“Pauline Garcia Viardot, born in 1821, was the daughter of the famous singer and composer Manuel Garcia and younger sister of the celebrated Malibran “Pauline Garcia Viardot, born in 1821, was the daughter of the famous singer and composer Manuel Garcia and younger sister of the celebrated Malibran (who unfortunately died at the age of twenty-seven due to a riding accident with a horse). She was a singer of genius and a woman of outstanding intellect.
This biography of Pauline Viardot not only recreates the drama of the prima donna’s own life but perfectly captures the scintillating brilliance of this nineteenth-century artist’s life: the colourful and diverse personalities of the Musset brothers, Chopin, George Sand, Meyerbeer, Berlioz, Gourd and Saint Saens who moved in and out of Viardot’s life.
George Sand recognising how gifted her friend Pauline was, and knowing that she needed someone to manage her career, introduced her to her friend Louis Viardot when Pauline was twenty. He was nineteen years older than her. Pauline certainly didn’t love him but remained very fond of him and highly respected him throughout their forty years of marriage.
In 1843, Pauline Viardot met the young Ivan Turgenev. From their first meeting until his death in 1883, he remained passionately devoted to her (even though she was married and with four children), following her around Europe and spending long periods of time as a member of her household. She succeeded for many years in keeping his ardour on the “back burner” as she always believed that her art was the most important thing in her life but after her retirement as an opera singer at the age of forty-two she relaxed her attitude slightly towards Turgenev and most people accepted his position in the Viardot household. And with time, he was referred to as her "cicisbeo" (the professed gallant or lover of a married woman, , i e. "cavalier servente" (French: chevalier servant).
Parts of the above were on the back cover of this book. I have tried unsuccessfully to write a review on this remarkable woman, however, it was too long-winded and so I decided that this would suffice as a taster.
It is also interesting to add that everyone who met Pauline Viardot, both before and after her marriage were absolutely fascinated by her even though she was extremely ugly! This just shows that the personality prevails regardless!
What a fascinating biography! I hadn't realized that Wagner was such a complex character and his relationship with his wife Cosima was quite interestiWhat a fascinating biography! I hadn't realized that Wagner was such a complex character and his relationship with his wife Cosima was quite interesting... even when he was chasing another woman.
I couldn't understand, however, the fascination throughout the book regarding Wagner's height. Some stated that he was a dwarf but it was finally found to be documented that he was 5 ft. 5 and a half inches. Did his height really matter? It's what he achieved in his lifetime with his mind-blowing operas!
There were various odd words in the translation but apart from that the book was a pleasure to read....more
On the last Sunday in June 1911, Frances Stevenson (Lloyd George’s second wife) was taken by a friend to morning service at the essentially Welsh BOn the last Sunday in June 1911, Frances Stevenson (Lloyd George’s second wife) was taken by a friend to morning service at the essentially Welsh Baptist Church in Castle Street, Covent Garden. Lloyd George preached the sermon and she ‘instantly fell under the sway of his electric personality. I listened to his silver voice, observed his mastery over his audience … Although he spoke almost entirely in Welsh, I felt myself in some mysterious way drawn into the orbit of his personality'.
It is really strange but just over a hundred years later, I can relate to Frances Stevenson. My husband John was Welsh and when I first met him and he spoke to me, I was quite overcome. His voice was magical and I think I must have shown my immense liking and enthusiasm as he immediately asked me out and we married soon afterwards. I guess one just knows. Wonderful memories of that period.
Getting back to Lloyd George, well I would certainly never have read this biography as I don’t particularly like Roy Hattersley but it was at the time I was reading one on Roger Casement and then I found that Lloyd George came into the equation. In fact there is only one mention of Casement in this biography when Lloyd George was Secretary of State and in 1916 when the thought had been muted of Home Rule in Ireland and:
...before the bill had passed all its stages in the House of Commons, a member of Roger Casement’s Irish brigade emulated his leader (Casement had made a similar landing in anticipation of the 1916 rising’s success. H had been captured, convicted of treason and shot [sic: he was actually hanged)] by landing on the Irish coast from a German submarine and being instantly captured. His folly provided Lloyd George with the excuse to drop his proposals for both Irish conscription and Home Rule.
