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Review
"The useful and scholarly introduction as well as the chronology will be a great help to students."--Anna Arnar, Moorhead State University
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
The Masterpiece is the tragic story of Claude Lantier, an ambitious and talented young artist from the provinces who has come to conquer Paris and is conquered by the flaws in his own genius. While his boyhood friend Pierre Sandoz becomes a successful novelist, Claude's originality is mocked at the Salon and turns gradually into a doomed obsession with one great canvas. Life - in the form of his model and wife Christine and their deformed child Jacques - is sacrificed on the altar of Art.The Masterpiece is the most autobiographical of the twenty novels in Zola's Rougon-Macquart series. Set in the 1860s and 1870s, it provides a unique insight into his career as a writer and his relationship with Cezanne, a friend since their schooldays in Aix-en-Provence. It also presents a well-documented account of the turbulent Bohemia world in which the Impressionists came to prominence despit the conservatism of the Academy and the ridicule of the general public.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Zola at his best,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Masterpiece (Paperback)
I must disagree with the reviewer who said that The Masterpiece would be hard to like as a woman or as an American! I am both and I loved it. Partly this is because of Zola's whole series of books in which you meet characters you knew before or their children or relations--I loved that Claude was related to Etienne, the hero of Germinal, as well as Gervaise from The Dram Shop. It gives you the sense that you already know something of the genetic makeup (fragility, instability, whatever) of the character before the plot even begins. It was captivating to feel that Zola was giving more reign to his own voice as an art critic and to the specific things he loved and found problematic about Impressionism. Of course it is terribly depressing in the end; but how many Claudes must go down for every Renoir or Monet who rises to the top? Seems very realistic to me--and it's Zola, so you have no illusions that anyone will be happy in the end. I might even give it four and a half stars if I were allowed.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Story Any Student Can Relate To,
By "jazzy_baby" (Montreal, Quebec) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Masterpiece (Paperback)
Zola shares with us a deep and intimate relationship he had with Paul Cezanne and Baptistin Baille. "The Masterpiece" is a story about a brilliant and talented young painter Claude Lantier who has many ideals of what a masterpiece should be. Unfortunately, the public fails to appreciate/understand his vision. His pieces are ridiculed and laughed at the exhibition year after year. Claude retreats to the countryside but fails to create a painting that lives up to his expectation. Suffering mental breakdown, his wife and son Jacques become the ultimate sacrifice of his obsession with his arts. Zola tells Claude story and yet at the same time, portrays the bohemian lives of artists in the 19th century Paris quarters. He also shows many sides of other artists who lived in that period. A Journalist turned novelist Sandos (himself), as Claude's best friend; Fargerolles, equivalent to modern days "commercial artists"; Bongrand, whom I suspect to be the character for Pissaro (just my guess); Dubuche (modeled after Baille), the former art student who later despises bohemian lives when he joins a prestigious architectural firm; Mahodeau, the starving artist; Jori, the desperate journalist which would be known as "the tabloid reporter" in today's world and a few others. Zola's story is true and relevant in real life today. A true master in naturalism, Zola has done it again! An excellent portrait of the art world, it has a great unexpected ending as well. The story is quite depressing but I love it!
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Masterpiece,
By victor soare (merrick, ny United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Masterpiece (Paperback)
This book is most likely overlooked as compared to some of Zola's other novels due to the fact that it includes many incidents and themes drawn from his previous works. Zola tends to include "courtesans" in most of his books, and this is no exception; with a scene in which the main chracter (Claude) has a nightly adventure with Mathilde (one such courtesan). About twenty pages dealing with this incident seem transcribed directly from his previous work Nana. Other such examples exist, which may have helped keep the book from universal recognition as compared to others. Another "discrepancy" being detrimental overrall is the ending which, although emotionally packed by naturalist standards, still is in some ways unfulfilling. A reader gets the impression that no other way existed for the book to end, and in fact the best climaxes are about halfway through the work. Misfortunes abound, yet individual incidents do not so much sadden and shock by themselves, only when taken with the rest of the book (it must be the "naturalist technique"). What was most enjoyable about the entire novel is not so mcuh the act of creating as its effect upon Claude (a painter) and his relationship to his wife (Christine), which ranges from idylls during summer to a secluded winter atmosphere. Most of the themes in the book are grand; anything from what makes a genius to the change in people and landscapes over time. Some have charged The Masterpiece with attempting to undermine the Impressionist art movement of the time and to show the failings existent in its practitioners. This must seem absurd, if only for the fact that Claude (said to based upon Zola's friend Cezanne) is described with more sympathy than any other tragic hero of Zola's I have ever read of. In fact, if one reads this book, one feels as though one truly understands Impressionism. Here, we have Claude explaining to his wife why he has used the color blue when painting a tree. He shows her a spot where the sun's light is distilled in such a way as to appear blue. And in fact, many other such modern concepts are explained by Claude to the benefit of Impressionism. All in all, the ending may be unfulfilling precisely because Zola must have thought too well of this particular hero and there truly was no other way, with as much didgnity, to end his existence. Read this novel (to fully appreciate it) before reading other more famous works by Zola. Many modern readers may not appreciate the main message of the book: That genius must be chaste.
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