^^ Free Ebook Purgatorio: A New Verse Translation (English and Italian Edition), by Dante Alighieri, W.S. Merwin

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At the pinnacle of a grand and prolific career, W. S. Merwin has given us a shimmering new verse translation of the central section of Dante's Divine Comedy -- the Purgatorio.
  
Led by Virgil, inspired by his love for Beatrice, Dante makes the arduous journey up the Mountain of Purgatory, where souls are cleansed to prepare them for the ultimate ascent to heaven.  Presented with the original Italian text, and with Merwin's notes and commentary, this luminous new interpretation of Dante's great poem of sin, repentance, and salvation is a profoundly moving work of art and the definitive translation for our time.

• Sales Rank: #120322 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-28
• Released on: 2000-03-28
• Original language: Italian
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.54" h x 1.33" w x 6.44" l,
• Binding: Hardcover
• 359 pages

Amazon.com Review
In the foreword to his version of the Purgatorio, W.S. Merwin dwells on the quasi-insuperable hurdles that any translator of Dante must face. Choosing just a single line from the first canticle, he asks: "How could that, then, really be translated? It could not, of course." This makes Dante's masterpiece sound like the literary equivalent of Mission: Impossible ("Your mission, Mr. Merwin, should you choose to accept it...") Happily, however, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet decided to give it a try. He spent several years wrestling with Dante's inexhaustible tercets, and rather than applying himself to the fire-and-brimstone-scented thrills of the Inferno, Merwin turned to the middle and most humane portion of the entire work: Purgatorio. It's here, in a kind of spiritual halfway house between heaven and hell, that the poem reaches a peak of tenderness and regret--and rises quite literally from the dead.

Merwin's version must be measured against a good many predecessors, from John Ciardi's reader-friendly approach to Allen Mandelbaum's free-versifying to Charles Singleton's prosaic trot. How does this Purgatorio stack up? Very decently indeed. Merwin is something of a strict constructionist, who wants to hew as closely as possible to the syntax and sound of the original Italian. Yet he's no Nabokovian naysayer, slapping himself on the wrist every time he deviates from Dante's text, and he's wisely thrown the rhymes overboard. That leaves him with enough flexibility to echo some of the poem's loveliest effects: A sweet air that within itself was
unvarying struck me on the forehead,
a stroke no rougher than a gentle breeze,

at which the trembling branches all together
bent at once in that direction where
the holy mountain casts its first shadow,

without ever leaning over so far from
the upright as to make the small birds stop
the practice of their art in the treetops...
Merwin also does a good job capturing Dante's asperity, including his near-proverbial response to a rebuke from main squeeze Beatrice in Canto XXX: "As a mother may seem harsh to her child, / she seemed to me, because the flavor / of raw pity when tasted is bitter." There are moments, of course, when the translator's taste for literalism gets him in trouble. When, for example, Dante is surrounded by a crowd of souls in the second canto, who are astonished to see one of the living among them, he describes them as "quasi oblïando d'ire a farsi belle." A difficult phrase to translate, yes, but Merwin's solution--"forgetting, it seemed, to go and see to their own beauty"--makes it sound as though they're late for an appointment at the hairdresser's. Still, these are minor flaws in a major and often marvelous piece of work. Can we look forward to a paradisiacal follow-up? --James Marcus

From Publishers Weekly
Forty years of producing highly reliable renderings of French and Spanish poetry and drama have culminated in what is bound to be hailed as Merwin's grandest translational accomplishment. Following on the heels of last year's The River Sound and the verse-novel The Folding Cliffs comes this deft and smooth interpretation of Dante's "second kingdom in which the human spirit is made clean/ and becomes worthy to ascend to Heaven." It is only fitting that a poet so absorbed in environmental concerns engage this most earthen section of the Commedia, with its suffering characters and unkind landscape bringing into view sharpened images of ancient and medieval political, moral and erotic life. At the book's center, love's visionary force is revealed in the simplest declarative tone: "Neither Creator nor creature ever," Virgil instructs the wandering pilgrim, "was without love, my son, whether/ natural or of the mind, and you know this." Virgil's steady tutelage reaches its pinnacle in canto 22, where Statius quotes his messianic eclogue and Dante-as-poet absorbs lessons about writing poetry by overhearing their talk. Soon after his guide's dramatic departure, Dante's focus on nature gives way to the transcendent Beatrice. At its best, Merwin's characteristically open-ended syntax allows him to capture the charged encounter's troubling, if not terribly visceral, effects: "so I broke under that heavy burden,/ with tears and sighs out of me pouring,/ and my voice collapsed as it was leaving." This translation is something of a companion volume to Robert Pinsky's Inferno in the many ways it supercedes in elegance those of Singleton and Sinclair, which had been the last century's standards. (Apr.) FYI: Also in April, Copper Canyon will issue The First Four Books of Poems by Merwin, which includes his 1952 Yale Younger Poets volume, A Mask for Janus ($16 256p ISBN 1-55659-139-X).
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
If any testimony to the undiminished power of Dante's Divine Comedy was required, the fact that two such distinguished American poets as Robert Pinsky and W. S. Merwin have translated it into contemporary English seven centuries after its creator's death would be evidence enough. Merwin, a versatile and prolific poet and a sensitive, multilingual translator, who has demonstrated his gift for writing long, narrative poems in The Folding Cliffs (1998), chose to focus on the central section of Dante's epic. The "Purgatorio" is the only section to take place on Earth, and it is also the most human and hopeful. In his introduction, Merwin confides that he has been reading Dante since his adolescence, and his reverence for the poet, his erudition, and the incredible elasticity and naturalness of his translation render this masterpiece (presented in its original Italian on facing pages) fresh and radiant. Not only does Merwin succeed in capturing the poignant drama of the quest, he makes Dante's concerns and artistry not only relevant to life now but invaluable. Donna Seaman

Most helpful customer reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful.
A beautiful translation of a beautiful poem.
By David Messmer
One of the greatest literary tragedies is that so many readers believe that the Divine Comedy, or that even Dante himself, is no more than the Inferno. Such ignorance leads to a vast reading public who have never experienced the most immediately human section of the Comedy: the Purgatorio. Unlike Inferno, which is full of characters whom we either revile or pity, Purgatorio introduces us to spirits who, like most of us, try to do the right thing, but aren't always successful. If we look down upon the shades in Hell, we identify with the shades in Purgatory, and it is in this understanding that the Purgatorio gains its beauty. An absolute must read for anyone with any interest in literature, history, theology, spirituality, philosophy, psychiatry, or beauty.
As for Merwin's translation, he has managed to take a giant step in solving the problem that I mentioned above. His translation does justice to the original not only in its accuracy, but in its poetry, which is so important to Dante's works. I have read two other translations of Purgatorio (Mandelbaum and Ciardi), and this is, by far, the most readable and the most engaging of the three. Merwin captures the hopeful but unfilled tone of the poem with considerable grace while still maintaining the structural and thematic tension that are crucial to an understanding of Dante's works. As for the scholarly aspects of the work, scholastics, clearly, were not Merwin's intent. His explanatory notes are minimal (which is preferable to Mandelbaum's copious, and sometimes condescending glosses) and the foreword is more an exploration of the art of translation than of Dante's work. Not that this is a bad thing. Understanding Merwin's reservations concerning translation, and the difficulties of performing it, makes his version of Purgatorio all the more human and touching. But, any reader seeking critical commentary should look elsewhere (and by elsewhere I mean a supplemental source as passing over this translation just because it lacks scholarly material would be criminal). Whether for readers experiencing Purgatorio for the first time, or for Dante aficionados, I can't recomend this volume highly enough. First, Pinsky's Inferno, then Merwin's Purgatorio, now, if only someone would do Paradiso similar justice!

