In Search of Glory — William Bostock

THE GREAT GAUGUIN is a biographical historical novel about the great French artist, Paul Gauguin, published in two volumes, by William Bostock, the author of I, Cleopatra. In Search of Glory, Volume I, is the odyssey that led Gauguin from a young sailor in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, to being a wealthy stockbroker in Paris, to becoming an aspiring artist in the Bohemian world of Montparnasse. Married to the beautiful Danish girl Mette, he attracted a glittering entourage that was made up of the leading figures of the day, Pissarro, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas and Vincent van Gogh. He became a rebel genius who scandalized society with his lusty life that was reflected in his provocative paintings. In Bostock's novel, Gauguin struggles to achieve greatness as an artist, against insurmountable odds, in an enthralling tale that vividly evokes a bygone age.