Van Gogh: The Life (Complete in Three Parts)

Name: Van Gogh: The Life (Complete in Three Parts)
ISBN: 9787544753883

Steven Naifeh / Gregory White SmithYilin Press2015

4.6

Chapters: 1
Series: Van Gogh: The Life is a biography of Vincent van Gogh written over ten years by the American authors Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, who won the Pulitzer Prize for their Jackson Pollock biography. This Chinese edition, translated by Shen Yubing with Song Qian, He Weihua, and Kuang Xiao, was published by Yilin Press in 2015 in the “Biography Yilin” series. The book is arranged in three parts—“The Early Years,” “The Dutch Years,” and “The French Years”—and runs from Van Gogh’s birth in 1853 to his death in 1890. Drawing on a long collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, thousands of letters, and extensive archives, the authors built a dedicated database of more than 100,000 research cards. The book includes over 28,000 notes and nearly two hundred paintings and photographs. Rather than retelling the legend of the “ear-cutting genius,” it reconstructs piece by piece Van Gogh’s family, his religious struggles, his years in art dealing and missionary work, his close bond with his brother Theo, and his creative life and illness in The Hague, Paris, Arles, Saint-Rémy, and Auvers. It also offers new explanations for his love life and private life, the mental illness running through his family, and the many unanswered questions surrounding his death at thirty-seven. The Chinese edition adds a family tree, maps, a note on Vincent’s fatal wound, and a translator’s afterword. It is at once a meticulously detailed biography and a portrait of the late nineteenth-century European art world.
ISBN: 9787544753883

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Summary

There are many books about Van Gogh. Irving Stone’s Lust for Life is the most widely read and makes the “burning artist” easiest to remember. This biography by Naifeh and Smith takes a different path: it tests the myth against the archives. Both authors trained at Harvard Law School and won the Pulitzer Prize for their Jackson Pollock biography; they handle material almost like detectives. For Van Gogh they worked for ten years with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, compiling thousands of letters and more than 100,000 research cards into a database, with over 28,000 annotations. The book therefore contains both the scenes in which Sunflowers and The Starry Night came into being and the less “legendary” everyday life of an art-dealer’s apprentice, a missionary in the mining district, and a patient in an asylum. The Chinese edition is led by Professor Shen Yubing of Zhejiang University, with Song Qian, He Weihua, and Kuang Xiao; the renderings of names and art terms are handled well, and the translator’s afterword discusses the edition and the translation. The hardcover runs to nearly nine hundred pages and includes a family tree, maps, color plates, and an appendix on Van Gogh’s fatal wound that addresses the long-running debate over whether he killed himself. It demands patience, but what it offers is not a sigh about “genius and madness” but a person who can be followed day by day. For readers who want to enter Van Gogh’s world, this is currently the most reliable large-scale choice in Chinese.

Editor's review

市面上写梵高的书不少，欧文·斯通《渴望生活》流传最广，也最容易让人记住那位“燃烧的艺术家”。这部奈菲与史密斯合著的传记走的却是另一条路：把神话放回档案里检验。两位作者都是哈佛法学院出身，写《波洛克传》拿过普利策奖，习惯用近乎侦探的方式处理材料；为了梵高，他们与阿姆斯特丹梵高博物馆合作十年，把数千封书信和十万余张资料卡片编入数据库，评注超过两万八千条。因此书里既有《向日葵》《星夜》诞生的现场，也有画店学徒、矿区传教士、疗养院病人这些不那么“传奇”的日常。中文版由浙江大学沈语冰教授领衔翻译，宋倩、何卫华、匡骁参与，译名与艺术术语处理得当，译后记也对版本与译事有所交代。精装近九百页，附家谱、地图、彩图插页，另有一篇关于梵高致命伤的附录，回应“是否自杀”的长期争论。读它需要耐心，但它提供的不是一句“天才与疯子”的感叹，而是一个可以被逐日追踪的人。对想真正进入梵高世界的读者，这是目前中文世界最可靠的大部头选择。

Who it's for

A good fit for

希望系统了解梵高生平而不是只看传奇故事的读者
美术、艺术史与视觉文化专业的师生
喜欢档案式传记、愿意读长篇细节的深度阅读者
对19世纪末欧洲艺术圈与书信文献感兴趣的读者
逛过梵高美术馆或看过梵高大展、想补足背景的人

Not a good fit for

只想用一两个小时读完一本轻松小传的读者
更偏爱《渴望生活》式抒情小说笔法的读者
对精神疾病、自杀等沉重议题较为敏感的人
需要大量高清图版临摹的画册型读者

Reading tips

先读序言《狂热的心》与后记《长眠于此》，把握全书的问题意识，再回到第一部分顺序阅读。
配合家谱与地图阅读，遇到人名地名随时回查，可明显降低长篇人物关系的阅读负担。
读到法国岁月部分，可对照梵高博物馆在线作品图录同步看画，理解文字与画面的对应。
关于梵高之死的附录可留到最后读，先保留开放判断，再对照作者的推断。
可分三部分按“早年—荷兰—法国”节奏读，每部分读完后停一停，用笔记串起时间线。

About the publisher

Yilin Press China · Founded in 1988

Yilin Press focuses mainly on translated foreign literature. Its current catalogue of 318 titles covers common categories such as mystery and detective fiction, foreign literature, world classics, biography, and social novels. Representative books include The Complete Sherlock Holmes 2: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Pride and Prejudice, To the Lighthouse, The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, and Lives of the Artists: Michelangelo, often presented in bilingual or English-language editions that serve both original-text reading and language learning. Its author resources include foreign writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, and Romain Rolland, as well as translators including Li Jiazhen, Gao Fen, and Ma Ye. The catalogue also includes Chinese works such as Li Jieren's Ripples Across Stagnant Water. The press shows a concentrated publishing strength in foreign classics and bilingual readers; given limited public information, this overview is based only on catalogue data.

Biography Yilin

FAQ

这部《梵高传》和《渴望生活》有什么区别？

《渴望生活》是欧文·斯通写的小说化传记，重抒情与传奇色彩；奈菲与史密斯这部依托梵高博物馆档案和书信文献，注释详密，更强调史料核证，对“割耳”“自杀”等流行说法都有重新讨论。

“全三部”是三个独立分册吗？

不是。它是同一部传记按“早年岁月”“荷兰岁月”“法国岁月”分为三个部分，电子版或套装常标为“全三部”，中文版为一部完整的大书，精装约895页。

没有艺术史基础能读懂吗？

可以。全书以时间顺序叙述，术语门槛不高，家谱、地图和译注可辅助理解；但涉及画派、技法与作品分析的部分，有一点基础会读得更顺。

书中真的提出了梵高并非自杀的观点吗？

是。作者在附录《关于文森特致命伤的说明》中依据档案与目击材料，对“自杀”提出质疑，认为存在其他可能。这一看法在学界有争议，宜作为一家之言阅读，不必当作定论。

这个中文版是谁翻译的，质量如何？

由浙江大学沈语冰教授领衔，宋倩、何卫华、匡骁合译，历时约十八个月完成。读者普遍认为译名规范、文句畅达，书末附有译后记说明译事，是较为可靠的中文译本。

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