Picture Palace - Hardcover

Theroux, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0395264758 ISBN 13: 9780395264751

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, 1978

Synopsis

When a young archivist rummages through fifty years' accumulation of her photographs, seventy-year-old Maude Coffin Pratt realizes that her fame means nothing and that her true self rests on an incestuous passion

About this title

Book Description:

Penguin paperback, 1999, previous ISBN 978-0-140-05072-1

From the Back Cover:

“Never a dull moment . . . Vivid and deft.” — New York Review of Books

Maude Pratt is a legend, a photographer famous for her cutting-edge techniques and uncanny ability to strip away the masks of the world’s most recognizable celebrities and luminaries. Now in her seventies, Maude has been in the public eye since the 1920s, and her unparalleled portfolio includes intimate portraits of Gertrude Stein, Hemingway, and Picasso. While Maude possesses a singular capability to expose the inner lives of her subjects, she is obsessive about protecting her own, hiding her deepest secret in the “picture palace” of her memory. But when a young archivist comes to stay in Maude’s Cape Cod home and begins sorting through her fifty years of work, Maude is forced to face her past and come to terms, at last, with the tragedies she’s buried.

“A breathtaking tale . . . Intangibly, intricately brilliant.” — Telegraph (UK)

Paul Theroux is the author of many highly acclaimed books. His novels include The Lower River and The Mosquito Coast, and his renowned travel books include Ghost Train to the Eastern Star and Dark Star Safari. He lives in Hawaii and on Cape Cod.

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Publication date: 1978
• ISBN 10: 0395264758
• ISBN 13: 9780395264751
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 359