A Book of Secrets: Illegitimate Daughters, Absent Fathers - Couverture rigide

Holroyd, Michael

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0374115583 ISBN 13 : 9780374115586

Editeur : Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2011

Synopsis

Unusual book

A propos du livre

Quatrième de couverture :

'As is always the case with Holroyd, the reader comes away equally inspired, equally curious, and lavishly entertained by a story-teller of the first rank' Scotsman

'A subtle paean to the art of biography. It is a biographical experiment, but a deeply humane and sensitive one. It glows with the energy of lives investigated, restored, reanimated and celebrated' Sarah Bakewell, Sunday Times

A Book of Secrets is a masterfully atmospheric treasure trove of hidden lives, uncelebrated achievements and family mysteries. Acclaimed biographer Michael Holroyd peers into dusty corners to bring a company of unknown women into the light; Alice Keppel was the mistress of both the second Lord Grimthorpe and the Prince of Wales; Eve Fairfax was Lord Grimthorpe's abandoned fiancée and sometime muse of Auguste Rodin; and the novelist Violet Trefusis, Lord Grimthorpe's daughter, was the lover of Vita Sackville-West. Taking the reader on a journey of discovery from Ravello to Paris, from Kirkstall Grange in Yorkshire to Vita Sackville-West's home at Knole, A Book of Secrets lucidly gives voice to fragile human connections.

'A Book of Secrets is...written with Holroyd's characteristic charm, a combination of sympathy and gentle mockery. It is full of haunting images...and underneath the charm and humour it is - as the first two volumes also were - melancholy and moving' Independent

'Scintillating... Holroyd's book is a sly, inconclusive and utterly bewitching dance through the elusive narrative echoes that make up the biographer's art' Claire Allfree, Metro

Présentation de l'éditeur :

On a hill above the Italian village of Ravello stands the Villa Cimbrone - a place of fantasy and make-believe. The characters that move through Michael Holroyd's new book are destined never to meet - they lived through different eras and reside in different countries. Yet the Villa Cimbrone unites them all.

A Book of Secrets is a treasure-trove of hidden lives, uncelebrated achievements and family mysteries. Michael Holroyd peers into dusty corners to bring a company of unknown women into the light. Their lives are fluid and vulnerable - they play the role of mistress, fiancée, or muse - and always somehow illegitimate. From Alice Keppel, the mistress of both the second Lord Grimthorpe (owner of the Villa Cimbrone) and the Prince of Wales; Eve Fairfax, Lord Grimthorpe's abandoned fiancée and sometime muse of Auguste Rodin; and finally, to the novelist Violet Trefusis, the lover of Vita Sackville-West in one of the most scandalous love affairs of the early twentieth-century: these women are always on the periphery of the respectable world.

Also on the periphery is the elusive biographer, Michael Holroyd, who turns the spotlight upon himself as part of his investigations into the art of biography. Taking the reader on a journey of discovery from Ravello to Paris, from Kirkstall Grange in Yorkshire to Vita Sackville-West's home at Knole, A Book of Secrets lucidly gives voice to fragile human connections.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Farrar Straus & Giroux
• Date d'édition: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0374115583
• ISBN 13: 9780374115586
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 258