[N8H]∎ Download The Letters of Vincent van Gogh Penguin Classics Vincent Van Gogh Ronald de Leeuw Arnold J Pomerans 0787721868552 Books

The Letters of Vincent van Gogh Penguin Classics Vincent Van Gogh Ronald de Leeuw Arnold J Pomerans 0787721868552 Books

Download As PDF : The Letters of Vincent van Gogh Penguin Classics Vincent Van Gogh Ronald de Leeuw Arnold J Pomerans 0787721868552 Books

The Letters of Vincent van Gogh Penguin Classics Vincent Van Gogh Ronald de Leeuw Arnold J Pomerans 0787721868552 Books

Van Gogh's letters are really a treasure that anybody who loves Art, Van Gogh's Art or just great historical figures should read. The Dutch painter is known by his characteristic colourful images and brush strokes, for his insanity and tragic ending. Reading some of the letters to his brother and confidant Theo allows us to leave behind the almost mythical movie-like character and meet the real Vincent, the human being, the man, the soul and the artist he was. His letters are full of realism, understanding and compassion towards human dejection and people living under harsh conditions; they are also full of spirituality and religiosity, of love and admiration for Nature, and of colour. His correspondence is a portal to his feelings of love, dejection, failure, fragility, indecision, anger, resentment, obsession and disappointments; are an example of how Art freed his spirit, a witness of his enthusiasm for literature and painting, as well as depiction of the poverty and misery that surrounded most of his adult life. In short, when reading Van Gogh's correspondence one feels transported to the late 19th century and living in Vincent's shoes. In that regard, the selection of letters presented in this edition helps to get a decent general view of who Van Gogh was.

THIS EDITION
This book contains a selection of letters from van Gogh to his brother Theo, to his mother, and to artist friends Anton van Rappard and Paul Gauguin. These letters were collected, assembled and numbered by Theo’s wife Johanna, whose Memoir formed the introduction to their original publication and is included here in full, as well.

My main problem with this book, is not with what is in it, but what is not, why is not. Said differently, we are offered an edited version of the person he was, an intentional mutilated view of his whole self, clearly appreciable if you compare any of the letters as presented here and the full reproduction of the letter elsewhere. I find extremely irritating editors with little understanding of what a historical document is trying to 'rewrite' history for the sake of brevity, to please, who?

The complete correspondence of Van Gogh might be a fatty plate for some people to swallow, and that is understandable. If a selection needs to be done for a book to be saleable, profitable and palatable, at least make a selection that is historically sound, well introduced and commented. However, the main sin of this book is not even the selection, but the fact that the letters chosen aren't reproduced in full. It is not that just that the dates, salutations and valedictions have been removed, it is that many times we get 1% of the original letter, a paragraph of a letter that had many pages.

One cannot separate the state of mind, heart and life circumstances of the artist from his art, because they are intrinsically linked. In fact, the editorial house's blah-blah-blah promo says just so. But after doing the mutilation, they say that this edition is "The result is an atypical take on Vincent van Gogh that avoids putting too much stress on his troubled mental state and too much straining by the editor to shape a narrative out of van Gogh's epistolary clues. Instead, we see the thoughtful and contemplative side of this creative genius, as well as his concern for the impact his art and life had on those people closest to him."

One gets more the multifaceted personality of Van Gogh by having his letters not mutilated. In addition, I don't want anybody who is not a super-duper editor with an understanding of what an historical text is, to do anything for me, to produce a mediocre text when a good one can be produced. If you cannot do something well, better do nothing. You might say, the book costs less than 4 bucks, right? but there are editions that offer the complete full unabridged non-mutilated translation of the correspondence for less than that.

THE TRANSLATION
Although the letters read well overall and some passages flow and are really enjoyable to read, many times the language is unnecessarily messy, wordy and imprecise. Besides, the many French bits are not translated or annotated, and so if you don't have a medium knowledge of that language, you will find yourself uttering a what?! quite often.