Being very pro-Welsh, I was soon intrigued but also equally annoyed by this individual, who by chance, when his father William George died, was taken under the wing of his mother’s brother Richard Lloyd, who arranged his education. If Betsy George had not contacted her brother Richard after the death of her husband, I’m sure that the destiny of Lloyd George would have been completely different but it was the words ‘Tyrd Richard’ (Come Richard) sent in a telegram that sealed his future. Furthermore, Richard Lloyd decided to add “Lloyd” to David’s surname which gave a certain richness to it to match his presence.
So how did the hand of fate bring politics into the equation? Several biographers have attempted to determine this but it appears to have been between 1880 and 1885.
In addition what did Lloyd George do for the UK at that time? Well he was first of all a radical and was the first Welshman to become prime minister and in fact the last liberal to hold this office. Many historians believe that his views and reforms were instrumental in the basic foundation establishment of the welfare state which eventually came into being in 1948.
What I particularly liked about this biography was that:
Lloyd George was a champion of the poor and Hattersley shows how his subject arose from rural Welsh obscurity to Westminster during some of the most turbulent decades of the twentieth century. He charts the great reforms, the first old age pension, sick pay and unemployment benefit of which Lloyd George was architect and engine with his People’s Budget of 1909 but he also sheds light on the complexity of the private man.
In his private life, Lloyd George was well-known for his philandering, in fact he was nicknamed “The Goat” and evidently he was indeed very goatish. What can one possibly say to that? He remained with his wife Margaret until her death and then eventually married Frances, who had been his mistress for over thirty years.
This is a somewhat dry biography but then many are. However, I do like the attention to detail given throughout and if the comment made by Roy Hattersley is true in the Acknowledgement, in that Roy Jenkins suggested that Hattersley write a biography (as he disliked this politician so much he could not envisage writing the book itself), well that may then have been a better biography but then who knows what he might have come up with? Biographies often have different interpretations of the basic documented information…
I have tried over and over again to write a review on this outstanding and spellbinding book but without success. Nevertheless what I will state caI have tried over and over again to write a review on this outstanding and spellbinding book but without success. Nevertheless what I will state categorically is that Everitt has succeeded magnificently in bringing Augustus alive to the reader. The author also achieved a real sense of place as Rome also became alive to me. I so wish that the book had been longer as I didn’t want to finish it.
Trust me, read this book. It is out there waiting for you to be captivated the way I was.
One of my top favourite books – highly recommended. ...more
I read this excellent book years ago and was just browsing through it after I had seen that Kall had marked it "as to read" and had made reference to I read this excellent book years ago and was just browsing through it after I had seen that Kall had marked it "as to read" and had made reference to Ernst Pawel's obituary.
I have so many books, especially biographies, that I have only read once. It takes something from another individual, in this case Kall, to cause me to re-visit a book.
I found Kafka to be such a complex idividual, especially in his relationships with women. His engagement (actually two) with Felice Bauer was stormy and then his affair with Milena Jesenka.
But this is also a social document showing "The Prague of affluent Germanized Jewry, the intellectual ferment of Central Europe before the First World War, and brilliant, doomed Austria-Hungary itself and its collapse are woven into Pawel's account."
Pawel has researched Kafka's life in minute detail and portrays an individual who does indeed deserve to continue holding such an important place in the literary world today.
As for Kafka's works, I must confess I had problems reading "The Trial" and "The Castle" but on the other hand thoroughly enjoyed "The Metamorphosis".
I always enjoy looking at the photographs in biographies and this is no exception. Kafka looked a trifle impish with his pointed ears and he reminded me of Doctor Spock in Star Trek! An insight of life is also shown in Prague with the Town Hall in the old Prague ghetto before the slum clearance. Golden Lane (the alchemists' street) sounds very exciting. The Workmen's Accident Insurance Institute where Kafka worked from 1908 to 1922. What a gloomy building.
I do believe that I may reread this book......more
I have many biographies but this one has to be my favourite and the book itself is so well structured, with extraordinary illustrations that are not to be forgotten.
Irish history for some obscure reason has always fascinated me. I don’t believe that I have any Irish genes but most of my friends are Irish, from both the republic and the north.
