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Van Gogh's Ear: The True Story Hardcover – International Edition, July 12, 2016

by Bernadette Murphy (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 24 ratings
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On a dark night in Provence in December 1888 Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear. It is an act that has come to define him. Yet for more than a century biographers and histo­rians seeking definitive facts about what happened that night have been left with more questions than answers.

In Van Gogh’s Ear Bernadette Murphy sets out to discover exactly what happened that night in Arles. Why would an artist at the height of his powers commit such a brutal act of self-harm? Was it just his lobe, or did Van Gogh really cut off his entire ear? Who was the mysterious “Rachel” to whom he presented his macabre gift? Murphy’s investi­gation takes us from major museums to the moldering contents of forgotten archives, vividly reconstructing the world in which Van Gogh moved—the madams and prostitutes, café patrons and police inspectors, his beloved brother, Theo, and his fellow artist and house guest Paul Gauguin. With exclusive revela­tions and new research about the ear and about Rachel, Bernadette Murphy proposes a bold new hypothesis about what was occur­ring in Van Gogh’s heart and mind as he made a mysterious delivery to a woman’s doorstep that fateful night.

Van Gogh’s Ear is a compelling detective story and a journey of discovery. It is also a portrait of a painter creating his most iconic and revolutionary work, pushing himself ever closer to greatness even as he edged towards madness—and the one fateful sweep of the blade that would resonate through the ages.
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  1. Print length
    336 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Random House Canada
  4. Publication date
    July 12, 2016
  5. Dimensions
    6.2 x 1.1 x 9.3 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0345816056
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0345816054
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

“[Van Gogh] has been sleuthed with determination and delicacy . . . and the result is an insightful and sympathetic portrait of a troubled artist. . . . Murphy wondered what she could possibly bring to the case that had been raked over by so many experts and historians (quite a bit, as it transpired), but she did feel she had one advantage. Her decades in France had given her an insight into the Provençal mindset. . . . Murphy weaves effortlessly between reconstructing Van Gogh’s life in Arles and her own adventures with dusty archives, absent-minded bureaucrats, serendipitous coincidences and labyrinthine dead ends. In the process she lays to rest some long-held assumptions. . . . She is determined to pursue the story to the end and recounts in poignant detail Van Gogh’s descent into irreversible instability.” —The Australian

“Murphy’s revelations are fascinating and add intriguing details to the great crisis of Van Gogh’s life.” —The Times

“Fresh perspective.” —CBC

“No one before has built up such a detailed picture of the people around [Van Gogh] during his unhappy but artistically fertile sojourn in Arles.” —The Telegraph 

“This book has the pace of a detective novel, sending fresh blood pulsing through an old tale as Murphy recreates the heartbreaking drama of Van Gogh’s loosening grip on reality. . . . Murphy’s book rescues the real Van Gogh from the lazy clichés of tea towel memorabilia by painting an electric, nuanced portrait of a man who achieved artistic brilliance despite his mental health issues and not because of them. In doing so, she allows for a version of his history in which her subject’s passion for life, art and humanity blooms like the sunflowers he painted.” —The Daily Mail 

“Murphy’s researches led her . . . to revelations which must surely revise the study of Van Gogh. . . . What emerges in the course of these revelations is renewed respect for Van Gogh.” —The National (Scotland)

About the Author

BERNADETTE MURPHY was born and brought up in the UK. She has lived in the south of France for most of her adult life and worked in many different fields. A series of chance events led her to start investigating the life of Van Gogh in Arles, but little did she know what an exciting adventure it would turn out to be.  Van Gogh’s Ear is her first book.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Random House Canada; First Edition (July 12, 2016)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0345816056
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0345816054
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.44 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.2 x 1.1 x 9.3 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 24 ratings

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Bernadette Murphy

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
24 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

STEPHEN PLETKO
5.0 out of 5 stars What REALLY happened on the night Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear?
Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2017
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“I began [the research for this book] with a vague idea: how did a single event [cutting off his ear] that took place in a Provencal backwater [the town of Arles, South France] 125 years ago [December 1888] come to define the painter Vincent van Gogh [1853 to 1890]? I had no idea of the thousands of hours I would spend trying to unravel the whole story, or of the false leads, the disappointments, and the exhilarating highs I would encounter.

