I feel obliged to preface any comments on Painter's biography with a cautionary word. Reading this book without having read Proust's masterpiece A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, is like reading a history of Jazz, without having heard any.

That said, and disregarding Painter's introductory thesis that "Proust's novel cannot be fully undersood without a knowledge of his life", the life and times of Proust is a fascinating subject in itself. His genius for conversation, and the legacy it created for him, gives his biographer plenty to work with and Painter's skill as a writer comes to the fore as he recreates the events that shaped Proust's life.

The biography is written sequentially, beginning with a brief overview of late 17th centuary Paris, and culminating in Proust's death while still revising his masterpiece, in November 1922.

Footnotes a plenty, Painter avoids mythologising Proust and instead, sticks to the facts with an academic's eye for detail. He occasionally offers incisive insights into Proust's work and writes in a curious style which draws on Proust's own language and favourite metaphors. In the end though, Painter's raison d'etre is to identify the people and places that shaped Proust's writing. To this end, we meet the Barons, Dukes and Duchesses who populated the upper stratosphere of Parisian society in the early nineteen hundreds, and visit the small gardens of Illiers and Auteuil, which would eventually become the Combray of his famous novel, and marvel at the chuch spires he visited while reading Ruskin.

Not inerested? Well this book is not for you. For those of you who are interested in knowing from where Proust's inspiration sprang, there is no better book.

One for the fans.

The Vinland Map purports to be a 15th century map depicting Vikingexploration of North America centuries before Columbus. If genuine,the Vinland map is one of the great documents of Westerncivilization; if fake, it's an astoundingly clever forgery and Yale University has egg on its face. The first edition of the book in question, The Vinland Map and Tartar Relation, announced the discovery to the world in 1965. To commemorate the thirtieth anniversary, YUP published a second edition, adding a few new essays in support of the map's authenticity.

Of the controversy over its authenticity little more can be said in this review. The book itself covers some of the important objections (e.g. the presence of titanium in the ink), but slights or ignores much of the philological and historical criticism of recent years. (The web contains a certain amount of such criticism.) Lay readers may come away with the impression that the academic world is solidly behind the map, although this is far from the case.

Nevertheless, if you're interested in the Vinland Map this is the one essential book to own. It includes high-quality black and white plates of the map, together with text and translation of the legends and suchnot. The map was at one point bound with a manuscript known as the Tartar Relation (Historia Tartorum), itself a fascinating specimen of medieval geographical knowledge. As the circumstances of its production and replication are critical to the authenticity of the map, a full text and translation is also included.

I journeyed to the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore to see the exhibition. "MANET - The Still Life Paintings" which is on view until April 22, 2001. The show was previously at the Musee d'Orsay in Paris. It is a lovely, intimate show. The majority of these gorgeous still lifes of fruits, vegetables and flowers were painted in the last three years of Manet's life. Unfortunately, the catalogue does not begin to do these beautful oil paintings and watercolors justice. The book's colorplates are of unsatisfactory quality and fail to capture the sumptuousness of these touching works of art. The book measures just shy of 9 inches by 9 inches, too small to get any partial enjoyment after seeing the exhibition. The text does not advance art scholarship. Not worth the price.

The beautifully reproduced paintings. with some detail shots, in this potent package remind us that Manet truly is the 'father of modernism.' The still lifes of fruit alone would make this book a must have for any art book lover. His peaches, lemons, strawberries and plums are so full of longing, sadness, bliss and sheer beauty that they stop you in your tracks. I don't know how else to say it: Manet was an artist of cosmic proportions. The transcenant nature of the work juxtaposed against the audacious technique rightfully set Manet at the forefront of the western cannon.