7 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
among the most brilliant poetry ever written
By I X Key
I think the reason the Inferno is the most popular canzone of Dante's Divine Comedy is just that it's where to start with Dante's amazing incredible eternal epic. Also the Inferno has more shoot-em-up sort of action than the other 2, Purgatorio & Paradiso. Purgatory is of such poetic brilliance; it's full of poetic philosophy from Dante's critical genius, & beautiful scenes, interesting spirits -- a feeling wholly different from the grimness of the Inferno. & W. S. Merwin too is brilliant & masterful enough for a repartee with the medieval guru. Merwin is a poet & translator whose verbal & syntactical decisions you can trust. He renders Purgatorio with great exciting faithfulness to Dante's original language, with mellifluous music, with merit worthy of the high praise this has gotten from Robert Pinsky, Harold Bloom, & others. The Comedy is notoriously difficult to translate, & this is one of the best translations of Purgatorio into English ever, I'm sure.

18 of 24 people found the following review helpful.
Beautiful Forward
By Amazon Customer
I will confess that I haven't had a chance to read Merwin's entire translation of Dante's _Purgatorio_, though I have read about a third to this point. I will say, though, that I have read his Forward, and I found it to be one of the more moving testaments to the emotional, spiritual, and intellectual impact that the _Commedia_ has had on readers, poets and non-poets alike, through the ages. There isn't much new information for the Dante scholar--Merwin acknowledges that his notes are largely based on Singleton's--but this is a translation written out of love, not necessarily scholarship. This is Merwin's editon for the lover of both poets and poetry

See all 3 customer reviews...

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~ Download PDF Spirit and Flesh: Life in a Fundamentalist Baptist Church, by James M. Ault Jr.

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In an attempt to understand the growing influence of the Christian Right, sociologist and documentary filmmaker James Ault spent three years inside the world of a Massachusetts fundamentalist church he encountered while studying a variety of new-right groups. He observed—and where possible participated in—the daily lives of the members of a church he calls Shawmut River. His book takes us into worship services, home Bible studies, youth events, men’s prayer breakfasts and Saturday work groups, after-Sunday-service family dinners, and bitter conflicts leading to a church split. He introduces us to the principal members of the congregation, as well as its shadow community of ex-members. We see how they respond to each other, to Ault as an unsaved newcomer, and to the outside world.

Ault draws our attention to how members use the Bible as a “handbook for life,” applying moral absolutes taken from it, more or less successfully, to both daily life and extraordinary events. We see how the congregation deals with issues around marriage, adultery, divorce, teenage pregnancy, and alcohol abuse. Ault makes clear how the church, embodying traditional extended-family life, provides the security of like-mindedness and community to its members. He also reveals the pervasive power of gossip to engender and perpetuate divisions and conflicts within a community. And finally, Ault describes his own surprising journey of discovery, revelation, and belief during, and in the wake of, his three years studying Shawmut River and making an intimate documentary about it.

Having experienced its life personally and in depth, James Ault is remarkably placed to guide us through the world of Christian fundamentalism—an abiding and, to many Americans, baffling phenomenon. In the course of telling his story, he builds a useful framework for better understanding the popular sources of both fundamentalism and new-right conservatism and their distinctive place in American life.

• Sales Rank: #862896 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-15
• Released on: 2004-09-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.57" h x 1.40" w x 6.60" l,
• Binding: Hardcover
• 435 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Since they began flexing their political muscles with Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority, Christian fundamentalists have attracted increasing attention from curious, and often suspicious, outsiders. Setting out to make a documentary about the religious right in the early 1980s, Harvard- and Brandeis-trained sociologist Ault found his way to a Falwell-influenced church, the pseudonymously named Shawmut River Baptist Church, and ended up spending more than two years there. There, much to the bewilderment of his fellow academics, he found a community whose beliefs sustained a social world of surprising richness. Ault masterfully combines narrative with careful, and frequently groundbreaking, analysis: "While fundamentalists' timeless, God-given absolutes may appear rigid from the outside, within the organism of a close-knit community... they can be surprisingly supple and flexible over time and place." But what is most striking is the way Ault brings his whole person, not just his capacity for insightful abstraction, into the story—and into the quest to know not just his subjects, but also their God. While most of the book's events took place almost two decades ago, Ault's hours of verbatim recordings, which he retells with gripping immediacy, keep the book fresh. This title joins Randall Balmer's Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory as required reading for anyone who would understand America's most conservative Christians.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
For a self-admitted left-wing sociologist, Ault provides as unbiased a glimpse into the hearts and minds of the fundamentalist members of the Shawmut River Baptist Church of Worcester, Massachusetts, as might be found. His relations with the church began in the mid-1980s when his postdoctoral dissertation on why new-right conservative women eschew feminism led to a PBS documentary. Having continued, they now eventuated in this lengthy account of the professional and personal lives of the pastor and several congregants. Ault's narrative style should appeal to the Left and Right alike, particularly after he confesses his frequent discomfort when others mention their unqualified faith in the word of the Bible, which doesn't, however, impede his portrayal of that faith as earnest and heartfelt. Ault discloses all that the people of Shawmut River Baptist taught him about how fundamentalists make the world work for them; and by noting how liberals see the same world quite differently, he just may have written the seminal opus for bridge-building between those two factions. Donna Chavez
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
Critical acclaim for James Ault’s Spirit and Flesh

“A unique contribution to the study of American religion….the best single-volume explanation of why American fundamentalist Christianity thrives among certain people, what needs it fulfills and why it will not die out.”
—Mark Oppenheimer in The Washington Post Book World

“This ethnographic study of working-class Christians is not just a first-rate piece of sociological journalism. Ault weaves his own story into the book, and the gradual coming together of the Harvard graduate and his fundamentalist research subjects gives Spirit and Flesh a warmth and humanity that set it apart.”
—Don Lattin in The San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

"This brilliant book is essential for anyone who wants to better understand fundamentalism—or for fundamentalists who desire to understand how they are viewed by others."
—Cindy Crosby in Christianity Today

“ One of the maladies of contemporary American politics is its descent into incivility….Spirit and Flesh calls this politics to task, challenging all of us ‘to listen more patiently, carefully, intelligently—even generously—to our
opponents.' Can somebody say amen?”
—Stephen Prothero in The New York Times Book Review

“This extraordinary book….an insightful look at some of America’s most conservative Christians and helps explain why the new Christian right has moved into the mainstream of American politics.”
—Elizabeth Bennett in The Houston Chronicle

