Customer Reviews

The Last Van Gogh

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I might have had a slight curiosity about the Post Impressionist painter that cut off his ear. But reading this historical novel peaked my interest. Ms. Richman's writing got me so caught up in the story that I found my self looking up every painting mentioned. I even went as far as to try and match specific descriptive passages to specific paintings, drawings, etc. The description of Mr. Van Gogh's suffering and his need to complete each painting was made so real to me. This novel has left a lasting impression.

The Last Van Gogh, is a compelling, visually powerful , and beautifully written novel of the last two months of Vincent Van Gogh's life which he spent in Auvers ,while being treated by Dr. Gachet, a homeopathic physician of dubious reputation. It is a work of historical fiction about the strange Gachet household . During this time Van Gogh painted many of his finest paintings and Ms. Richman's vivid description of the brush stokes and colors of these paintings made me want to immediately view them. The doomed short love affair of the very ill artist with Marguerite Gachet is riveting and tragic .. I highly reccomend it.

Alyson Richman has clearly figured out what the ideal mixture is for a transcendent book.

Begin with a fascinating historical subject, add equal parts impeccable research and a gorgeous love story, and mix all of that together with brilliant writing and, viola, you will wind up with The Last Van Gogh.

The story details Vincent Van Gogh's days at Auvers while under the care of Dr. Paul Gachet. The tale is told through the eyes of Gachet's daughter, Marguerite, with whom Richman speculates Van Gogh had a love affair with while he was adding the final pieces of art work to his oeuvre.

This clandestine affair is genuinely affecting, as it was deeply passionate and one that gave Margerite her only taste of true love. However, as with anything to do with Van Gogh, it was ultimately doomed. Along the way, Marguerite will experience the joys and sorrows of love and the reader will experience them with her with a great deal of empathy.

The story is narrated in vivid detail, capturing the essence of France in the 19th Century perfectly and making the reader feel not as if he's reading a book, but as if he's actually in Auvers watching the action as it unfolds. The love affair plays out in an extremely suspenseful fashion, allowing for a book that nearly turns its own pages. As I tore through the novel's final 50 pages, feeling as breathless as the story's protagonist, I realized, upon completion, that this was a story which would stay with me for many years to come. I am already looking forward to rereading it.

Truly, this is Richman's best work to date and one of the best books I have read in years. It is a book you can recommend to anyone who can understand the written word and, while I utter this with a bit of hyperbole, is a book worth learning to read for.

I came to this book knowing next to nothing about Vincent VanGogh, other than perhaps the severed ear incident, and the well known song, "Vincent." I was totally drawn into the world of the characters as presented by Alyson Richman. The poignancy and intensity of Marguerite's love and longing for Vincent were so real, and deeply affecting, as was the lonliness of her life as practically a servant to her father and brother. It was a book that I did not want to end, especially knowing that Marguerite and Vincent's love was doomed. I don't have a problem knowing that the author's bringing those two together in her novel was purely speculation and not based on anything factual, it was a beautiful story that could have happened. I also, as someone else has commented, found a VanGogh website and looked up the paintings as they were mentioned in the book. That added a lot to the enjoyment of reading. I would definitely recommend The Last Van Gogh.

In 1890 an ailing Vincent van Gogh arrives at Auvers-sur-Oise, France seeking help from homeopathic Dr. Gachet. The artist finds an odd household awaits him as the widower physician has two children, twenty years old suppressed daughter Marguerite and a younger brother of no consequence to Vincent. The child also has governess Madame Chevalier, whom van Gogh assumes is the doctor's mistress. Finally, Chevalier's adult daughter Louise-Josephine joins the mix.

A talented pianist Marguerite finds a connection to van Gogh as she would love to escape her gilded cage and see the world. She thinks the frail van Gogh might be her ticket. The painter also likes the youthful enthusiasm of the young woman and asks her father if he can paint her. Obtaining permission, he begins a series of paintings that depict a girl becoming a woman but also emphasizes her loneliness. As they begin a tryst, he tells her he cannot marry her, but gives her a painting of her to keep before her father realizes what is happening and locks her way; not long afterward van Gogh killed himself.

