Joy Melville's major biography of the Russian impresario brings to life a brief and daring age of sophisticated and hedonistic pleasure set against the backdrop of a swiftly changing world. In Paris and London, Diaghilev drew together an amazingly talented group of like-minded artists such as Picasso, Bakst, and Fokine, as well as dancers like Nijinsky, Lifar, and Karsavina, and the composers Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev. Diaghilev's tempestuous and destructive affair with his protg Nijinsky and his friendship with Jean Cocteau are closely examined.