Includes bibliographical references and index.

Acclaimed biographer Roger Nichols shows how Poulenc's pleasing tunes and harmonies led to him being taken less than seriously in some intellectuals circles. But the truth was more complex. Poluenc was a man struggling with internal contradictions between popularity and profundity, between religious faith and doubt, between hetero-and homosexuality, between tonality and modernity. Never at ease with himself, he produced an extraordinary music that lies on the edges of emotion, and which covers a huge range, from the crazily comic to the deeply tragic. In his day an outsider who went against fashion, today Poulenc stands as one the most often performed of post-Ravel composers, with a huge following among singers. Drawing on unpublished correspondence and testimony, Nichols gives full consideration to Poulenc's art, while also describing the joys and vicissitudes of his life and the relationships he had with figures such as Satie, Ravel, Stravinsky, Diaghilev, Cocteau and others. Engaging and nuanced, Poulenc sheds new light on the extraordinary man and his music.