The Europeans

The Europeans is a richly enthralling panoramic cultural history of nineteenth-century Europe told through the intertwined lives of three remarkable people: a great singer pauline viardot a great writer Ivan Turgenev’s and a great connoisseur pauline''s husband Louis. Their ambitious lives and complex loves were bound up with an astonishing array of writers composers and painters all trying to make their way through the exciting prosperous European cultural landscape that came about as a result of huge economic and technological change. This culture - through trains Telegraph and printing - allowed artists of all kinds to exchange ideas and make a living as they travelled across the whole continent from the British Isles to imperial Russia. The Europeans is Orlando figes'' Masterpiece. It describes huge changes through intimate details little-known stories and through the lens of turgenev and the viardots'' Touching strange love triangle. Events which we now see as central to European high culture are made completely fresh allowing the reader to revel in the sheer precariousness with which the great salons premier and bestsellers came into existence.