The Divine Sarah: A Life of Sarah Bernhardt - Hardcover

Arthur Gold; Robert Fizdale

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0394528794 ISBN 13: 9780394528793

Publisher: Knopf, 1991

Synopsis

Draws on unpublished writings and the reminiscences and critical appraisals of friends, admirers, and detractors to present a portrait of the iron-willed and tempestuous actress

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

In their second biography of an alluring Parisian woman (Misia, 1980, was the first), