Portrait of a Man in Red

The Booker Prize winner Julian Barnes is one of the brightest and most original prose writers in contemporary Britain, the author of such international bestsellers as "One Story," "The Noise of Time," "The Sense of an Ending," "Arthur and George," "A History of the World in 10? Chapters," "Flaubert's Parrot," "Elizabeth Finch," and many others. Perhaps his main talent is the ability to effortlessly and naturally play with styles and genres. Subtle stylization and caustic irony, refined lyricism and sarcasm that borders on cynicism, aggressive harshness and cheerful mischief — all of this and much more is within Barnes' grasp. "To what genre should 'Portrait of a Man in Red' be assigned — historical, biographical, or philosophical?" asked the Independent newspaper; and it answered itself: "To all three at once! We have an ideal guide to an amazing era before us." So, let’s meet Samuel Pozzi — the fashionable Parisian doctor of the late 19th century, the father of modern gynecology and a legendary womanizer; in short, the very "man in red" depicted in Sargent's famous portrait "Doctor Pozzi at Home." Through the prism of the doctor's journey, accompanied by a letter of recommendation from Sargent to Henry James, Barnes examines Belle Epoque in all its diversity, and the reader cannot help but draw anxious parallels with the present day. Moreover, the doctor does not travel alone: he is accompanied by refined aristocrats Prince de Polignac and Count Robert de Montesquieu — the prototype of Baron de Charlus from Proust's epic "In Search of Lost Time."