Anka Muhlstein

Anka Muhlstein
Born	1935 (age 89–90) Paris, France
Nationality	French
Notable awards	Prix Goncourt (1996)
Spouse	Francois Dujarric de la Rivière (ended in divorce) Louis Begley ​ (m. 1974)​
Children	Robert Dujarric (b. 1961) Stéphane Dujarric (b. 1965)
Relatives	Anatol Mühlstein (father) Robert de Rothschild (maternal grandfather) René Dujarric de la Rivière (father-in-law)

Anka Muhlstein (born 1935) is a French historian and biographer.

Early life

Muhlstein was born to Anatol Mühlstein and Diane de Rothschild in Paris in 1935. Her older sister was endocrinologist Nathalie Josso, and her younger sister is artist Cécile Muhlstein. ^{[1] [2]}

During World War II, she stayed in New York City before returning to France in 1945. ^[3] She was married to François Dujarric de la Rivière (1933-2018), an investment adviser in Paris and son of Marcelle  [ fr ] and René Dujarric de la Rivière, with whom she had two sons, Robert and Stéphane Dujarric, ^[4] and whom she later divorced. In March 1974, she married Louis Begley, a lawyer and author, and moved back to New York with her two sons. ^[3]

Career

Muhlstein has been honored twice by the French Academy's prize for history, for her biographies on her ancestor James de Rothschild, the founder of the De Rothschild Frères, and the eighteenth century explorer Cavelier de La Salle. ^[5]

Muhlstein received the Goncourt prize in 1996 for biography for her work on the French writer Astolphe de Custine called A Taste for Freedom: The Life of Astolphe de Custine. ^[6] Muhlstein 's other works include Par les yeux de Marcel Proust (1971), La Femme Soleil (1976), Victoria (1978), Manhattan (1986), Reines éphémères, Mères perpétuelles (2001), Les Périls du Mariage (2004), and Napoléon à Moscou (2007).

In 2008, she and her husband Begley released Venice for Lovers , two essays and a short story they individually wrote about Venice. ^[7] Her Garcon, un cent d'huîtres (Balzac's Omelette: A Delicious Tour of French Food and Culture With Honoré de Balzac in English, translated by Adriana Hunter), a study of the role of gastronomy in the novels of Balzac, was published in 2010. ^{[8] [9]}

In 2017, her book, The Pen and the Brush: How Passion for Art Shaped Nineteenth-Century French Novels, was published by Other Press. Julian Barnes wrote, "Anka Muhlstein wisely limits herself to prose writers, and to five who speak to her most clearly: Balzac, Zola, Huysmans, Maupassant, and ... Proust". ^[10] Jonah Raskin's review acclaimed The Pen and the Brush as "riveting". ^[11]

In 2023, her book Camille Pissarro: The Audacity of Impressionism was published by Other Press. It was a translation by Adriana Hunter of Camille Pissarro: Le Premier Impressionniste, published in Paris by Plon. Adam Gopnik wrote, "Muhlstein is a sympathetic chronicler of Pissarro's life ... [and] she has real insight to offer into the practical economics of Impressionist painting." ^[12]

References

1. "MUHLSTEIN : tous les avis de décès". avis-deces.linternaute.com (in French). Retrieved 31 August 2023.
2. "Biographie Cécile Muhlstein Artiste peintre". www.whoswho.fr. Who's Who France. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
3. "Anka Muhlstein: Monsieur Proust's Library". The Center for Fiction. November 20, 2012. Archived from the original on November 14, 2013.
4. "Weddings; Ilaria Quadrani, Stephane Dujarric". The New York Times. June 4, 1995.
5. "Long Islanders; A Rothschild Story with a Difference". The New York Times . October 16, 1983.
6. "Log In | Hennepin County Library | BiblioCommons". hclib.org. Archived from the original on 2013-11-14. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
7. "Short Takes". Boston Globe. November 30, 2008.
8. Kline, Nancy (December 2, 2011). "The Novelist Who Loved Food". The New York Times.
9. Kousoulas, Claudia (February 2012). "Review of Balzac's Omelette" (PDF). CHoW Line. XVI (5). Culinary Historians of Washington, D.C.: 9.
10. Barnes, Julian (April 6, 2017). "A Marvelous Moment for French Writers and Artists", The New York Review of Books.
11. Raskin, Jonah (January 16, 2017). "Review of The Pen and the Brush". New York Journal of Books.
12. Gopnik, Adam (December 25, 2023). "How Camille Pissarro Went from Mediocrity to Magnificence". The New Yorker.