Reading Vincent van Gogh A Thematic Guide to the Letters

Soon after his death, Vincent van Gogh’s reputation grew and developed through the remarkably symbiotic relationship evident between his paintings and letters. However, the sheer bulk and complexity of Van Gogh’s complete surviving correspondence presents a formidable challenge to those who wish to read and analyze the whole text as a literary work.

Reading Vincent van Gogh is at once an interpretive guide to Van Gogh’s letters and a distillation of the key themes that reoccur throughout his collected letters—foremost among them the motifs of suffering, love, imagination, and the ineffable. In this indispensable, synoptic view of the letters, Patrick Grant makes the main lines of Vincent van Gogh’s thinking accessible and displays the arresting vividness of the well-known artist’s writing.

About the Author

Patrick Grant, professor emeritus of English at the University of Victoria, is best known for his studies on literature and religion. He is the author of Imperfection, short-listed for the Canada Prize, and Literature, Rhetoric, and Violence in Northern Ireland, 1968–98.

Table of Contents

1. Preface and Acknowledgements
2. Introduction
3. Privacy and the Public Record
4. Biography and Beyond
5. 1. Shaping Commitments
   1. Religion
   2. Morality
   3. Art
6. 2. Enduring Adversity
   1. Suffering
   2. Perseverance
   3. Imperfection
7. 3. What Holds at the Centre
   1. Freedom
   2. Love
   3. Imagination
8. 4. The Power of Words
   1. Literature
   2. Word-Painting
9. 5. Matter and Spirit
   1. The Law of the Father
   2. Nature
   3. The Ineffable
10. Appendix 1: Some Facts About the Letters
11. Appendix 2: Suggestions for Further Reading

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). It may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that the original author is credited.