This historical fiction actually centers more on Marguerite than on van Gogh with the premise being that she was his muse during his last seventy days of life, in which he provided an extraordinary explosion of masterpieces. The story line is intriguing; however, the support cast (including van Gogh) comes across as more fascinating and fuller than the lead protagonist. Still the vivid colorful look at the final days brings the era to life along with some insight into the demons eating at the artist. Readers of biographical fiction will enjoy this account of the LAST VAN GOGH from the perspective of his final inspiration.

Harriet Klausner

Marguerite is 21 when Vincent Van Gogh arrives at her father's door for medical/psychological treatment. Dr. Gachet practices from his home, so Marguerite has ample opportunity to interact with the artist. She is drawn to Vincent, who is enormously talented but emotionally fragile, and in a very short time, they fall in love, in spite of the disapproval of her father and brother. Their romance is the pivot around which this novel revolves.

What works best in this story is the depiction of the plight of women around the turn of the twentieth century. Dr. Gachet, as portrayed here, is an incredibly selfish man with questionable personal and professional ethics. The life of Marguerite, as well as those of her father's mistress and illegitimate daughter, are under his absolute control, which he wields with chilling disregard for their own preferences or ambitions. He cultivates artists as patients because it gives him access to their paintings, which he covets and accepts as payment. He makes liberal use of homemade herbal tinctures with limited understanding their pharmacology.

What does not work particularly well is the author's characterization of Vincent, who in this book serves as the catalyst for Marguerite's story and not as a fully developed protagonist. His tragic struggle with depression is described rather than shown, and he comes across as more ghostly than vibrant in the scenes in which he is physically present.

The Last Van Gogh is a bittersweet love story, but those wishing to know more about the artist will find little of value here.

This book is set during the last few months of van Gogh's life, when he was under treatment at Auvers from a doctor Gachet. The book imagines the sometimes-rumored affair between van Gogh and Marguerite Gachet, the daughter of Dr. Gachet, of whom van Gogh painted at least two portraits during his last days and is thought to have begun a third portrait.

The book was extremely fast-paced and very much painted a believable and sympathetic picture of the life of a young girl shut away in her father's house without any diversions or prospects of her own, and the fantastical period she experienced in falling in love with her father's patient, the intense and unbalanced van Gogh. Even though the reader knows what inevitably happens to van Gogh, Marguerite's excitement and pain still manage to suck you in.

This book was a great read (and a very fast one as well).

I was thinking of buying the new biography of Van Gogh, but reflecting on all I've already read, I decided on a more fun approach. This is fiction as there is no proof of the relationship between Vincent Van Gogh and Marguerite Gachet, daughter of Van Gogh's doctor in Auvers-sur-Oise. Nevertheless, it really could have been and all the author's research is meticulous and factual. The result, however, is a highly entertaining read that captures both the intensity of Van Gogh's last months and the constricted life of Marguerite. I added to the experience by dipping in to Van Gogh-The Complete Paintings by Ingo F.Walther and Rainer Metzger to see all the paintings mentioned and the setting of the town of Auvers. I'm looking forward to reading more by Alyson Richman.Van Gogh Complete Paintings

I wanted to read more about Van Gogh's life and I discovered a new and wonderful world of Van Gogh's written by the imagination of the author, interdispersed with the true facts of his life. A lot of careful research went into this beautifully written novel. The last 70 days of Van Gogh's life are covered by his trip to Auvers to live by his doctor and amateur painter, Dr. Gachet. Enrapped by Dr. Gachet's close attention to his medical problems and his paintiogs, Van Gogh's discovers love with Dr. Gachet's daughter, Marguerite. The novel is written thru the eyes of Marguerite, and how beautiful does these eyes see Vincent, not only through his marvelous paintings of her (and there are two paintings actually done of her), but through the growing love and emotional attachment she gives to Vincent. The give and take of their most wonderful relationship are treated with the tenderness of a gifted writer. The author covers much of the exquisite paintings he did do in Auvers and describes them with detail and love, the kind Vincent gave to his talent for art. Love could never be so good as these two come together. With the mixture of truth and fiction, the author gives Van Gogh and Marguerite the love and attention they never had in real life, but perhaps they did? Read it with wonder and love.

I have been a lover of and appreciator of art for 30+ years. The period of time in which Van Gogh wrote was my favorite. He is such a tormented and talented man.

Anything I can find about him or his life, and see of his works is always of interest to me.