A book of secrets : illegitimate daughters, absent fathers

Holroyd, Michael

A book of secrets : illegitimate daughters, absent fathers / Michael Holroyd - 1st American ed - New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux , 2011. - xiv, 258 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface: The world turned upside down -- The importance of being Ernest and some women of no importance -- Ernest goes abroad -- All about Eve -- With Catherine at Cimbrone -- Excitements, earthquakes, and elopements -- Women in love -- Ultraviolet -- Emergency exits -- Looking round -- Epilogue: Time regained -- Afterword: A history of the books -- Family trees.

On a hill above the Italian village of Ravello sits 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, yet the Villa Cimbrone unites them all. A Book of Secrets is a treasure trove of hidden lives, uncelebrated achievements, and family mysteries. With grace and tender imagination, Holroyd brings a company of unknown women into the light. From Alice Keppel, the mistress of both the second Lord Grimthorpe and the Prince of Wales; to Eve Fairfax, a muse of Auguste Rodin; to the novelist Violet Trefusis, the lover of Vita Sackville-West--these women are always on the periphery of the respectable world. Also on the margins is the elusive biographer, who on occasion turns an appraising eye upon himself as part of his investigations in the maze of biography. In A Book of Secrets , Holroyd gives voice to fragile human connections and the mystery of place.

9780374115586

2011003839


Women----Biography
Gifted persons----Biography
Daughters----Biography
Illegitimate children----Biography
Absentee fathers----Biography
Unmarried mothers----Biography
Mistresses----Biography
Fathers and daughters----Biography

CT3203 / .H73 2011

306.8742 HOL

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