KINDLE EDITION.
This ebook works well in my device and have had no issues whatsoever. However, I'd like to mention, some little things:
> The book has some of Van Gogh's sketches and paintings mentioned in the letters reproduced in the book. They should have been attached to the letters they relate to, or at least linked from the letter to the sketch and back to the letter. This has not been done, and we can only access the drawings and paintings by going to the index of illustrations at the beginning.
> The analytic index has been linked in Kindle, although the number of page is not reflected, and a reference number appears instead.
> I have noticed some typos, mistakes, and results of the digital conversion that need to be addressed.
-- Proper typos: exhibitiosn (loc. 1023).
-- Unnecessary use of capitals: went into an Inn and I thought that he would stay (Locs 1255-1256). , Poor lad (Loc. 1299)
-- Unnecessary hyphenation of letters, probably the result of the digital conversion, as they might have been in different line breaks when converted to Kindle: bread con- venient for me’ (Loc. 1503).
-- Dubious verb concordance: Those vegetable gardens there have A KIND of old Dutch character which always greatly APPEAL to me. (Locs 2624-2625).
And so on.

MY RECOMMENDATION
It is because of my disappointment with this edition, that I searched for alternatives and came across very cheap and medium-priced books that supersede this edition in everything. A very cheap edition of the full correspondence and paintings (excluding the sketches) of Van Gogh plus the introductory biography by Joanna, can be found on Kindle: Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated) (Masters of Art Book 3). If you just want a medium-priced selection of the correspondence, not the whole bunch, but seriously edited and translated, based on sound academic criteria, with high quality reproductions of the sketches and drawings included in the letters you can read the edition by Leo Jansen, Hans Luijten, and Nienke Bakker of the Van Gogh Museu, titled Ever Yours: The Essential Letters.


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The Letters of Vincent van Gogh Penguin Classics Vincent Van Gogh Ronald de Leeuw Arnold J Pomerans 0787721868552 Books Reviews

I have never been drawn to van Gogh’s paintings, but I am very drawn to van Gogh. The bits of information that I had picked up here and there over the years about this man, engendered a kind of affinity that has grown with time. I approached his letters with a sort of reverence due to their intimate nature. They offer a glimpse of a deeply spiritual soul a man of tremendous passion and yearning who saw things with such eloquent clarity. A contemplative man given to bouts of fanaticism due to the depth of his nature. A man who saw beauty in the seemingly mundane. Each nuance of nature reflected back to him with melancholic beauty and deep longing. Very poignant and powerful. I often paused to hang my head and close my eyes as I absorbed his words, feeling them course in my veins and resonate through my soul. He lived on a far deeper level than most.
Wow...just wow. I have always enjoyed Van Gogh's works but I had no idea how complex he was. His letters to his brother paint a beautifully painful picture of the man who with the red beard. This is a must read for anyone. His writing is really lovely and you can feel his struggle to come into his own. His story is so heartbreaking and inspiring. He literally taught himself how to draw and paint people! He used a single book to teach himself. How amazing is that!
I was slow getting into this book, because I had so many before it to read. So, now that I have just finished reading it, while I still feel so strongly the emotions it brought forth, I want to recommend it most highly. It's an easy book to pick up and put down (like reading in bed before going to sleep). It is a little slow-going in the beginning, but holds one's interest. I started out knowing probably about as much as most people about van Gogh, but based on other reviewer's opinions, I stuck with it - in no hurry to finish it.
Little by little, it started to grab my attention, more and more, until I was genuinely "hooked". I am dumbfounded by van Gogh's gift of writing - how many of us knew that? He was certainly one of the most introspective and insightful men I've ever had the pleasure to read. Who knew that he was in his way as gifted with his writing as he was with his painting? His vocabulary, his ability to see beyond the obvious, his beautiful and tender emotions, his love for all his friends and family - it just leaves me feeling stunned by the magnitude of his thinking, his suffering, his hard, hard work. I'm not a "professional" reviewer, and I can't write like one. However, I am almost 80 years old, and have read hundreds of books, on all kinds of subjects...and I have to say this one strikes me as one that goes right to one's heart and soul - literally.
Do yourself a favor, stick with this book, and feel transformed by the enriching experience of it all. I have a better, though belated appreciation for this beautiful man
Van Gogh's letters are really a treasure that anybody who loves Art, Van Gogh's Art or just great historical figures should read. The Dutch painter is known by his characteristic colourful images and brush strokes, for his insanity and tragic ending. Reading some of the letters to his brother and confidant Theo allows us to leave behind the almost mythical movie-like character and meet the real Vincent, the human being, the man, the soul and the artist he was. His letters are full of realism, understanding and compassion towards human dejection and people living under harsh conditions; they are also full of spirituality and religiosity, of love and admiration for Nature, and of colour. His correspondence is a portal to his feelings of love, dejection, failure, fragility, indecision, anger, resentment, obsession and disappointments; are an example of how Art freed his spirit, a witness of his enthusiasm for literature and painting, as well as depiction of the poverty and misery that surrounded most of his adult life. In short, when reading Van Gogh's correspondence one feels transported to the late 19th century and living in Vincent's shoes. In that regard, the selection of letters presented in this edition helps to get a decent general view of who Van Gogh was.