“An absorbing, groundbreaking, and intimate tale….an ethnographic study that often reads like a novel.”
—Jane Lampman in Christian Science Monitor

“ Ault masterfully combines narrative with careful, and frequently groundbreaking, analysis….what is most striking is the way Ault brings his whole person, not just his capacity for insightful abstraction, into the story….required reading for anyone who would understand America’s most conservative Christians.”
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Advance praise

“It is vital that we learn to see fundamentalists in all traditions as vulnerable human beings like ourselves. If we simply dismiss them as either evil or hopelessly irrational, we contribute to the polarization that is putting us all in such deadly peril. James Ault has traced his own journey from disbelief to understanding and will take his readers with him. This book has made an important contribution to one of the greatest problems facing the world today.”
—Karen Armstrong, author of The Battle for God
 
“I was swept into Ault’s absorbing narrative right away. The book is a superb combination, a sympathetic portrayal of real people involved in a fundamentalist Baptist Church woven together with a well-informed portrayal of an increasingly important element in the religious and political life of America. His brave and courageous inclusion of his own journey as he worked on this project deepens and enriches the story.”
–Harvey Cox, author of Fire From Heaven
 
“Ault is a masterful participant observer who acquires a sympathy for this movement’s basic beliefs while retaining a scholar’s analytical eye. A community study that reads like a novel (with a surprise ending), Spirit and Flesh is a remarkable American story.”
–Joel Carpenter, author of Revive Us Again: The Reawakening of American
Fundamentalism
 
“Compelling for its intimate portrayal of the men and women and valuable for its insights into the larger culture of Christian fundamentalism. This book takes readers into a world far beyond the common stereotypes.”
–Gustav Niebuhr, Correspondent and Associate Professor of Religion and Media Syracuse University

Most helpful customer reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
Engaging and climactic
By FaithfulReader.com
In 1983 sociologist James Ault, a "sixties radical who had embraced...new-left enthusiasms of the day," took on a post-grad research project: getting to know the ins and outs of an independent fundamentalist Baptist church in Massachusetts. Ault's purpose: "to better understand popular support for this new-style conservatism marching proudly behind the banner of 'family values.'" His interest: "it wasn't [the pastor's] religion that had brought me to follow him on his round of duties....It was his politics." His method: anthropologically studying the "community enterprise" of this one church and its attendant school.

After a year, Ault proposed extending his involvement and filming a documentary about the church --- titled "Born Again," airing on PBS in 1987. The book project came more than a decade later, which means that some of the political commentary seems dated. And yet most of the book is a keen and still-relevant look at the church's faith, social mores, and informal systems.

Working from tapes and notes, Ault walks us chronologically through his several years as a welcomed but suspect outsider, at church services, home Bible studies, men's prayer breakfasts, Sunday dinners. He puts himself into the story; you see his measured reaction to parishioners; there's the day he reads his name on someone's refrigerator --- a prayer request for his salvation. And their reaction to him --- his quiet presence (listening) and carefully phrased questions (so as not to make people defensive). After a year, the pastor's wife tells him, "You know, I never know where you stand on things....But somehow I think you understand." Though an atheist, Ault had grown up in a liberal Methodist parsonage, and this surely gives him a head start in understanding some of the in-talk of sermons and extended conversations he chooses to print --- with dead-on authenticity. In time, mutual misgiving melts.

Ault's narrative, as engaging and climactic as a novel, is interspersed with cultural, and some theological, analyses of the church, drawing on a larger body of research, evidenced by 30 pages of notes and a 10-page bibliography. A chapter such as "Fundamentalism and Tradition" is not light entertainment.

Ault spends considerable time on family and gender issues, as does the church itself. "The day-to-day business of church life had much to do with transforming and ordering family relationships, especially marriage." Marriages have been solidified, largely because errant husbands had come home from local bars and taken responsibility for their families. But church and family patriarchy is more complicated than Ault had suspected. "The man's the head," the pastor's wife tells him, but "the woman's the neck that turns the head." This informal scheme is, as Ault says, "what everybody sees" and "what everybody knows" --- despite the official line.

There's an insightful tangential plot (and analysis) of social networks, gossip, and tussles for community power; factions leave the church, pastor and people feel betrayed, and ultimately new leadership takes over. This church, like every since the first, is made up of people who struggle, as the book title suggests, "between the spirit and the flesh."

Both the last chapter and the epilogue are postscripts to Ault's active involvement in the church, and in some ways they are the most interesting. Something took. Or, in gospel parlance, the seed bore fruit, the prodigal came home --- not that Ault became a fundamentalist or even a Baptist, but he has claimed faith and worships with a church community. And, even as the very publication of this book suggests, he has a vision for breaking down the negative, even demonizing, stereotypes that liberals and conservatives --- both in and outside of the church --- have of each other.

At the end of the book he proposes inviting "a group of fundamentalists and right-to-lifers together with a group of feminists and progressives" on a three-day boat ride. He admits it would be a risky venture (someone quipped, "Will there be enough life jackets?"), but at least he dares to dream. At least we could dare to suggest that people on both sides read Ault's book with an open mind.

--- Reviewed by Evelyn Bence

17 of 25 people found the following review helpful.
Worth Reading but 15 years late
By DFE
Those of you reading this book looking for insight into the Born Again movement and why its membership is so successfully directing much of the current political and social discourse in this country with be sorely disappointed. The material in this book is 15 to 20 years old and the author spends little time relating the political aspects of the Born Again movement, but instead covers the daily life of a single small community during the mid to late 80's. This book relates the authors experience of observing a Christian Born again community, in the course of preparing for shooting a documentary. The book begins in 1984 as he first meets with the Minister of a church that had only been in existence for a few years. It is not clear just how long the author spent with them as for some strange reason most of the material is not dated and when he does supply a date for a section he only provides a month and day, but no year. However the author does mention that he spent two years away from the church while editing the film and then briefly touched based with them again in the 1988, so at best he spent two years with them.

The book is divided into four sections. The first section covers several of the core members backgrounds and how they came to Born Again. The second section deals with the various ministries of the church and how the church is bound up in the daily lives of the members. The third section covers the shooting of the documentary and the fourth section covers events that occurred within the community just after the film's completion. There is also a brief epilogue in which he talks about how his experiences effected his own faith and brief where are they now section for some of the principle subjects.

