Booker Prize winner Julian Barnes is one of the most striking and original writers of contemporary Britain, the author of such international bestsellers as The Noise of Time, The Sense of an Ending, Arthur and George, A History of the World in 10/4 Chapters, Flaubert's Parrot, and many others. Julian Barnes considers his first attempt at writing an essay on art to be a chapter of his acclaimed dystopian novel A History of the World in 10/4 Chapters (1989), dedicated to Théodore Géricault's painting The Raft of the Medusa. This is why, as a standalone work, it appears in the collection Open Your Eyes as the first of seventeen captivating short stories about artists and their works, inviting the reader to follow the path of visual art from the early 19th century to the present day. These essays possess everything that is traditionally characteristic of Barnes's prose: a superb sense of style, a masterful balance of caustic irony and refined lyricism, sarcasm bordering on cynicism and cheerful mischief. But they are also a collection of subtle, witty, and sometimes unexpected observations that provide not only literary pleasure but also rich food for thought.