The Idol of Paris

A young actress is taken up by Paris and made its idol — a novel about fame written by the woman who had more of it than anyone alive. Bernhardt was the Divine Sarah: she slept in a coffin, kept a cheetah, toured America nine times, had a leg amputated at seventy and went on acting. She knew exactly what a public does to the person it adores, and this book says so. Fifty-seven plates by Degas, Renoir, Manet and their contemporaries trace the stages of a life in art, from the dance class to the stage, matching the novel's own passage through the theatre of fame.