The well of solitude -- A portrait of the artist as a young dog -- To the manner born -- The descent to hell -- The ugly duckling -- A man of his word -- The Hague school -- Shadow and light -- Tentacular cities -- Sorrow's sister -- Family life -- The good earth -- The universe of Zola -- The gift of silence -- The example of millet -- The peasant ethic -- The shoal of passions -- Colour-burst : Rubens -- Self-conquest -- The city of light -- The Paris period -- THe windmills of Montmartre -- A vision of the Abyss -- At 'Papa' Tanguy's -- Japanese influences -- Self-portrait -- The celebration of the common man -- Tranquility and crisis -- The world as object -- Café society -- Paradise lost : l'Atelier du Midi -- Vincent's ear, Bataille's eye -- The loneliness of the long-distance runner -- Confinement -- memories of the madhouse -- Auvers-sur-oise -- Birds of evil omen -- Death in a garret -- The voice of the poet -- The autopsy of an artist -- A voyage to the end of the night.