The author is a son of a Methodist Minister of what he refers to as "Mainline" or another words liberal church. At the onset of his research the author considered himself a standard liberal professor divorced from his religious upbringing, perplexed by the beliefs of the Born Again. In understanding his subjects, he tries to be as nonjudgmental as possible and ends up creating a very sympathetic portrait of their values and provides a reasonable explanation for why people are attracted to this faith. By the end of the book I felt like I had a much greater understanding for where these people are coming from. However I was sorely disappointed that there was not any current information on the Born Again community he visited, nor was there any attempt to show the political aspects of this movement. In one throw away sentence he mentions his discomfort in accompanying some of the church members to a demonstration in an abortion clinic but he never pursues this topic. In fact, if you missed that sentence you would never know that anyone in this church is involved in the movement to make abortion illegal. Similarly he mentions that the Minister of the church ran for the State house on a Christian Fundamentalist platform, but he does not cover this at all. Instead he chooses to focus on the day to day lives and struggles that are easier for us to relate too, accusing his fellow academics of being too closed minded to appreciate a different lifestyle. It is as if the author is studying the quaint customs of some isolated group, far removed from the everyday concerns of the presumed liberal readership. Lost amidst this sympathetic portrait is the reality that these people are seeking to dramatically change the laws of the US in ways that if they succeed with have very real effects on those who do not share their beliefs. You can almost here the author saying "Why can't we all just get along?" and he even goes so far as to suggest how the liberals and Born Again should be able to find common ground, seeming to forget the current level of venom that passes for political discourse in the US today. In the end, it is a fairly insightful if incomplete portrait of a young Born Again community.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Worth Reading
By Adam Gonnerman
I almost gave up on this book partway through the second chapter. The author seemed to be more focused on promoting his documentary than telling a the story of a fundamentalist church. I also thought he was failing to distinguish between fundamentalists and evangelicals, overgeneralizing. After letting a few days pass, I picked up where I left off, and I'm glad I did. You will have to read all the way through to the end to see how it all comes together and what impact his experience with fundamentlists had on the author. It was especially satisfying to see the clear-headed explanations of why fundamentalists think and behave as they do. Without becoming an apologist, he succeeds in bridging the gap.

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>> Ebook Download The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death, by Jean-Dominique Bauby

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In 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby was the editor-in-chief of French Elle, the father of two young childen, a 44-year-old man known and loved for his wit, his style, and his impassioned approach to life. By the end of the year he was also the victim of a rare kind of stroke to the brainstem.  After 20 days in a coma, Bauby awoke into a body which had all but stopped working: only his left eye functioned, allowing him to see and, by blinking it, to make clear that his mind was unimpaired. Almost miraculously, he was soon able to express himself in the richest detail: dictating a word at a time, blinking to select each letter as the alphabet was recited to him slowly, over and over again. In the same way, he was able eventually to compose this extraordinary book.

By turns wistful, mischievous, angry, and witty, Bauby bears witness to his determination to live as fully in his mind as he had been able to do in his body. He explains the joy, and deep sadness, of seeing his children and of hearing his aged father's voice on the phone. In magical sequences, he imagines traveling to other places and times and of lying next to the woman he loves. Fed only intravenously, he imagines preparing and tasting the full flavor of delectable dishes. Again and again he returns to an "inexhaustible reservoir of sensations," keeping in touch with himself and the life around him.

Jean-Dominique Bauby died two days after the French publication of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

This book is a lasting testament to his life.

• Sales Rank: #106373 in Books
• Published on: 1997-05-13
• Released on: 1997-05-13
• Ingredients: Example Ingredients
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 8.00" h x 4.75" w x .75" l,
• Binding: Hardcover
• 131 pages

Amazon.com Review
We've all got our idiosyncrasies when it comes to writing--a special chair we have to sit in, a certain kind of yellow paper we absolutely must use. To create this tremendously affecting memoir, Jean-Dominique Bauby used the only tool available to him--his left eye--with which he blinked out its short chapters, letter by letter. Two years ago, Bauby, then the 43-year-old editor-in-chief of Elle France, suffered a rare stroke to the brain stem; only his left eye and brain escaped damage. Rather than accept his "locked in" situation as a kind of death, Bauby ignited a fire of the imagination under himself and lived his last days--he died two days after the French publication of this slim volume--spiritually unfettered. In these pages Bauby journeys to exotic places he has and has not been, serving himself delectable gourmet meals along the way (surprise: everything's ripe and nothing burns). In the simplest of terms he describes how it feels to see reflected in a window "the head of a man who seemed to have emerged from a vat of formaldehyde."

From Library Journal
Two days after this remarkable book was published in France to great acclaim, its author died of heart failure. What caused such a stir was the method Bauby used to write it. For in December 1995, the 44-year-old former editor-in-chief of the French Elle magazine had suffered a severe stroke that left his body paralyzed but his mind intact, a condition known as "locked-in syndrome." Able to communicate only by blinking his left eyelid, he dictated this book letter by letter to an assistant who recited to him a special alphabet. The result is a marvelous, compelling account of Bauby's life as a "vegetable," full of humor and devoid of self-pity. Although he was trapped in the diving bell of his body, Bauby's imagination "takes flight like a butterflyy....You can wander off in space or in time, set out for Tierra del Fuego or for King Midas's court." His celebration of life against all odds is highly recommended. [Julia Tavalro, who suffers from the same condition, has also written an excellent account, Look Up for Yes, LJ 2/1/97.?Ed.]?Wilda Williams, "Library Journal.
-?Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From The New England Journal of Medicine
The locked-in syndrome is a complication of a cerebrovascular accident in the base of the pons. The patient is alert and fully conscious but quadriplegic, with lower-cranial-nerve palsies. Only vertical movements of the eyes and blinking are possible. At the age of 43, Jean-Dominique Bauby, who was editor of Elle and a robust bon vivant, suffered such a stroke. After 20 days in a deep coma, he gradually regained consciousness. His right eyelid was sutured shut to prevent corneal ulcerations, he was fed through a gastric tube, he drooled uncontrollably, he breathed through a tracheostomy tube, his urine drained from a catheter, and his bottom was wiped by others. He felt as if he were trapped in a diving bell, but his mind was free as a butterfly. Bauby wrote The Diving Bell and the Butterfly solely by blinking his left eye in response to the reading of an alphabet, arranged according to the frequency with which each letter occurs in French (E, S, A, R, I,... W). A friend read off the letters, pausing when Bauby blinked. Letters laboriously became words, and then sentences.

I brought this book along on an airplane that took me to a meeting in a distant city. Reading it made me hope that air traffic would delay our arrival. It is a remarkable tribute to the human spirit -- a book that will inspire any physician, medical student, nurse, or patient. There is no self-pity and no thought of physician-assisted suicide. The tone is as ironic and dry as perhaps only the French can be. In a seaside hospital, Bauby, imprisoned in his paralyzed body, recounts his days. He notes that a stroke such as his is usually fatal, but "improved resuscitation techniques have prolonged and refined the agony."

Now, instead of directing one of France's leading fashion magazines, he is strapped in a wheelchair, completely dependent on others for the simplest demands of life: shut the door, roll me over, fluff up a pillow. "A domestic event as commonplace as washing can trigger the most varied emotions." And then there was the boor who, with a conclusive "Good night," turned off the Bordeaux-Munich soccer game at halftime and left. Bauby's attendants dressed him not in hospital garb, but in his own clothes ("Good for the morale," according to the neurologist). Bauby comments, "If I must drool, I may as well drool on cashmere." He is, as he says, a "voiceless parrot" who has made his nest in a dead-end corridor of the neurology department. When the stretcher-bearer who returns him to his room leaves with a hearty "Bon appetit!" the effect on Bauby is the same as "saying `Merry Christmas' on August 15."

