The Man In The Red Coat By Julian Barnes

A wide-ranging account of the whirling connections of poetry and debauchery, dandyism and duelling that linked the literary and cultural celebrities of Paris and London in the final decades of the 19th century.

A period that later came to be known as the Belle Epoque.

The portrait of the man in the red coat was painted by John Singer Sargent in Paris in 1881, and titled Dr Pozzi at Home. It portrays Samuel Pozzi, a man of extraordinary talents, whose contribution to medicine was in many ways ahead of its time.

But it is also an emblem of the exchange of ideas and art, science and poetry that flourished across the Channel in the nineteenth century.

Written and read by Julian Barnes

Omnibus of five parts abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed

Producer: Jill Waters

A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in November 2019.

Julian Barnes' account of Belle Epoque Paris is inspired by a portrait of Dr Pozzi.

Julian Barnes reads his account of Belle Epoque Paris, inspired by John Singer Sargent's famous portrait of Dr Pozzi.