Books in the Critical Lives series

Lars T. Lih gives a non-partisan,vivid portrait and a striking new interpretation of a key revolutionary thinker and founder of the Soviet Union, Lenin, and shows that underneath the sharp polemics, Lenin was more a romantic enthusiast than a sour pragmatist.

This is an illuminating new critical biography of Yves Klein, which will appeal to students and scholars alike interested in the fascinating life of the radical and iconoclastic twentieth-century French artist.

Carl Jung is a clear and compelling critical assessment of one of the controversial and highly influential pioneers of psychology.

Published at the bicentennial of his birth, Raymond Furness's Richard Wagner provides a clear and balanced view of both Wagner's great successes and the controversies generated by his life and art.

This book is an engaging presentation of the life and work of the legendary French philosopher, political activist and mystic Simone Weil. Palle Yourgrau assesses Weil's controversial critique of Judaism, and her radical re-imagination of Christianity; and analyses how Weil's personal struggles influenced her mature philosophy.

Marta Braun's new biography of Eadweard Muybridge traces the sensational events of Muybridge's life against his personal reinventions as artist, photographer, high-minded researcher and showman.

A concise, readable account of the life and work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, one of the greatest and most original philosophers of the twentieth century

A new account of the short yet extraordinary life of Rosa Luxemburg.

A new critical biography of Leon Trotsky, a strong leader of Soviets and one of the most important figures of twentieth-century Communism. This biography delves deep into Trotsky's life and relationships to reveal and understand his complex character and actions.

New in the Critical Lives series, this is the first new biography of Walter Benjamin in more than a decade.

Adam Watt's biography considers Proust's early years of personal and aesthetic experiment, the growth of his masterwork A la recherche du temps perdu and his personal decline due to ill-health.

Examines Bukowski's writings, colourful life and the desperate conditions of his lifestyle. This book explores the effect the writer's hybrid identity had on the themes and content of his work. It catalogues and dissects the many versions of Bukowski created by the writer and his followers.

A critical biography of German novelist, playwright and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

A timely reappraisal of Indian writer, composer, musician, artist and activist Rabindranath Tagore.

Drawing extensively on Tchaikovsky's uncensored letters and diaries, this biography explores the composer's life in the artistic culture of nineteenth-century Russian society, revealing how he became a figure of international renown.

An original interpretation of Joseph Conrad's life of writing.

One of France's most high-profile writers and a Nobel Prize-winner, Albert Camus experienced both public adulation and acrimonious rejection during his career, which was cut short by a fatal car accident in 1960. Edward J. Hughes unravels the life of a complex personality whose work and stance were the subjects of intense interest and scrutiny.

An insightful biography of Leo Tolstoy, one of the greatest novelists of all time.

An illuminating reappraisal of Belgian surrealist artist Rene Magritte.

Kiff Bamford traces the circuitous journey of Jean-Francois Lyotard life and work, unravelling the thrust of Lyotard's main philosophical arguments, his struggle with thinking and his confrontation with the task of writing and thinking philosophy differently.

In this new critical biography Frida Beckman traces Gilles Deleuze's remarkable intellectual journey, mapping the encounters from which his life and work emerged.