Fed by two or three bags of brownish fluid instilled into a gastric tube, Bauby recalls his culinary skills -- boeuf en gelee and homemade sausage -- and melon, red fruit, and oysters, but above all, sausage. He imagines spending a day with his children, lying in bed beside his lover, and flying to Hong Kong, and he dreams that Radovan Karadzic, leader of the Bosnian Serbs, is performing a tracheotomy on him. In the Cafe de Flore, noxious gossip from the lower depths of Parisian snobbery poisons the air: "Did you know that Bauby is now a total vegetable?" Bauby, "to prove that my IQ was still higher than a turnip's," begins a remarkable correspondence, not by pen but by blinks. "The arrival of the mail [had] the character of a hushed and holy ceremony." Every sentence of this arduously written book is a jewel burnished by a rare disease and still rarer intelligence.

Bauby died only two days after the publication of his book in France.

Reviewed by Robert S. Schwartz, M.D.
Copyright © 1998 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS.

Most helpful customer reviews

63 of 66 people found the following review helpful.
Stunningly beautiful glimpse into a nightmare.
By Amazon Customer
Wow. This book is beautiful and haunting. You begin the book with the knowledge of Mssr. Bauby's fate. He proceeds to share with us his eloquent and striking observations post-accident. This book is beautifully and concisely written - it's as tight as a drum - and that is a testament more to Bauby's journalistic talents than his impaired condition. An intellectual with a love for opera, music, writing, and food, he comes to life in these pages despite the brevity of the book. We get a decent sense of him prior to his stroke: a man with a full appetite for life. At times, I had to suck in my breath and set the book down to pause, it was so profoundly heartbreaking. He shares with us his deepest, raw thoughts about his daily life, his former lifestyle, his children, the blessings he misses and the pleasures he now looks forward to, as well as the torment he cannot control. A key point, I think, is that throughout the book he sprinkles his persistent sense of humor, and a feeling of hope. It's amazing considering that he is experiencing something we all agree is our worst nightmare. There is no bitterness on these pages, it's more of an honest wistfulness. Like when he says he would have cheerfully killed one of his caretakers for the neglect he suffered at his hands. I will never forget the irony of the photograph from his childhood sent to him by his father; the description of his last day of normal life; the story of Mithra-Grandchamp; the bleakness of his Sundays and how they lend perspective to his other days (and ours); and his trip to smell the French fries. The meaningfulness and importance of the small, everyday events, abilities, and choices we make are cast in a new light after reading this book. But the experience is like having someone open you up and rip out your heart, such is the sympathy we feel for Bauby. In fact, I will likely be haunted by his descriptions of life, both breathtakingly beautiful and immensely sad. What a man. What a book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
A Review of: The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, by Jean-Dominique Bauby
By Amazon Customer
A Review of: The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, by Jean-Dominique Bauby
Jean-Domique Bauby suffered a stroke which left him paralyzed with locked-in syndrome at the age of 43. He wrote the book for his two children with the help of Claude Mendibil. Bauby’s intention for this memoir was to give readers a view into what life after such a tragic event entails. He truly captivated both the positive and negative feelings which he frequently felt throughout the novel. For this review the chapters are summarized and reviewed, note some chapters are discussed as one.

Wheelchair. Bauby spoke of his wheelchair in both his terms and what the professionals surrounding him provided him with. They thought of the wheelchair as progress while Bauby saw his life sentence.
Prayer. Once he learned of what his new life would entail, Bauby let go of his large future plans that felt no longer attainable. Throughout this chapter he focused on the victories he could overcome, such as, swallowing the excess saliva that sits in his mouth. This chapter was meaningful in how Bauby was able to convey to the reader that he struggled with the idea of letting go his plans and making new ones.
Bath time. Bauby describes his daily routine which includes a bath. He channels the reader into the harsh double edged sword that was this time in his days. On one end he would relish in the pure joy of taking the bath, reminding him of how relaxing his used to be. On the other, the nostalgia brings pain in knowing that this will never be the same feeling.
The Alphabet. In this chapter Bauby discusses his communication system. He goes into detail the different types of communicators he encounters and how each one reacts to his form of communication. He discusses his preferences and how some make the communication harder as a result of not wanting to be wrong or disappoint Bauby.
The Empress. Bauby lets us in to see his own appearance. He talks of the patroness of the hospital being Empress Eungenie and his imagination flourishes.
Tourists. Bauby describes the different long term patients that are in the hospital. He makes a point to also discuss the patients who are there short-term and will return to their homes. Bauby makes a point to describe the way they laugh and joke to pass time but turn away from him.
Guardian Angel. This chapter and the three to follow of it talk of his relationships. Bauby refers to his Speech Therapist as his guardian angel. She is the one who allows him to communicate through his communication board. He talks of his father and his daughter both of whom he calls while his guardian angel is there. Bauby tells us that he wishes the other professionals would communicate with him using his communication board instead of just ignoring his attempts.
Our Very Own Madonna. Bauby speaks of his trip in Lourdes with Josephine. It gave a look into his life before the accident. They went to the Madonna and their trip was full of confrontations between the two of them, but love seemed to prevail.
The Vegetable. Bauby tells us a way he copes with his locked in syndrome. He writes a newsletter to friends and associates to help them gain a better understanding of his condition and so that they do not just write him off.
Outing. This chapter discusses how there are two different people that others know of Bauby. The way he was before his accident and the way he is now.
Twenty-One. Bauby explains what his friend and colleague Vincent is like and how he is different from other visitors in the sense that he treats Bauby like he always has. He also tells of his own hearing, he is completely blocked in one ear and the other amplifies all sounds from the hallways.
Sunday. This chapter gives us a look into what the days are like when there is no one around. Bauby relies on his caretakers to break up his days and on Sunday’s they are not around.
A Day in the Life. Bauby delves into the day of his stroke. He talks of how his day went normally and he had planned to see a play with his son, Theodile. When his stroke was happening he thought he would just be find after a rest and that is when he slipped into a coma.
Season of Renewal. The last chapter of the novel. It showed a sense of hope for the future. Bauby describes the change of season into autumn and how he has progressed. He states that he has made significant improvements since his time at Berck Hospital. The ending of the book was perfection.

