Alec Guinness: The Authorised Biography - Couverture souple

Read, Piers Paul

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 145163644X ISBN 13 : 9781451636444

Editeur : Simon & Schuster, 2011

Synopsis

Alec Guinness Sir Alec Guiness was one of the greatest actors of the twentieth centuries. With a talent recognised by discerning critics from his very first appearance on the stage, he gained a world-wide reputation. After his death in August 2000, his widow Merula asked the author Piers Paul Read, who had been a friend of her husband, to write his biography. Given full co-operation by the Guinness family and ... Full description

A propos du livre

Revue de presse :

'The most perceptive, empathetic, well-researched and entertaining life of an actor that I have read' Simon Ward, Literary Review
'It may sound hyperbolic to suggest that a "mere" showbiz biography could be a deeply intelligent, acute piece of work, full of humanity and compassion and making one ponder the meaning of life but that is what Piers Paul Read achieves in his magnificent Alec Guinness: The Authorised Biography' Frank McLynn, Independent on Sunday's Books of the Year
'The biography I enjoyed most was Piers Paul Read's Alec Guinness, which vaulted clear of the normal showbiz biography and actually illuminated the perennial problems of existence' Frank McLynn, New Statesman
'Very finely constructed . . . Read seeks to engage with his subject on the deepest level and his most obvious vices, being those of the imagination, are far more stimulating than the virtues of better-behaved biographers' Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday
'Read's ability to dissect Guinness's emotions suggests why Merula thought he was the right man for the job' David Thomas, Sunday Telegraph
'Merula Guinness died shortly after her husband before this book was published. She would have been proud to read it. Read gives us an astonishingly moving portrait of a very complex man, his loving marriage, and his quest for spiritual solace. It is a warts-and-all portrait but Read effortlessly invokes compassion for his subject . . . It is engrossing . . . A splendid biography' Keith Baxter, Spectator
'A searching and moving book that is as much about Guinness's spiritual journey, sexual ambivalence and gift for friendship as about his stage and screen triumphs' Michael Billington, Country Life
'This is one of the best biographies of an actor that I have read' Christopher Silvester, Sunday Times
'Piers Paul Read's perceptive study about this much admired and most complicated of actors falls into that rare category of exceptional theatre biographies' Patrick Garland, The Oldie
'Piers Paul Read was a fine choice as Sir Alec's biographer . . . Read unsensationally approaches the subject [of homosexuality] with perception and balance . . . Outstanding . . .it is as subtle, percipient, sympathetic and entertaining as it is honest. If I were invited to nominate a book I had most enjoyed this year, I would choose this without hestitation' Anthony Symondson, Catholic Herald
'Diligent . . . respectfully thorough' Guardian
'[Lady Guinness's] instinct on settling on Read was spot-on . . . Read's style . . . perfectly matched to the task of trying to capture a man who beneath his smiles and comedy ears was at heart cold and prickly' The Tablet
'This superb, often cruelly disclosing, study of the enigmatic Guinness finally opens the curtains of that mental closet in which he concealed his inner self' Amateur Stage
'Excellent' David Hepworth, Word
'Penetrating . . . an accurate and celebratory portrait . . . Read leaves no stone unturned, revealing to readers the quirky, religious, contradictory, compassionate man Guinness truly was. A triumph' Good Book Guide
'Piers Paul Read had the eye and ear of a fine novelist . . . well-paced . . . good book' ECONOMIST
'Revealing' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
'Read's memoir is a sumptuous affair . . . a thorough, measured and, by all accounts, definitive biography . . . it is a treat to come across a book such as this . . . hilarious asides . . . A blissful antidote to the forthcoming glut of celebrity biographies'
Observer

Présentation de l'éditeur :

Sir Alec Guinness was one of the greatest actors of the twentieth century. With a talent recognised by discerning critics from his very first appearance on the stage, he gained a world-wide reputation playing roles on the screen such as Fagin in Oliver Twist and Sidney Stratton in The Man in the White Suit. His performance as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai won him an Oscar and, in his later years, he captivated a new generation of admirers as George Smiley in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. Guinness was a man who vigorously guarded his privacy and, despite publishing an autobiography and two volumes of his diaries, he remained an enigma to the general public and a mystery even to his family and closest friends. After his death in August 2000, his widow, Merula, asked the author Piers Paul Read, who had been a friend of her husband, to write his authorised biography. Given full co-operation by the Guinness family and free access to Sir Alec's papers, including his private and unpublished diaries, Read has written an enjoyable, yet penetrating and perceptive account of an intriguing and complex man. Read shows how Guinness's quirks of character and genius had roots in the circumstances of his early life. His marriage to Merula Salaman, a young actress of great promise, is chronicled by the many hundred letters Guinness wrote to her when serving in the Navy during World War II, while his post-war diaries reveal that readjustment to civilian life was traumatic, with doubts about his talent and a confusion about his sexual nature leading to bouts of severe depression. Guinness's conversion to Catholicism in 1956 partly exorcised his demons, but he never wholly escaped the contradictions of his life - his domestic ties vying with wayward passions, a yearning for holiness with an intolerance of constraint

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Simon & Schuster
• Date d'édition: 2011
• ISBN 10: 145163644X
• ISBN 13: 9781451636444
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 670