The Difficulty Of Being [Paperback]

Jean Cocteau (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 21, 1995

Writer, filmmaker, visual artist, and celebrated leader of the French avant-garde, Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) once announced, "One must know how to go too far." The astounding scope of his work stands as a testament to that revolutionary spirit. Throughout his life he boldly experimented in almost every medium and achieved enduring success in them all: novels like Les Enfants Terribles; films such as The Blood of a Poet, Beauty and the Beast, and Orphee; as well as plays, ballets, drawings, poems, and even an opera of Oedipus Rex (written with Stravinsky). Cocteau regarded The Difficulty of Being as the key to his oeuvre and as a daring act of self-revelation. With terse skill he explores the innermost frontiers of his personality, from childhood memories to his creative wrestlings, from incisive portraits of Proust, Gide, Nijinsky, Picasso, and Stravinsky to reflections on death, friendship, dreams, youth, pain, beauty, haunted houses, and of course, on being without being. But no matter what he is writing about, he goes straight to the mark, illuminating a thought, subject, or personal reminiscence with precision and vitality. A magazine once asked Cocteau, If his house were burning and he could take only one thing, what would it be? "I'd take the fire," he answered. In The Difficulty of Being Cocteau does just that.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Saint of the French avant-garde, Cocteau here reflects on many aspects of his life. These 26 brief observations include his thoughts on everything from his childhood, his style, and the theater to haunted houses.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (March 21, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306806339
• ISBN-13: 978-0306806339
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #915,993 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars unbearable, November 20, 2007

By 

christopher bollweg (oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Difficulty Of Being (Paperback)

I find the "lightness" that is so unbearable to others... absolutely alive. I rank this deeply personal exploration of self as a fascinatingly layered first person account of a tattered fringe of human experience. I reel from both the cadence and subtle content.

10 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enfant Essays, September 11, 2002

By 

Doug Anderson (Miami Beach, Florida United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: The Difficulty Of Being (Paperback)

Cocteau will not appeal to thinkers who admire clarity and concise thinking. He is not a professional thinker one might say. he prides himself on his amateur standing and will appeal to others who find the word amateur appealing. He is a dilettante, granted he is the grandest of the dilettantes but a dilettante nonetheless. His rather slender examinations of different topics makes one realize he is driven exclusively by his own ego whose highest value is sensibility, namely his own, so the essays strike one as self celebrations more than serious investigations. This will interest those who love Cocteaus every word and gesture but there is not really that much in his writing to recommend him to a wide readership. he can be very amusing and occasionally you will find an insight that is striking and completely original but not that often. Mostly this is someone who writes in a comfy chair and concocts little sketches which remain rather sketchy albeit charming much of the time. In his time there was something rebellious about being defiantly amateur but there are limits to what one can accomplish when ones wayward instincts remain ones only driving force. That and the continual refining of sensibility. He remains a kind of enfant terrible and when he got older he was a much mellowed enfant terrible. He is an important figure that everyone interested in any or all the art forms must respect because he certainly made a contribution to nearly every form there is but these essays are not for rigorous thinkers. There is a vagueness in everything Cocteau did that makes it seem that maybe this was the key to his sensibility. I would recommend the book Les Enfant Terribles over this, there is literary power in that. These essays just leave you feeling hungry they are so slight.