The beginning of the book was hard to get into. It was confusing the way it jumped into describing how he was feeling about being in the hospital. I didn’t understand some of the metaphors or if he was talking about reality or fantasy. I did not give up on the prologue and first paragraphs as I reread them to gain a better understanding of what he was describing. Throughout the rest of the novel it was so eloquently written and Bauby’s style of writing was imaginative and intriguing.
A person may benefit from this book if they have recently suffered a similar traumatic event in their own lives, in a family member’s life, or will be working with this population. It provides excellent insight into how all aspects of Bauby’s communication and daily life struggles are handled and how he feels personally about them.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
The Prayer references the prayers for recovery that Bauby finds to be a waste of what little energy he has
By Amazon Customer
Following a massive stroke in 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby found himself trading a life of galas and yachts to one of isolation and hospital rooms. Having suffered a traumatic brain stem injury, Bauby is a prisoner in his own body courtesy of locked-in syndrome. The subsequent themes of fear, impotence, and, eventually, the triumph of one’s own desire to maintain independence are explored in striking detail throughout the autobiography.
The opening chapter, The Wheelchair, begins by painting the image of Jean’s dependency on others, his helplessness screaming off of the pages. The Prayer references the prayers for recovery that Bauby finds to be a waste of what little energy he has. Shifting gears from the spiritual to the physical, Bathtime and The Alphabet recount Bauby’s complete reliance on the staff tending to him. It is here we learn that there is a small chance his nervous system will start working again, but if it were to happen, the process would be extremely slow.
The Empress, Cinecitta, and Tourists focus on Bauby’s life and neighbors at the hospital. Since his mental state in tact, he is able to recognize other patients and their needs, Empress Eugénie being one in particular. He thinks fondly of her and her compassion towards him, often offering comfort. This comfort is fleeting, though; upon wandering around the hospital, Bauby realizes the gravity of his condition: “exiled, paralyzed, mute, half-deaf, deprived of all pleasures, and reduced to the existence of a jellyfish” (26). Cinecitta conveys the frustration of not being able to express his wants and needs, viewing the hospital as a maze he mindlessly wanders through, while The Tourists derides the ability of hospital visitors to come and go as they please, demonstrating avoidance behavior all the while.
The Sausage, Guardian Angel, and The Photo paint a portrait of his daily therapy. Knowing he may never eat orally again, Bauby retreats into mental “banquets,” dreaming a world of culinary delights where the beef is always tender and the fish is fresh from the sea. Though a tragic reminder of lost physical abilities, the richness of the chapter’s descriptions highlight the importance of his speech therapist, Sandrine: Without her, Bauby would never been able to develop the eye movement-based dictation through which this memoir was written.
Yet Another Coincidence, The Dream, and Voice Offerings are painfully honest chapters. After a brain injury a person’s sense of reality may never return; as such, Bauby chooses not to remember his current dreams, but instead hold onto his past memories. Adding to his plight, we discover that an optical irrigation issue has forced Bauby’s doctors to sew one of one of his eyes shut. With the loss of sight he creates “productions” of the room’s goings-on; a mental show to keep himself entertained.
My Lucky Day, Our Very Own Madonna, and Through a Glass Darkly, Paris come next. My Lucky Day is brief, recalling his experience as the TV channel ironically asking if it is his “lucky day.” Later, we’re introduced to Josephine, his former lover and mother to his two children. This cements feelings of inadequacy, and it’s here that Bauby gives us his memoir’s titular metaphor: “Yet since taking up residency in my diving bell, I have made two brief trips to the world of Paris medicine to hear the verdict pronounced on me from the diagnostic heights”, (77) going on to say “Nothing was missing, except me. I was elsewhere” (79). The Vegetable and Outing follow. It had been close to sixth months since the stroke, and, underestimated by the hospital staff, Beaudry determined he “would have to rely on myself if I wanted to prove that my IQ was still higher than a turnip’s” (82). In one memorable anecdote, he finds brief respite from the dreary hospital world on a trip to the beach, reminded of the “intoxicating” aroma of French fries (88).
Twenty to One, The Duck Hunt, and Sunday give more glimpses of Bauby’s past, introducing us to his former colleague Vincent. This reminder of his former life leads him to conclude “Today it seems to me that my whole life was nothing but a string of those small near misses: a race whose result we know beforehand but in which we fail to bet on the winner” (94). The Duck Hunt refers to a duck he was gifted to indicate when someone entered the room. He had a severe hearing loss that made it difficult to recognize subtle sounds such as a door opening. “Far from such din, when blesses silence returns, I can listen to the butterflies that flutter inside my head” (97): He claims he must have butterfly hearing despite its constant deterioration. Continuing his life of routine, Bauby recounts how on Sundays the bell tolls, the TV is turned on, and he contemplates the small library on his windowsill (101).
The Ladies of Hong Kong, The Message, At the Wax Museum, and The Mythmaker add to his recollection of and longing for travel, food, and desire to leave a note on the typewriter across his room. While his body is preserved, these memories are what keep Baudry from emotionally expiring within the dull hospital walls. Finally, A Day in the Life and Season of Renewal close out the memoir and summarize Bauby’s continued dreams, the memories that live on, and the future that lies ahead.
Though the prose itself is beautifully constructed, the memoir occasionally blurs the line between past and present, dream and reality. As such, it may have been helpful if Bauby had more cohesively grouped the chapters together according to timeframe and level of fantasy. Given the nature of his condition, though, it’s understandable that portrayals of his thought process are at times free-flowing.
Given its central theme of self-preservation in the face of physical adversity and, in particular, Bauby’s triumph in communication, this memoir would resonate with Speech Language Pathologists on personal, professional, and emotional levels, poetically shedding light on the “invisible” side of a devastating syndrome.

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2 cassettes / 3 hours
Read by Stanley Tucci, John Shea, and Anne Twomey


A riveting novel of feeling and suspense in which grief and punishment become tragically intertwined.

At the close of a beautiful summer day near the quiet Connecticut town where they live, the Learner family - Ethan and Grace, their children, Josh and Emma - stop at a gas station on their way home from a concert. Josh Learner, lost in a ten-year-old's private world, is standing at the edge of the road when a car comes racing around the bend. He is hit and instantly killed. The car speeds away.

From this moment forward, Reservation Road becomes a harrowing countdown to the confrontation between two very different men. The hit-and-run driver is a small-town lawyer named Dwight Arno, a man in desperate need of a second chance. Dwight is also the father of a ten-year-old boy, who was asleep in the car the night Josh Learner was killed. Now Dwight must decide whether to run from his crime or to pay the price for what he did. Ethan Learner, a respected professor of literature at a small New England college, has seen his orderly world shattered in a single moment, yet persists in the belief that he can find the unknown man who killed his son. Behind their stories are those of eight-year-old Emma, who can't stop thinking her brother's death was her fault, and of Grace, who must find the strength to keep herself and her family together, and to be the mother Emma so badly needs.          


In a gripping narrative woven from the voices of Ethan, Dwight, and Grace, Reservation Road tells the story of two ordinary families facing an extraordinary crisis - an AudioBook that sounds like a thriller but opens up a world rich with psychological nuance and emotional wisdom. Reservation Road explores the terrain of grief even as it astonishes with unexpected redemption: powerful and wrenching and impossible to put down.

