Degas in New Orleans: Encounters in the Creole World of Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable - Softcover

Benfey, Christopher

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0520218183 ISBN 13: 9780520218185

Publisher: University of California Press, 1999

Synopsis

Edgar Degas traveled from Paris to New Orleans during the fall of 1872 to visit the American branch of his mother's family, the Mussons. This war-torn, diverse, and conflicted city elicited from Degas some of his finest paintings. He arrived at a key moment in the cultural history of this most exotic of American cities, still recovering from the agony of the Civil War. This decisive period of Reconstruction, in which his American relatives were importantly involved, was also the time when the American writers Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable were beginning to mine the resources of New Orleans culture and history.

About this title

About the Author:

Christopher Benfey is art critic for Slate magazine and Associate Professor of English/Chair of American Studies at Mount Holyoke College. He is the author of The Double Life of Stephen Crane (1992) and Emily Dickinson and the Problem of Others (1984). He is the recipient of Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships.

From The Washington Post:

"Yes, Degas in New Orleans involves a haunted house, ghosts, and titillating couplings, but all elements are solidly anchored in historical events and retold by Christopher Benfey in a deft synthesis of art criticism and historical speculation. . . . An elegant introduction to a city that remains a secretive, seductive metropolis.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0520218183
• ISBN 13: 9780520218185
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 294