I had this feeling of anticipation when I received this book and looking at the photo of Roger Casement on the cover, my immediate reaction was that he appeared slightly villainous. This would prove not to be the case. I then immediately looked at all of the illustrations and some of these were harrowing as they showed mutilated natives in the Congo. I especially liked looking at friends and associates of Casement, as this better enabled me to remember their faces when I came across them in the text. They set the scene so to speak.
All I had previously known about Roger Casement, an Irish born diplomat, was that he was hanged on 3 August, 1916 for high treason; the reason being for his role in Ireland’s Easter uprising on 24 April of that year and that he had been knighted in 1911.
He was Ulster-born and thus a protestant and it was only found out later that his mother had him baptized as a catholic which turned out very well for him in the end.
Imagine a man who on three occasions achieved an international reputation. The first two were for reporting atrocities in the Belgian Congo under King Leopold III and also, seven years later, as Consul-General in Putumayo in the Upper Amazon, whereupon Casement wrote a damning report about the native workers who were very badly treated by employees of the Peruvian Amazon Company, a British based firm. This caused a sensation in England. The photos shown in the book are not for the faint-hearted. Casement received his knighthood because of this report and yet surprisingly enough he had reservations about this. His loyalty to Ireland was beginning to emerge.
Casement had this wonderful side to his character – that of goodness. The thought of any suffering of a human being was torment for him. He also had his Catholic faith (latterly discovered) and in 1914 revealed his feelings in a sonnet:
“Weep not that you no longer feel the tide High-breasting sun and storm that bore along Your youth on currents of perpetual song; For in these mid-sea waters, still and wide, A sleepless purpose the great Deep doth hide. Here spring the mighty fountains, pure and strong That bear sweet change of breath to city throng Who, had the sea no breeze, would soon have died So, though the sun shines not in such a blue Nor have the stars the meaning youth devised The heavens are nigher, and a light shines through The brightness that nor Sun nor Stars sufficed And on this lonely waste we find it true Lost youth and love, not last, are hid with Christ.”
So when and why did it all go horribly wrong for him? By 1913 his entire life was taken up with the independence of Ireland. He now had Sinn Fein ideals, that is, supporting the unification of Ireland and never wavered in his belief until his death.
Regrettably for Casement after the First World War had started, he had gone to Germany, a country that he really admired (yes but he should not have gone during the war!) and managed to convince the Germans to provide arms for an uprising in Ireland. Latterly, his friends said that he had been mentally affected by living in the tropics for so long as from this period he suffered dreadfully from depression and had the beginnings of manic depression.
Well the upshot was that after returning from Germany, he landed in a U-Boat in Ireland in 1916, where he was soon picked up by the police. What is difficult to understand is that he actually returned to Ireland to stop the planned uprising. At his trial, this was never mentioned as Casement felt that his judges might guess that he had said this to escape treason. Nevertheless, the trial was basically a kangaroo court that had decided in advance he was guilty. His final statement after the judgement of guilty by the court at his trial was absolutely splendid and his friends all supported him in the hope of an appeal. There was even correspondence from the Vatican giving the reason Casement was returning to Ireland was to stop the uprising. This never came to the attention of the court. It was seen by the British Cabinet, when considering the appeal, but they ignored it. I get the impression that the independence of Ireland was far from their thoughts at this time.
And finally the “black diaries”, found in his lodgings in Ebury Street, Belgravia showing that he was a practising homosexual and this fact was unknown to all of his friends. What on earth had that to do with the court? Well regrettably he had a barrister, Alexander Martin Sullivan of the Irish Bar, who was quite shocked by this revelation and so it was not brought up at the trial although everyone was soon aware of their existence. Sullivan was indeed a bad choice to represent Casement as “he was on the council which had been set up in Ireland to encourage recruiting for the British forces and he was a law officer of the crown.” With hindsight, Casement would have been better off representing himself at his trial. The diaries I believe were the final nail in the coffin for a possible reprieve.
There was so much controversy of these diaries for many years and Casement’s friends believed that they were forgeries. What would be the outcome here?
Casement finally realized that death was on the horizon. He hadn’t initially believed it but nevertheless he went to his death a brave man. Even the executioner Ellis was proud of him. “He appeared to be the bravest man it fell to my unhappy lot to execute”.
