The Masterpiece (The World's Classics) (Paperback)

by Emile Zola (Author), Roger Pearson (Editor), Thomas Walton (Translator) "CLAUDE was passing the Hotel doe Ville and the clock was just striking two when the storm broke..." (more)
Key Phrases: black velvet jacket, Rue Tourlaque, Madame Vanzade, Selection Committee (more...)

Editorial Reviews

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 the Paperback edition.

Product Description
The Masterpiece is the tragic story of Claude Lantier, an ambitious and talented young artist who has come from the provinces to conquer Paris but is conquered instead by the flaws of his own genius. Set in the 1860s and 1870s, it is the most autobiographical of the twenty novels in Zola's Rougon-Macquart series. It provides a unique insight into Zola's 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 Bohemian world in which the Impressionists came to prominence despite the conservatism of the Academy and the ridicule of the general public.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 8, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192829068
• ISBN-13: 978-0192829061
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 4.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,817,675 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Story Any Student Can Relate To, March 12, 2003

By	"jazzy_baby" (Montreal, Quebec) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Masterpiece (Oxford World's Classics) (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!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece, February 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Masterpiece (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

Here is a book which truly and accurately describes the life of an artist and his relationship with the world, his friends, his lover, and, most importantly, himself. It is a book of passion and the attempt of an artist to break through the boundaries set upon him and to come to grips with his own limitations. I could hardly put the book down at all once I'd begun reading it as Zola's prose is a joy to behold and a work of art in itself.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Zola at his best, July 30, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Masterpiece (Oxford World's Classics) (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.