Before and After: Gauguin's Memoirs

Author: Paul Gauguin
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2006-12-01
Features: In 1901, Paul Gauguin left Tahiti and boarded a two-masted sailboat heading to the Marquesas Islands. He disembarked on Hiva Oa Island, where he built his own hut and named it "The Joy of Life." There, he began painting and writing. Before and After recounts the author's wanderings and struggles in Arles, Brittany, Panama, and Papeete, listing all the "morals of the buttocks, religious morals, patriotic morals, soldier morals, and gendarme morals" that drove him to flee Europe in search of a primitive world. Gauguin also reflects on his friendship with Van Gogh, his artistic views, his dislikes, and his passions. This is an autobiography filled with "resentment and revenge," "terrible things," yet also love, considered Paul Gauguin's highest literary achievement. —Excerpt from the back cover
On May 8, 1903, in the morning after a storm, Gauguin, suffering from syphilis and eczema, died alone on Hiva Oa Island. On his deathbed, already unable to paint, Gauguin chose to summarize his life in writing—Before and After. Fifteen years after the painter's death, it was published for the first time. A hundred and three years later, this Chinese edition has been released. It is the inner monologue of a savage who abandoned his wife and children and rejected the entire civilized world, expressing his entire love and hatred for the world.
On May 8, 1903, in the morning after a storm, Gauguin, suffering from syphilis and eczema, died alone on Hiva Oa Island. On his deathbed, already unable to paint, Gauguin chose to summarize his life in writing—Before and After. Fifteen years after the painter's death, it was published for the first time. A hundred and three years later, this Chinese edition has been released. It is the inner monologue of a savage who abandoned his wife and children and rejected the entire civilized world, expressing his entire love and hatred for the world. This book recounts the author's wanderings and struggles in Arles, Brittany, Panama, and other places, listing all the "morals of the buttocks, religious morals, patriotic morals, soldier morals, and gendarme morals" that drove him to flee Europe in search of a primitive world. Additionally, Gauguin recalls his friendship with Van Gogh.