Aug 20 2006
The Agony and the Ecstasy
Author: Irving Stone
ISBN: 0099416271
DDC: 813.54
See also: LibraryThing; Wikipedia on Michelangelo; Michelangelo.com; Art of Florence
Read with Historical Favorites - group site
He sat before the mirror of the second-floor bedroom sketching his lean cheeks with their high bone ridges, the flat broad forehead, and ears too far back on the head, the dark hair curling forward in thatches, the amber-coloured eyes well-set but heavy-lidded.
This is a big book; over 750 pages of small print and crowded pages. So when I began to read and wasn’t all that impressed I thought I’d end up tossing it. The prose felt forced, stilted and somewhat boring. But as I read on I did get more and more interested. At the same time however, the style of prose doesn’t really improve. I enjoyed the book while reading it, but it was never a case that I simply couldn’t put the book down. In fact on a few occasions I wasn’t all that bothered to pick it up.
