The Man in the Red Coat

The Man in the Red CoatFrom the Man Booker Prize winning author of The Sense of an Ending a rich, witty, revelatory tour of Belle poque Paris, via the remarkable life story of the pioneering surgeon, Samuel Pozzi. In the summer of 1885, three Frenchmen arrived in London for a few days' intellectual shopping: a prince, a count, and a commoner with an Italian name. In time, each of these men would achieve a certain level of renown, but who were they then and what was the

From the Man Booker Prize-winning author of The Sense of an Ending--a rich, witty, revelatory tour of Belle poque Paris, via the remarkable life story of the pioneering surgeon, Samuel Pozzi.

In the summer of 1885, three Frenchmen arrived in London for a few days' intellectual shopping: a prince, a count, and a commoner with an Italian name. In time, each of these men would achieve a certain level of renown, but who were they then and what was the significance of their sojourn to England? Answering these questions, Julian Barnes unfurls the stories of their lives which play out against the backdrop of the Belle poque in Paris. Our guide through this world is Samuel Pozzi, the society doctor, free-thinker and man of science with a famously complicated private life who was the subject of one of John Singer Sargent's greatest portraits. In this vivid tapestry of people (Henry James, Sarah Bernhardt, Oscar Wilde, Proust, James Whistler, among many others), place, and time, we see not merely an epoch of glamour and pleasure, but, surprisingly, one of violence, prejudice, and nativism--with more parallels to our own age than we might imagine. The Man in the Red Coat is, at once, a fresh portrait of the Belle poque; an illuminating look at the longstanding exchange of ideas between Britain and France; and a life of a man who lived passionately in the moment but whose ideas and achievements were far ahead of his time.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Published: 02/18/2020
ISBN: 9780525658771
Pages: 288
Weight: 1.75lbs
Size: 8.30h x 6.10w x 1.30d

Review Citations: Library Journal Prepub Alert 09/01/2019 pg. 51
Kirkus Reviews 12/15/2019 pg. 104
Publishers Weekly 12/16/2019
Library Journal 12/13/2019 pg. 1
Booklist 02/01/2020 pg. 11