In this luminous novel, Dominic Smith reinvents the life of one of photography's founding fathers. In 1839, Louis Daguerre's invention took the world by storm. A decade later, he is sinking deep into delusions brought on by exposure to mercury, the very agent that allowed his daguerreotype process. Believing the world will end within one year, he creates his "Doomsday List," ten items he must photograph before the final day. It includes a woman he has always loved but has not seen in half a century. Paris in 1847 was a city ...
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In this luminous novel, Dominic Smith reinvents the life of one of photography's founding fathers. In 1839, Louis Daguerre's invention took the world by storm. A decade later, he is sinking deep into delusions brought on by exposure to mercury, the very agent that allowed his daguerreotype process. Believing the world will end within one year, he creates his "Doomsday List," ten items he must photograph before the final day. It includes a woman he has always loved but has not seen in half a century. Paris in 1847 was a city of Bohemian excess and social unrest. Into this strange and beguiling world, Louis Daguerre sets off to capture his doomsday images, with the help of the womanizing poet Baudelaire and a beautiful prostitute named Pigeon, in this moving story of ruined love, fame unraveling, and a prodigious mind coming undone.
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A fairly conventional historical novel--no surprises here. Daguerre, realizing his days are numbered (he has been poisoned by the mercury used in the photography process), goes on a final quest: to photograph the king, to photograph the ideal woman in the nude, and to photograph the woman he fell in love with when he was only 14. Along the way, we meet Baudelaire and other artists of the day and get caught up in several mini-revolutions. Not an unenjoyable novel--but not particularly memorable either.
