Jean Cocteau
Subtitle: a life
By: Claude Arnaud ; translated by Lauren Elkin and Charlotte Mandell
Contributors: Elkin, Lauren, translator; Mandell, Charlotte, translator
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 1014
ISBN-13: 9780300170573
Subjects: Artists; French Authors; Biography; Motion picture producers and directors
Work titles: Jean Cocteau
Description: Unevenly respected, easily hated, almost always suspected of being inferior to his reputation, Jean Cocteau has often been thought of as a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. In this landmark biography, Claude Arnaud thoroughly contests this characterization, as he celebrates Cocteau's "fragile genius--a combination almost unlivable in art" but in his case so fertile. Arnaud narrates the life of this legendary French novelist, poet, playwright, director, filmmaker, and designer who, as a young man, pretended to be a sort of god, but who died as a humble and exhausted craftsman. His moving and compassionate account examines the nature of Cocteau's chameleon-like genius, his romantic attachments, his controversial politics, and his intimate involvement with many of the century's leading artistic lights, including Picasso, Proust, Hemingway, Stravinsky, and Tennessee Williams. Already published to great critical acclaim in France, Arnaud's penetrating and deeply researched work reveals a uniquely gifted artist while offering a magnificent cultural history of the twentieth century.
Notes: Translation of: Jean Cocteau.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 984-989) and index.

Translated from the French.