Sue Prideaux’s new biography of Gauguin, “Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin” (W.W. Norton & Company, 2025), is revelatory and overflows with newly discovered research from the past ten years. Prideaux’s excavation of several primary research documents, including Gauguin’s long-lost manuscript detailing the last two years of his life, discovered in 2020, and the Wildenstein Plattner Institute’s release of his final oeuvre from 1891-1903 in 2021, contributes to her reexamination of Gauguin.

While Prideaux is not looking to excuse him, her thorough and expansive exploration contextualizes the previously understood mythology of Paul Gauguin. For example, part of the “Gauguin is one of the bad boys of the art world mythology’ is his death from syphilis. However, four teeth unearthed in a well on the Marquesas Islands in 2007 did not show evidence of mercury upon forensic examination. Of course, this could mean either that Gauguin did not have syphilis or that he was not treated for it.

One of my favorite parts of the book was learning about Gauguin’s maternal grandmother, Flora Tristan. A writer, feminist, socialist, and activist, Tristan believed in workers’ rights and the link between feminism and socialism. A memorial to her remains in Bordeaux, France, today.

Part detective story, part history book, part art history who-knows-who, with a dollop of feminist theory, politics, and geography, “Wild Thing” serves many genres well and multi-genre readers exceptionally well!

Thank you to Sue Prideaux, W.W. Norton & Company, and NetGalley for the eARC!

2025 Women's Prize For Fiction Longlist Nominee.

"Wild Thing" explores the life and times of the post-impressionist Paul Gauguin and how the world influenced his art and techniques. This is a well researched deep dive and I appreciate it for what it is but unfortunately, it felt like reading an Art History textbook rather than a more paced non-fiction