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All the Beauty in the World
- A Museum Guard’s Adventures in Life, Loss and Art
- Narrated by: Patrick Bringley
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
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All the Beauty in the World
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Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
Millions of people climb the grand marble staircase into New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art every year. But only a select few have unrestricted access to every nook and cranny.
They're the guards in dark blue suits, keeping careful watch over this vast treasure house. Caught up in the early days of a glamorous journalism career, Patrick Bringley never thought he'd be one of them. Then his brother was diagnosed with fatal cancer and he needed to escape the mundane clamour of daily life. So he quit, and sought solace in the most beautiful place he knew.
To his surprise, this temporary refuge becomes his home away from home for a decade. We follow him as he guards delicate treasures from Egypt to Rome, strolls the labyrinths beneath the galleries, and discovers how restorative art can be.
Bringley enters the museum as a ghost, silent and almost invisible, but soon finds his voice and place amongst the lively subculture of museum guards. As his bonds with colleagues and the artwork grow, he learns how fortunate he is to be walled off in this little world and how much it resembles the best aspects of the larger world to which he gradually, gratefully returns.
All the Beauty in the World is a moving, revelatory portrait of one of the world's great museums and its treasures by someone whose value is often overlooked: the museum guard.
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What listeners say about All the Beauty in the World
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 16-05-23
Profoundly beautiful, insightful and inspiring
Absolutely stunning! This is one of the best books I have ever read. A beautiful story expressed with integrity and poetry, exploring great truths with honest simplicity. At first you may think it exists as a set of individual observations but Bringley weaves them together to make an extraordinary whole. Wish I could find better words to describe how wonderful this book is! Read it!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 21-09-23
A story of stillness
The story is simple: grieving man finds solace in job as museum guard, stays for 10 years, leaves. The books is the fruit of all that time a museum guard has on their hands. There is nothing rushed or unearned about the writing. It shares a quality of stillness and completeness with the artworks he adores, which abide mutely in the museum just as the Met abides more or less unchanged while the world rages on the streets outside. I loved being reminded that the sacred experiences Bringley describes are accessible to me too, if I make some time to go early to my local museum, and spend a few quiet hours there, alone.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- holly bird
- 20-03-23
Enlightening and Meditive
Patrick Bringley wanted a job where he could stand still and think after the death of his brother. So he took a job at the Metropolitan Museum in New York as a room guard. He had a lot of time to study the art and he takes us on his own tours round the museum, interposed with his own personal journey. He recounts stories from the standpoint of a museum guard and introduces us, not only to his fellow workers, but to the different rooms and his own favourite artefacts.He writes gently and eloquently and knowledgeably and informatively. A beautiful meditation.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 11-06-23
A beautiful and quiet meditation on art
A reminder you how art can bring us together from the unique perspective of a museum guard.
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- Nursery teacher
- 27-07-23
A moving, beautiful, philosophical listen
The most beautiful reading of a truly special text, which sheds new light on life, art and the relationship between the two. Can’t recommend enough.
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