He had a horror of being buried in Pentonville prison after his execution and it took many years before his remains were finally returned to Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, the city where he was born. Surprisingly enough it was Harold Wilson, the then Prime Minister, who in 1964, Casement’s centenary year, decided this could happen.
Sexual intercourse began In nineteen sixty-three (Which was rather late for me) Between the end of the Chatterley ban And the BeatSexual intercourse began In nineteen sixty-three (Which was rather late for me) Between the end of the Chatterley ban And the Beatles’ first LP. Philip Larkin –“Annus Mirabilis” Collected Poems
This is a fascinating biography and social document initially centered in Paris about Jack Kahane, who ran the English-language based Obelisk Press in the thirties and his son Maurice Girodias (otherwise known as the Prince of Porn), the Olympic Press in the fifties and sixties. By their sheer determination, doggedness and devious means they managed to publish authors whose works at the time were considered to be obscene or “dirty”.
Brilliant writers such as Lawrence Durrell (“The Black Book”), Henry Miller (“Tropic of Cancer”), Anais Nin (“Winter of Artifice”), James Joyce (“Haveth Childers Everywhere and Pomes Penyeach”), Vladimir Nabakov (“Lolita”) and many others who were continuously frustrated by their inability to get published, owe their continuing success nowadays to these two remarkable publishers.
Amusing anecdotes stud the book but the most intriguing and annoying individual was the Irish American writer, J.P. Donleavy (“The Ginger Man”). He was like a dog with a bone and had an ongoing feud with Girodias over royalty payments and the like. Donleavy’s second wife Mary, who had remarried into the Guinness family, played a very significant part in the auction of the Olympic Press in France.
The description of the auction is quite fascinating because at the time, it was conducted by using three candles.
The auctioneer sat behind a high desk at the end of the room. On the desk were three unlit candles……Not for the French the singsong chant of the fast-talking American auctioneer or the crude British “Going, going, one”, ending with the whack of a hammer. In France, auctions had an almost religious air. The auctioneer would light the first candle when the bidding slowed. Each candle had a short-burning wick, and when the first one went out, assuming there were no more bids, the auctioneer would light the second candle and then, if nothing further happened, on to the third. The sale was final when the third candle went out.
I actually attended a property auction about ten years ago in France where candles were used. It really was an incredible experience to see the candles being lit. A good memory.
There is so much movement in this book with the comings and goings to the States, books being mailed by clandestine means and more. In fact some of the books were actually split into sections and sent in different mailings.
Girodias is quite a character; charismatic and he loved to womanize, eat well and was quite the flamboyant and dapper individual.
Regrettably for him, in the sixties and seventies, the relaxation in censorship in Great Britain and the States, as well as the sexual revolution at the time, proved to be the undoing of Girodias’ publishing activities.
This is indeed a compelling book that made me smile and even laugh at times.
This book has to be one of my favourite biographies and is rather large but definitely worth the effort to delve into the mind of this incredible persThis book has to be one of my favourite biographies and is rather large but definitely worth the effort to delve into the mind of this incredible person.
I was reminded of this book just now by Mikey B.'s excellent review.
This is a super biography and De Gaulle was discussed on France Inter here in FranI was reminded of this book just now by Mikey B.'s excellent review.
This is a super biography and De Gaulle was discussed on France Inter here in France this morning. They were talking about his wife Yvonne and how she proved to be the right wife for him. It brings to mind the reports we are hearing in the media on our current "tortoise" of a president Hollande who besides being an individual is unfaithful. A public figure has to be beyond reproach.
Who on earth would want to be with Hollande I ask myself.
Some of De Gaulle's views I do indeed question, especially Algeria but then that is all open to interpretation.
This nevertheless is a book to be read and I highly recommend it. ...more
This book was just recommended to me and searching through the shelves I came across this very dusty bookWhere does time go to? I read this years ago.
This book was just recommended to me and searching through the shelves I came across this very dusty book in my biographies' section.
If you want to know everything about Joyce then this is the ideal book for you but it is rather long at over 800 pages, 887 to be precise, including the index. I went through a "biography period" and I seemed to end up with tomes and not books.
There are some fabulous photos of Joyce, and his family, and a splendid one of Joyce with Augustus John. Now the latter was also an excellent person to read about.
Highly recommended read and the only reason I haven't given it five stars is that it could have been shorter....more
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