Masterpiece (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading.Emile Zola's The Masterpiece (L'oeuvre) is the story of a young artist, Claude Lantier, and his struggle against the indifference and hostility of an ossified art world. His aim is revolutionary, for he believes that his dream of representing "e;the whole of modern life"e; will yield "e;a series of canvases big enough to burst the Louvre."e; Yet as an artist ahead of his time, he cannot prevail against the hidebound standards of the Academie des Beaux Arts-and, increasingly, against the limits of his own ability to paint the grand works that he envisions. Set in the bohemian milieu of nineteenth-century Paris, The Masterpiece recreates the art world that Zola knew well, both as a journalist and as the boyhood friend of one if its premier artists, Paul Czanne.