THIS EDITION
This book contains a selection of letters from van Gogh to his brother Theo, to his mother, and to artist friends Anton van Rappard and Paul Gauguin. These letters were collected, assembled and numbered by Theo’s wife Johanna, whose Memoir formed the introduction to their original publication and is included here in full, as well.

My main problem with this book, is not with what is in it, but what is not, why is not. Said differently, we are offered an edited version of the person he was, an intentional mutilated view of his whole self, clearly appreciable if you compare any of the letters as presented here and the full reproduction of the letter elsewhere. I find extremely irritating editors with little understanding of what a historical document is trying to 'rewrite' history for the sake of brevity, to please, who?

The complete correspondence of Van Gogh might be a fatty plate for some people to swallow, and that is understandable. If a selection needs to be done for a book to be saleable, profitable and palatable, at least make a selection that is historically sound, well introduced and commented. However, the main sin of this book is not even the selection, but the fact that the letters chosen aren't reproduced in full. It is not that just that the dates, salutations and valedictions have been removed, it is that many times we get 1% of the original letter, a paragraph of a letter that had many pages.

One cannot separate the state of mind, heart and life circumstances of the artist from his art, because they are intrinsically linked. In fact, the editorial house's blah-blah-blah promo says just so. But after doing the mutilation, they say that this edition is "The result is an atypical take on Vincent van Gogh that avoids putting too much stress on his troubled mental state and too much straining by the editor to shape a narrative out of van Gogh's epistolary clues. Instead, we see the thoughtful and contemplative side of this creative genius, as well as his concern for the impact his art and life had on those people closest to him."

One gets more the multifaceted personality of Van Gogh by having his letters not mutilated. In addition, I don't want anybody who is not a super-duper editor with an understanding of what an historical text is, to do anything for me, to produce a mediocre text when a good one can be produced. If you cannot do something well, better do nothing. You might say, the book costs less than 4 bucks, right? but there are editions that offer the complete full unabridged non-mutilated translation of the correspondence for less than that.

THE TRANSLATION
Although the letters read well overall and some passages flow and are really enjoyable to read, many times the language is unnecessarily messy, wordy and imprecise. Besides, the many French bits are not translated or annotated, and so if you don't have a medium knowledge of that language, you will find yourself uttering a what?! quite often.

KINDLE EDITION.
This ebook works well in my device and have had no issues whatsoever. However, I'd like to mention, some little things
> The book has some of Van Gogh's sketches and paintings mentioned in the letters reproduced in the book. They should have been attached to the letters they relate to, or at least linked from the letter to the sketch and back to the letter. This has not been done, and we can only access the drawings and paintings by going to the index of illustrations at the beginning.
> The analytic index has been linked in , although the number of page is not reflected, and a reference number appears instead.
> I have noticed some typos, mistakes, and results of the digital conversion that need to be addressed.
-- Proper typos exhibitiosn (loc. 1023).
-- Unnecessary use of capitals went into an Inn and I thought that he would stay (Locs 1255-1256). , Poor lad (Loc. 1299)
-- Unnecessary hyphenation of letters, probably the result of the digital conversion, as they might have been in different line breaks when converted to bread con- venient for me’ (Loc. 1503).
-- Dubious verb concordance Those vegetable gardens there have A KIND of old Dutch character which always greatly APPEAL to me. (Locs 2624-2625).
And so on.

MY RECOMMENDATION
It is because of my disappointment with this edition, that I searched for alternatives and came across very cheap and medium-priced books that supersede this edition in everything. A very cheap edition of the full correspondence and paintings (excluding the sketches) of Van Gogh plus the introductory biography by Joanna, can be found on  Delphi Complete Works of Vincent van Gogh (Illustrated) (Masters of Art Book 3). If you just want a medium-priced selection of the correspondence, not the whole bunch, but seriously edited and translated, based on sound academic criteria, with high quality reproductions of the sketches and drawings included in the letters you can read the edition by Leo Jansen, Hans Luijten, and Nienke Bakker of the Van Gogh Museu, titled Ever Yours The Essential Letters.