• Sales Rank: #10524732 in Books
• Published on: 1998-08-25
• Released on: 1998-08-25
• Formats: Abridged, Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 2
• Dimensions: 7.25" h x 4.50" w x .75" l,
• Binding: Audio Cassette

Amazon.com Review
Reservation Road is a chilling tale of the emotional fallout that follows the hit-and-run murder of a 10-year-old boy. Each chapter of this abridged version is read by one of three different narrators. Actor John Shea plays the part of Ethan Learner, a college professor who witnesses his son's death. Shea's methodical, melancholy tones accurately portray a man desperately searching for the unknown killer. Stanley Tucci (Deconstructing Harry) reads for Dwight Arno, a deeply damaged man who's torn between turning himself in for the crime and saving his own hide. Tucci's raspy and forthright delivery fits Arno's self-loathing nature. Despite his animated interactions with the other actors, Tucci's character is quite believable. Meanwhile, TV actress Anne Twomey reads the part of Grace, Ethan's wife. Her soft-spoken, deeply pained monologues give balance to a story that focuses primary on the emotions of two men. These distinct, varied tones swiftly carry the listener through this harrowing tale of murder, lies, and revenge. (Running time: three hours, two cassettes) --Gina Kaysen

From Publishers Weekly
"I wasn't rich, but my life was secure. That had always been its fundamental premise," observes Ethan Learner, an English professor at a small college in Connecticut. Moments later, his 10-year-old son, Josh, is killed by a hit-and-run driver, inaugurating a novel of terrible beauty that charts the progress of grief with concerto-like precision. For Ethan, his wife, Grace, and their daughter, Emma, Josh becomes both a cold absence and a constant, haunting, unfulfilled promise. For Dwight ?the driver who killed Josh?the event stands as more evidence of a significantly flawed life. Dwight is no cartoon villain; with a son, an ex-wife and a history of sudden violence, he's like a lesser Ethan?a poor father who, through incompetence, has killed another man's son. Schwartz structures the book with the tautness of a thriller?Will Ethan find his son's murderer??but this book quickly becomes much larger than a simple revenge tale. Neither does it become maudlin or forced. Ethan, Grace and Dwight all seem ruined by the boy's death, but, like three drowning people, they keep fighting for air?aided by Schwartz's strong, measured prose and exquisitely chosen metaphors (describing his now-troubled marriage, Ethan says, "Our house... a wordless, internalized diaspora... a landscape riven with fault lines"). "I want to tell this right," Ethan says several times during the course of the book. The author's first novel, Bicycle Days, gathered solid reviews but modest notice. With this effort, he seems poised to reach a break-out audience. If a story about overwhelming tragedy can be told right, this novel is?telling it with wise observation and abundant humanity. 100,000 first printing; Random House audio; author tour. Agent, Amanda Urban.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
A man pursues the hit-and-run driver who killed his ten-year-old son. From the author of Bicycle Days; with a 100,000-copy first printing.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Most helpful customer reviews

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
A sensitive, redemptive novel about a horrifying subject
By A Customer
"Reservation Road" is a remarkable achievement. Its story is the one story every parent is in terror of living. It is a story which resides only in nightmares and whose power cannot be allowed even to the edges of consciousness. In John Burnham Scwhartz's hands this appalling story of the death of a child unexpectedly becomes a redemptive tale of the power of life over death.
The novel, like most good novels, is both simple and complex. A young child is killed by a hit and run driver. The entire family, mother and daughter, father and son, is returning from a concert. They stop at a gas station. His father might have prevented the tragedy by his very presence, but he has walked away to do a mundane errand and he has left his son by the side of the road because his son requires that small bit of independence to assuage some inexplicable inner turmoil--perhaps anger at his father. The driver of the other car is also a father, a man divorced (in every sense of the word) from his wife, his son and his son's "new" family. He is just returning with his son from a day at Fenway Park, another in a series of efforts to repair a mangled relationship. They are late; the boy's mother will be furious. They take a shortcut.
The results of the tragedy range from unconquerable grief to rage; from a desire for revenge to reconciliation; from guilt to endurance. Each man is a father after all; each man suffers the rupture of a marriage which has been the birthplace of a son. Through the twists and turns and coincidences of small town life in which there are few secrets, the mothers and fathers cope with their separate tragedies until, inevitably, their lives comingle.
It is a horrible tale brilliantly told and what is most remarkable about it is the author's age. He is a young man, married without children. How could he possibly know all of this? How could he possibly know what such an event could feel like, how it could shatter lives, how starkly devastating it could be? I do not know, but if a writer lives in his imagination and draws upon it for the life of his work, the world can expect a great deal from John Burnham Schwartz. This book wrings from the reader all he or she has to give.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
One of the best books you'll read
By A Customer
I ordered this book after being recommended it by my best friend. He felt it was one of the best he had read, but thought I might have a problem with since I have children. It is a very hard subject and the fact that you are thrown into it within the first pages makes it that much harder. As I was reading, I couldn't believe that I was reading such a great book. I enjoyed the 3 points of view and liked the fact that the 2 men were in first person, while the mother was in third person. It allowed you to look at the husband from his view and his wife's view. Yes, the ending disapointed me when I read it, but thinking about it afterwards, I realized it was the perfect ending. A "hollywood redemption" ending would have ruined it. My friend and I discussed it at length afterwards and through our discussions realized so much more about the book and how good it was. My wife has refused to read it and I don't blame her as it is hard to take the loss. I think of this book often and I know that I'll re-read it soon. It is great on so many levels. I would not recommend this to the casual book reader looking for a simple novel. If you read it, expect to re-visit it often. And for those who read it and were disappointed, I challenge them to really think about it and see how many layers this book has.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Beautiful and heartbreaking
By R. Witte
John Burnham Schwartz's novel "RESERVATION ROAD", gripped me from the first sentence and never let me go. Told in three alternating voices, the novel is a story of love, loss and finally, redemption. Mr. Schwartz took the topic of a hit and run accident (an issue dealt with in another fine novel THE LONG RAIN) and added a different twist. His prose is so powerfully compelling, you feel the desperation of Dwight, and the anguish of Ethan and Grace build with each turn of the page. I can only hope that Mr. Schwartz's next novel is as fine as this one, and that he doesn't keep us waiting long for it.

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!! Ebook Free Design for Living: Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, by Margot Peters

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From the much-admired biographer of Charlotte Brontë, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, and the Barrymores (“Margot Peters is surely now . . . our foremost historian of stage make-believe”—Leon Edel), a new biography of the most famous English-speaking acting team of the twentieth century.

Individually, they were recognized as extraordinary actors, each one a star celebrated, imitated, sought after. Together, they were legend. The Lunts. A name to conjure with. Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne worked together so imaginatively, so seamlessly onstage that they seemed to fuse into one person. Offstage, they brawled so famously and raucously over every detail of every performance that they inspired the musical Kiss Me, Kate. At home on Broadway, in London’s West End, touring the United States and Great Britain, and even playing “the foxhole circuit” of World War II, the Lunts stunned, moved, and mystified audiences for more than four decades. They were considered to be a rarefied taste, but when they toured Texas in the 1930s, the audience threw cowboy hats onto the stage.

Their private life was equally fascinating, as unusual as the one they led in public. Friends like the critic Alexander Woollcott (whom Edna Ferber once described as “the little New Jersey Nero who thinks his pinafore is a toga”), Noël Coward, Laurette Taylor, and Sidney Greenstreet received lifelong loyalty and hospitality. Ten Chimneys, their country home in Genesee Depot, Wisconsin, “is to performers what the Vatican is to Catholics,” Carol Channing once said. “The Lunts are where we all spring from.”

