Preview of Lust for Life Summary:

Besides receiving the best press and remaining one of his best known works, Lust for Life, Stone's first successful fictionalized biography, gave direction to his career. In this novel, the biographer sets forth well-researched factual material about Van Gogh's life based chiefly on the three volumes of the artist's letters to his brother, Theo, and on material unearthed in research, while dramatizing, often very romantically, the artist's thoughts and conversations. The novel presents a lonely, intense man, suffering from epilepsy, driven by an obsession to create life from his paints. It is a thoughtful examination of his passions, his search for love and his battle against loneliness and physical collapse.

Stone's belief that Van Gogh was misunderstood in his lifetime and subsequently treated unfairly in biographies provided a good deal of the inspiration for Lust for Life. Prior gossip and publicity presented Van Gogh...