Published in 2007, The Beautiful Fall has achieved cult status as a book that captures a period of liberation and hedonism in Paris and its riptide of intrigue, infidelities, addiction and heady creativity.
The Beautiful Fall is a study of two men, Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld, their careers, their rivalry, their obsessions. It is an exposé of an era and the story of the two men who were its essence and its most singular survivors.
Published by Bloomsbury in London and Little Brown in New York in 2007. It was published in French by Denoël in 2010 under the title Beautiful People.
REVIEWS
“Drake is out to prove that what the world thinks shallow may be profound. I think she succeeds.”- David Hare, Guardian Books of the Year
“Deliciously dramatic… The Beautiful Fall crackles with excitement.”- New York Times Book Review
“This book will satisfy the most ardent student of design, French culture, ego and couture.” – Sunday Times
“Splendid…Drake captures the mood of what was then Europe’s cultural capital, dominated by a reckless spirit of adventure and craving for romance.”- New York Times Style Magazine
“If you have the slightest interest in late-twentieth-century culture, you should read this book” – Gay Times
“Thoroughly entertaining … Starting with the student riots of 1968 and ending with the shadow of Aids, this is an important social history” – Independent on Sunday
“Fruit d’une enquête menée en profondeur, minutieuse et argumentée, Beautiful People est un document dans lequel ni l’invention, ni l’extrapolation hasardeuse n’ont leur place. Mais, à sa façon, c’est également un formidable roman, dont le sous-titre, Splendeurs et misères de la mode, évoque très directement la comédie de moeurs balzacienne, et dont les motifs centraux – le désir créateur, l’ambition, la jalousie, le snobisme, le jeu des apparences, et, en regard des tentations illusoires, l’enfance indélébile et la mélancolie qu’elle n’en finit pas de nourrir – renvoient tout ensemble à Proust et à la saignante Foire aux vanités de l’Anglais Thackeray.”- Télérama
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