In this new biography, Margot Peters catches the magic of Lunt and Fontanne—their period, their work, their intimacy and its contradictions—with candor, delicacy, intelligence, and wit. She writes about their personal and creative choices as deftly as she captures their world, from their meeting (backstage, naturally)—when Fontanne was a young actress in the first flush of stardom and Lunt a lanky midwesterner who came in the stage door, bowed to her elaborately, lost his balance, and fell down the stairs—and the early days when an unknown and very hungry Noël Coward lived in a swank hotel in a room the size of a closet and cadged meals at their table to the telegram the famous couple once sent to a movie mogul, turning down a studio contract worth a fortune (“We can be bought, my dear Mr. Laemmle, but we can’t be bored”).

We follow the Lunts through triumphs in plays such as The Guardsman, The Taming of the Shrew, and Design for Living; through friendships and feuds; through the intricate way they worked with such playwrights and directors as S. N. Behrman, Robert Sherwood, Giraudoux, Dürrenmatt, Peter Brook, and with each other.
Margot Peters captures the gallantry of two remarkably gifted people who lived for their art and for each other. Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne were once described as an “amazing duet of intelligence and gaiety.” Margot Peters re-creates the fun and the fireworks.

• Sales Rank: #2033060 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-14
• Released on: 2003-10-14
• Format: Deckle Edge
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.56" h x 1.36" w x 6.64" l, 1.60 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In 1951, Alfred Lunt revealed insecurity when he said of his acting partnership with wife Lynn Fontanne, "I hope people don't get tired of us." Peters's penetrating biography shows why Lunt's fears were groundless and why theater audiences from 1909 to 1962 relished their work, individually and together, in such productions as The Guardsman, Taming of the Shrew and Design for Living. Fontanne (1887-1983), a prot‚g‚e of Ellen Terry and Laurette Taylor, was critically applauded from the start. Lunt (1892-1977) overcame childhood scarlet fever and loss of a kidney to pursue acting. Peters portrays the pair as tempestuous beings (Lunt once screamed, in a fit of rage, "you're the rottenest actress I've ever worked with!"). Warned by Taylor that Lunt would make a terrible lover and a worse husband, Fontanne married him anyway, and they dedicated themselves to joint theatrical greatness. Peters laces her story with anecdotes about close friend No‰l Coward, self-destructive John Barrymore and others. She handles the issue of Lunt and Fontanne's bisexual marriage thoughtfully, and perceptively analyzes their acting styles. Wit abounds throughout, and Peters points out the paradox that made Lunt and Fontanne-whose marriage may have been unconsummated-generate heat onstage, as opposed to sexually active married couples who had no acting chemistry together (e.g., Burton and Taylor; Cruise and Kidman). More poignantly, she quotes Fontanne as admitting Lunt's decision to lock himself into a team prevented him from achieving full recognition of his stature. The book's blend of breezy humor, along with darker insights into complex personalities, make it a potent, provocative journey. 62 photos.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
As icons of the theater, few names are as illustrious as those of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. Separately and together, they reigned as king and queen of the American stage for decades, revolutionizing dramatic performances with their innovative staging and delivery. From Shakespeare to Shaw to Sherwood, the Lunts had the power to revitalize classics and create new ones, and could catapult a fledgling playwright to instant fame by sheer dint of their appearances. As actors, their on-stage personas were perfection; as spouses, their off-stage lives were equally entertaining. At their beloved "Ten Chimneys" estate in rural Wisconsin, the creme de la creme of the theater world--Coward and Woollcott, Olivier and Hayes, Clift and Greenstreet--basked in the haven they provided. In a masterfully detailed examination of two very public lives, Peters reveals the behind-the-scenes chemistry that ensured their before-the-footlights success. Treating her subjects with a balanced reverence and learned recognition, Peters has penned an engrossing biography as stylish and charming as the Lunts themselves. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"A warm, witty, wise, and wondrous account of the greatest double-act in theatre history."

-Sheridan Morley

Most helpful customer reviews

3 of 19 people found the following review helpful.
Query
By A Customer
I reviewed this book 2-3 weeks ago when it first came out. Why hasn't my review been posted?

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful.
Lovely People Exploited in Very Dubious "Biography"
By Tee
Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne were the greatest star couple of the American theater of the 20th century, probably of all time. Their careers span over a half century and they were beloved within their industry for their great kindness, outgoing friendliness, and awesome talent. Their private lives were quiet, scandal-free, and they seem the least possible of celebrities to write a tawdry book about which doesn't stop Ms. Margot Peters. The heart, if you can call it a heart, of this book is that this legendarily devoted couple were in fact both homosexuals and theirs was an "arranged" marriage. This is old gossip, the type that almost 100 percent of actors who make any sort of name for themselves in show business receives. Peters fails to even name a single same-sex lover of either star but doesn't stop her from pushing this theme. Among her sources: One critic overhears some teenaged bimbo in the 1950's, looking at a theater poster, saying Alfred likes guys and Lynn likes girls. Ms. Peters writes of this incident as if it was a source!! The Lunts had scores of friends, many of them gay, yet Peters cannot find a single person in the loop who acknowledges they were gay. Indeed, Ms. Peters makes the worst sort of homophobic comment when noting their gay friends as some sort of evidence this makes the Lunts gay as if straight people couldn't possibly befriend homosexuals. Nor does she acknowledge it was not really necessarily for a theater star to pretend to be straight in that era when several gay stars (among them Eva La Gallienne and the Lunts' great friend Noel Coward) were able to live in peace since the general public was not as interested in the private lives of theater greats as they were in movie stars. (And Coward's private diaries suggest nothing of any secret life going on with the Lunts which he certainly would have written about there given his other indiscreet remarks on celebrities.) Certainly if the Lunts were gay, wouldn't they spend at least some degree of their time off having romances which could have been carried off with ease, yet they were basically joined at the hip, their devotion as legendary as their talent. Reading some of Peters' comments one can reason she herself doesn't completely believe they were gay but she is not about to let that rumor go since it's a good publicity angle for the book.

And then there's the curious discreet hostility Peters has for Fontanne, yet she can come up with nothing to base this criticism like a rude diva-like personality or anything. Lunt is clearly her favorite of the duo. Worse is Peters constant arm chair psychology, following quotes by the actors with her intrepretation of what they "really" mean.

The Lunts left tragically little recorded work of their talents and sadly their legend grows a little dimmer each year. What a shame Margot Peters has chosen to taken a tabloidish spin on the private lives of two artists the likes of which the theater will likely never see again.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Where is the magic ?
By History Reader
Never having seen Alfred Lunt & Lynn Fontanne onstage, I, like the author, Margot Peters, cannot explain what made them exceptional. Ms. Peters, whose previous book, "The House of Barrymore", is a fascinating and definitive biography of the great theatrical siblings, Ethel, Lionel and John Barrymore, disappointed this reader with her dual portrait of the Lunts.
The author thoroughly documents their triumphs, tours, friendships and quirks, yet their theatrical charm and power eludes her pen and is never found on the page.
Unlike in the previously mentioned bio, here she simply cannot capture the vitality of the times, places and people she is writing about throughout this volume. The author might have checked with Shakespeare for more insight into the truth about actors on the stage: "These our actors,/ As I foretold you, were all spirits, and/ Are melted into air, into thin air...".
I guess you had to be there during Broadway's great years to understand their alchemy.

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