The Extraordinary Life of Rebecca West: A Biography [B2128]

2015 PB with minor wear. Formidably talented, Rebecca West was a towering figure in the British literary landscape. Lorna Gibb's vivid and insightful biography affords a dazzling insight into her life and work. Rebecca West was a leading figure in the twentieth century literary scene. A passionate suffragist, socialist, fiercely intelligent, Rebecca West began her career as a writer with articles in The Freewoman and The Clarion. Her first book, a biography of Henry James, was published when she was only twenty-four, and her first novel followed just two years later. She had a notorious affair with H.G. Wells, and their illegitimate son, Anthony, was born at the beginning of the First World War. The author of several novels, she is perhaps best remembered for her classic account of pre-war Yugoslavia, Black Lamb, Grey Falcon (published by Macmillan in 1941 and as relevant today as it was sixty years ago) and for her coverage of the Nuremberg Trials. When she died in 1983 at the age of 90, William Shawn, then editor-in-chief of the New Yorker, said: "Rebecca West was one of the giants and will have a lasting place in English literature. No one in this century wrote more dazzling prose, or had more wit, or looked at the intricacies of human character and the ways of the world more intelligently."

From Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "West had a long life full of dissent, drama and expressed her bold, if sometimes unpopular, beliefs at every opportunity in newspapers and in letters to family and friends. A suffragette thrust into the literary and artistic world after the success of her first novel and into the arms of the womanizer HG Wells, she found herself a single mother, juggling career and romance, in a world between the wars. She comes across as a hugely dynamic person with boundless curiosity and a sharp intelligence."; "How she was able to write with all the turmoil in her life is amazing."; "As an author, I absolutely love Rebecca West. As an individual, I find her utterly fascinating. Thus, Lorna Gibb's biography, West's World The Extraordinary Life of Dame Rebecca West held great appeal for me. Gibb's prose is highly compelling, and I liked the way in which she wove West's writing into her own. I also greatly admired Gibb's covering of historical and societal contexts, which she does with a great deal of knowledge. This is an excellent, and satisfying, biography, and I very much look forward to reading more of Gibb's work in future."