Lust for Life (1934) - Irving Stone Audiobook

Written by Irving Stone
Read by Steve West
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Books on Tape/Random House
Release date: March 6, 2012
Duration: 19:37:10

Since its initial publication in 1934, Irving Stone’s Lust for Life has been a critical success, a multimillion-copy bestseller, and the basis for an Academy Award-winning movie.

The first and most famous of all of Stone’s novels, it is the story of Vincent Van Gogh—brilliant painter, passionate lover, and alleged madman. Here is his tempestuous story: his dramatic life, his fevered loves for both the highest-born women and the lowest prostitutes, and his paintings—for which he was damned before being proclaimed a genius. The novel takes us from his desperate days in a coal mine in southern Belgium to his dazzling years in the south of France, where he knew the most brilliant artists (and the most depraved whores). Finally, it shows us Van Gogh driven mad, tragic, and triumphant at once. No other novel of a great man’s life has so fascinated the American public for generations.

The Book is largely based on the collection of letters between Vincent van Gogh and his younger brother, art dealer Theo van Gogh. This correspondence lays the foundation for most of what is known about the thoughts and beliefs of the artist.

The narrative of Lust for Life creates origin-stories for many of the artist’s famous paintings. Including: The Potato Eaters and Sunflowers. Stone wanted to explain Van Gogh’s difficult life and how he began, flourished, and died as a painter. People close to Van Gogh’s life, like Paul Gauguin, are also characters in the novel.

The book is divided into nine smaller “books”, titled based on the places Van Gogh lived: London (Prologue), the Borinage, Etten, The Hague, Paris, Arles, St. Remy, and Auvers.

also see: Dear Theo: The Autobiography of Vincent van Gogh - Vincent van Gogh

I would include the link but ii changes when the domain changes.