PublishedVintage Arrow, August 2021 |
ISBN9781529112313 |
FormatSoftcover, 280 pages |
Dimensions19.9cm × 13.1cm × 2.3cm |
Britain's most passionate Francophile takes us on a wonderfully rich, witty tour of Belle Epoque Paris, via the life story of the pioneering surgeon Samuel Pozzi. In the summer of 1885, three Frenchmen arrived in London for a few days' shopping. One was a Prince, one was a Count, and the third was a commoner, who four years earlier had been the subject of one of John Singer Sargent's greatest portraits.
The commoner was Samuel Pozzi, society doctor, pioneer gynaecologist and free-thinker - a scientific man with a famously complicated private life. Pozzi's life played out against the backdrop of the Parisian Belle Epoque. The beautiful age of glamour and pleasure more often showed its ugly side- hysterical, narcissistic, decadent and violent, with more parallels to our own age than we might imagine.SHORTLISTED FOR THE DUFF COOPER PRIZE 2019 AND THE COSTA BOOK AWARDS 2020