The ear was simply the beginning.”

The above comes from this fascinating and thoroughly-researched book by Bernadette Murphy. She was born and brought up in the UK. Murphy has lived in South France for most of her adult life and worked in many different fields. This is her first book.

The fact is that for more than a century both biographers and historians seeking definitive answers about what happened that night van Gogh cut off his ear have actually been left with more questions.

Until now. Murphy sets out to discover EXACTLY what happened.

This book reads like a detective novel except it’s no novel. Murphy’s investigation takes us from major museums to musty, forgotten archives as she carefully reconstructs the nineteenth century world in which van Gogh lived.

Through her research we get to meet the madams and prostitutes, café patrons, police detectives, and doctors, his loyal brother Theo, as well as fellow artist and house guest Paul Gauguin (pronounced “Go-Ga”). We get to read the actual writings of some of these people and those of van Gogh himself.

The result is that Murphy provides us with a startling new hypothesis of what EXACTLY happened.

Finally, throughout are black and white illustrations. (I counted over thirty). There are also two sections of just gorgeous colour illustrations (or “plates”). (I counted almost fifteen in the first section and over ten in the second). My favourite colour plate shows van Gogh’s masterpiece “Starry Night.”

In conclusion, I found this to be an exceptionally well-written book that documents the madness, the prostitute, the art, and the legend known as Vincent van Gogh!!

(First published 2016; list of illustrations; prologue; 22 chapters; epilogue; main narrative 255 pages; acknowledgements; notes; bibliography; index)

<<Stephen PLETKO, London, Ontario, Canada>>

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craig
5.0 out of 5 stars A true detective.
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2017
A well-written, well-researched, spell-binding account of what really happened in December 1888 when Van Gogh famously cut off his ear. Bernadette Murphy is a true detective.
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Top reviews from other countries

Dr. Steven Levy
5.0 out of 5 stars The Truth about Van Gogh
Reviewed in Canada on November 20, 2016
Verified Purchase
Insightful moving and emotional explication of the truth. Makes Van Gogh a real person not a fabricated lie previously believed. The last pages are amazing.
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Drena Harvey
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on October 19, 2016
Verified Purchase
well researched -very interesting
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Raymond Argyle
4.0 out of 5 stars Now we know what happened to the ear
Reviewed in Canada on July 25, 2016
Verified Purchase
Vincent van Gogh’s attack on his ear, which came on the night before Christmas Eve in 1889 after escalating arguments with his house guest Paul Gauguin, provides the focal point of this fascinating new book.

The author, Bernadette Murphy, is an obscure Englishwoman who lived for many years in the South of France before taking up a study of van Gogh’s life. Once she got started, she was indefatigable. Her book is as much a story of her meticulous research into forgotten archives that would shed fresh detail on van Gogh, as it is a retelling of the painter’s life.

“Practically everything I thought I knew about van Gogh in Arles when I set off on this adventure turned out not to be true,” she confesses.

Ms. Murphy made three remarkable discoveries. In musty boxes at the University of California, she had a custodian find a drawing of van Gogh’s ear by the physician who attended him in Arles, Dr. Félix Rey. It shows that van Gogh severed nearly the whole of his ear, and not just the lobe as has been generally believed. After more than a century, the mystery appears to have been solved.

Ms. Murphy was also able to establish the true identity of Rachel, the girl in the brothel to whom van Gogh presented his newspaper-wrapped ear, telling her to take good care of it. And the famous petition demanding van Gogh’s removal to an asylum was engineered, according to the author, by a real estate agent conniving to rent the Yellow House to a more reputable tenant.

In writing Van Gogh’s Ear, Ms. Murphy might have given more attention to the role that self-injury plays in emotionally disturbed people. The Mayor Clinic says “self-injury is an unhealthy way to cope with emotional pain, intense anger and frustration.” Certainly van Gogh was undergoing such pain in Arles that Christmas, and indeed throughout much of his life.

Bernadette Murphy sees van Gogh’s actions that night as “altruistic – the behaviour of a thoughtful, sensitive, and extremely empathetic man,” one who was “far more than the sum of his torments ”

This new contribution to the shelves of van Gogh literature is an enjoyable and revealing addition.
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