Sue Prideaux

The Times Biography of the YearWinner of the Hawthornden Prize 2019Shortlisted for the HWA Non-Fiction Prize 2019 Longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2019Longlisted for the Cundhill History Prize 2019 Friedrich Nietzsches work blasted the foundation of western thinking. The death of God, the Ubermensch, and the slave morality permeate our culture, high and low, and yet he is one of historys most misunderstood philosophers. Nietzsche himself thought that all philosophy was autobiographical and in this myth-shattering book, Sue Prideaux brings readers into the world of a brilliant, eccentric and deeply troubled man, illuminating the events and people that shaped his life and work. From his placid, devoutly Christian upbringing, overshadowed by the mysterious death of his father, through his lonely philosophising on high mountains, to the horror and pathos of his final descent into madness, Prideaux explores Nietzsches intellectual, emotional and spiritual life with insight and sensitivity. The book is studded with unforgettable portraits of the people who were most important to him, including Richard and Cosima Wagner, Lou Salome - the femme fatale who broke his heart - and his rabidly nationalist and anti-Semitic sister Elizabeth, who betrayed him by manipulating his texts and putting them to infinite misuse at the hands of the Nazis. Today, Nietzsches ideas continue to be adopted by both the left and the right. I Am Dynamite! is the essential biography for anyone seeking to understand the philosopher who foresaw - and sought solutions to - our own troubled times.

A TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH, SPECTATOR, ECONOMIST, NEW STATESMAN AND TLS BOOK OF THE YEAR LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMENS PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2025 WINNER OF THE POL ROGER DUFF COOPER PRIZE 2025 SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024 WINNER OF THE FRANCO-BRITISH SOCIETY LITERARY AWARD 2024 A vital re-examination of the trailblazing and controversial artist Paul Gauguin - and the first full biography in over thirty years - written by the award-winning author of I Am Dynamite!: A Life of Nietzsche.Scintillating.FINANCIAL TIMESImmaculate.NEW STATESMANPhenomenal.PROSPECTA heroic rehabilitation.THE TIMES Paul Gauguin is chiefly known as the giant of post-Impressionist painting whose bold colours and compositions rocked the Western art world. It is less well known that he was a stockbroker in Paris and that after the 1882 financial crash he struggled to sustain his artistry, and worked as a tarpaulin salesman in Copenhagen, a canal digger in Panama City, and a journalist exposing the injustices of French colonial rule in Tahiti. In Wild Thing, the award-winning biographer Sue Prideaux re-examines the adventurous and complicated life of the artist. She illuminates the people, places and ideas that shaped his vision: his privileged upbringing in Peru and rebellious youth in France; the galvanising energy of the Paris art scene; meeting Mette, the woman who he would marry; formative encounters with Vincent van Gogh and August Strindberg; and the ceaseless draw of French Polynesia. Prideaux conjures Gauguins visual exuberance, his creative epiphanies, his fierce words and his flaws with acuity and sensitivity. Drawing from a wealth of new material and access to the artists family, this myth-busting work invites us to see Gauguin anew.

«Ni siquiera los dioses pueden escapar al aburrimiento.» «La premura es universal porque todo el mundo está huyendo de sí mismo.» «El mayor goce de la existencia es ¡vivir peligrosamente!» «Debes lle