Selfie with ‘Sunflowers’
Julian Barnes on Vincent van Gogh, and the difficulties of seeing his well-known work with fresh eyes.
The Sin of Height
Ballooning in the 19th century. Adapted from Levels of Life, a book by Julian Barnes about love, loss and ballooning:
“Aeronauts were the new Argonauts, their adventures instantly chronicled. A balloon flight linked town and country, England and France, France and Germany. Landing provoked pure excitement: a balloon brought no evil. By the Normandy fireside of M. Barthélemy Delanray, the village doctor proposed a toast to universal brotherhood. Burnaby and his new friends clinked glasses. At which point, being British, he explained to them the superiority of a monarchy over a republic. But then, the president of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain was His Grace the Duke of Argyll, and its three vice presidents were His Grace the Duke of Sutherland, the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Dufferin, and the Rt. Hon. Lord Richard Grosvenor MP. The equivalent French body, the Société des Aéronautes, founded by Tournachon, was more democratic and intellectual. Its aristocrats were writers and artists: George Sand, Dumas père et fils, Offenbach.”
