A Painter of Our Time (Masterplots II: British and Commonwealth Fiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: John Berger
- First Published: 1958
- Type of Work: Kunstlerroman
- Time of Work: The 1950’s
- Setting: London
- Principal Characters: Janos Lavin, John, Diana, Sir Gerald Banks, Len Hancock, Vee Hancock, Laszlo
- Genres: Long fiction, Bildungsroman, Autobiographical fiction
- Subjects: 1950’s, Politics, Socialism, Revolutions, Art or artists, England or English people, War, London, Capitalism, Bohemianism
- Locales: London, England
The Novel
The principal action in A Painter of Our Time takes place across a stretch of some four years in the life of the fictional Hungarian painter Janos Lavin. The story is told in part by Lavin’s friend John, who resembles John Berger in several ways—not least in his being an art critic during this period—and who has discovered Lavin’s journal in the latter’s studio after his return to Budapest in October, 1956. The text alternates between passages from the journal and the interpolations of John, who fills in the gaps, narrating more fully the events...
[The entire page is 2252 words long]
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