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  • Published: 15 January 2007
  • ISBN: 9781400095797
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $45.00

Tango

The Art History of Love (With a Foreword by David Byrne)




In this generously illustrated book, world-renowned Yale art historian Robert Farris Thompson gives us the definitive account of tango, "the fabulous dance of the past hundred years–and the most beautiful, in the opinion of Martha Graham.”

Thompson traces tango’s evolution in the nineteenth century under European, Andalusian-Gaucho, and African influences through its representations by Hollywood and dramatizations in dance halls throughout the world. He shows us tango not only as brilliant choreography but also as text, music, art, and philosophy of life. Passionately argued and unparalleled in its research, its synthesis, and its depth of understanding, Tango: The Art History of Love is a monumental achievement.

  • Published: 15 January 2007
  • ISBN: 9781400095797
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $45.00

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Praise for Tango

"Elegant.... Uplifting and timely.... Thompson rescues tango from a one-dimensional tristesse, mining in its working-class origins emotions of defiance, freedom, self-control, humor, love, and redemption.... Expertly dissect[s] tango as literature, music, and dance." --Foreign Affairs

"Robert Thompson's Tango indeed is an aesthetic history of that dance of heterosexual passion. The book has gusto, and its own deep song of eloquent erotic ecstasy and sorrow. It will inform readers until they are wild with all regret." --Harold Bloom