The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo

When I initially beheld this hefty tome, I wasn't confident that I was in the appropriate mood for it or prepared to dig in and digest such a dense, detailed tale of the extraordinary life of Michelangelo Buonarroti, but WOW! Once I began, I very nearly couldn't put it down, and eagerly looked forward to devouring passages at every opportunity. Irving Stone has assembled a truly legendary and unforgettable work. Although fictionalized, this is the fruit of six years of research, the author even becoming apprenticed as a sculptor himself during that time, all in the name of inquiry. You need not have more than elementary knowledge of Michelangelo or much in the way of art appreciation to enjoy it (I had neither). However, you will show more absolutely wish to have access to a collection of images of his works nearby for reference.

I was moved by Michelangelo's innate passion to create; his yearnings were palpable, even to a non-creative type like myself. To see him throw every ounce of strength and energy into his work at the expense of eating and sleeping, even to the point of wasting away, consumed by desire, it's understandable why genius and madness are often said to be closely intertwined.

Although the customs and familial obligations of the day were admittedly different, I can't be the only reader who desired at times to strangle Michelangelo's astonishingly incompetent and ungrateful family members. The ways in which he was toyed with and pushed around by family and notables of the day, when his only longings were to produce his art, are heartbreaking. show less

I enjoyed the biographical novel of Michelangelo very much. The great master became flesh and blood before my very eyes: from early childhood Michelangelo was audacious. He could get his master to pay for his apprenticeship when it should have been the other way around. He could connive the mortuary key from a priest so that he could do the unthinkable - dissect corpses; all to better understand the muscles and bones that make up human body. He steals another man's mistress because he could. He count strand up to a Pope and not take no for an answer. His loves were passionate: while he loved three women dearly, his art meant more than anything. He believed he was freeing his subjects from their marble prisons. He battled Pope Julius II show more who insisted Michelangelo work in every medium except marble. He was capable of emotional outbursts of jealousy and despair like when his competition with Leonardo da Vinci became too much or when the woman of his dreams held him at arms length and never offered him more than a hand to kiss...
He was such a tragic figure, but I also enjoyed getting to know Michelangelo as a physical human being; learning that he was ambidextrous while chiseling his sculptures. When his right hand grew tired of driving the chisel he would simply switch hands to keep working. The fact he became an architect at age seventy was astonishing. show less

Celebrating the 500th anniversary of Michelangelo's David, New American Library releases a special edition of Irving Stone's classic biographical novel-in which both the artist and the man are brought to life in full. A masterpiece in its own right, this novel offers a compelling portrait of Michelangelo's dangerous, impassioned loves, and the God-driven fury from which he wrested the greatest art the world has ever known.

This was a long-overdue read. I had expressed my disappointment with The Birth of Venus (http://francine.livejournal.com/8451.html), and this book was suggested as a more dense, historical biography of Michelangelo. I was a bit skeptical - the back of The Agony and the Ecstasy reads "...His loves - the frail and lovely daughter of Lorenzo de'Medici; the ardent mistress of marco..." and so forth. The Birth of Venus focused more on a fictional love affair than the art. I was worried that this book would do the same.

I didn't need to worry. The person that wrote the blurb on the back of the book should be fired. It is an extremely well-crafted, intriguing, and exhilirating read. It had the one important thing I love in a historical novel: show more it was more historical than novel. The Renaissance was a time of more than just artistic explosion: it was a time of vast political overturnings and philosophical breakthroughs. Michelangelo seemed a man outside of his time, and time slowly caught up with him. His extremely long life (89 years!) provided him with a rare opportunity - to be a legend in his own time and to be producing works up until his deathbed.

The book starts with him going to a studio with his friend at the age of twelve: "This is my friend Michelangelo, Signore. Remember, I told you about him?" and ends with the guarentee that if he does not live to see his greatest work realized - the dome of St. Peters - that it will be carried out posthumously, faithful to his design. His immortality was secured.

What a wonderful book! show less

The Agony and the Ecstasy is the title of the book but for me it has been mostly agony.

The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone is a biographical novel about Michelangelo, the inimitable Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect and engineer. It was published in 1961.

The book includes a list of Michelangelo's works & their present whereabouts and a glossary. I enjoyed these extra additions.

The book starts from Michelangelo’s adolescent years and ends with his demise. As Michelangelo lived to be 88 years of age the book ends up being extremely long. More than 700 pages long to be precise.

All that would have been fine if the story and the writing were exceptional. But no such luck!

The story is extremely repetitive. Michelangelo has show more talent, he gets into trouble with powerful people, he is miserable, he builds/makes/paints something incredible and everything is okay until the next difficulty rears its ugly head. It’s basically the same thing happening again and again.

The writing for the most part is amateurish. Stone would rather tell us about things than show us. The dialogues are stilted, unnatural and sometimes almost comical! For example,

“I am a sculptor.”

“Could you carve me in marble?”

“You’re already carved,” he blurted out. “Flawlessly!”

The book is well-researched and for the most part appears to be based on facts. This wealth of information would not have been wasted if only Irving Stone had been a better writer or if any other hand had written this book. What a waste of a good concept!

I would rather recommend reading the Wikipedia article on Michelangelo. It has all the information without the awful and often cringe inducing dialogues and characters. Enough said! show less

I debated about whether or not I should put this on the Classic bookshelf... I still might change my mind. This book was a roller coaster of emotion and history. Regardless of who Michaelangelo was, he lived through 80 years that were packed with monumental moments- both in his life and in the greater world.

I loved the author's musings on God and the purpose of life. I loved the thought process- however constructed- that the author invented from Michaelangelo towards his creations. In short, Stone put an impressive amount of work into this and created something that enhanced my desire to go to Florence and Rome, and see those masterpieces for myself.

The epic fictional biography of Michelangelo is one of my favorite books. Dramatic and informative, I have read it at least twice. It would also be interesting to know if Stone would have changed some details if he had lived long enough for modern scholarship on the famous sculptor/artist as well as recent restorations of the Sistine Chapel.