago and couldn't put it down. Stone's depiction of the frenzy of artistic creation was fascinating, riveting.

The Fiona

[octoprof]

I read Lust for Life a long time ago and couldn't put it down. Stone's depiction of the frenzy of artistic creation was fascinating, riveting.

The Fiona

I started it yesterday. Van Gogh is still an evangelist at this point in the book. It sure changes my preconceived ideas of him to imagine him preaching the gospel to downtrodden coalminers.

[prytania3]

The Sorrow and the Pity, Marcel Ophuls's film, is what's mentioned in Annie Hall. It's a 4-hour-or so film about the Holocaust.

I read Lust for Life a long time ago and couldn't put it down. Stone's depiction of the frenzy of artistic creation was fascinating, riveting.

The Fiona

You're right, of course.

[mickeymantle]

I read Lust for Life a few years ago after I watched the 1956 film version with Kirk Douglas (good, by the way, with stunning cinematography, but a bit overrated.)  I was enthralled with the book.  Never read either the book or saw the movie, Agony, although Charlton Heston does seem a bizarre choice (too tall, and too Nordic?).

I would rank Stone as an excellent writer of historical fiction, probably not as great as my favorites, Herman Wouk and Gore Vidal, but close.  His non-fiction book on losing presidential candidates, They Also Ran, is also very good.

[epistephiliac]

I read this book a few years ago, while I was still living in Italy, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was fascinated by his descriptions of Michelangelo's creative process, and the politics of the art world. The place and family names were mostly familiar to me, so that didn't get in the way of my reading pleasure at all.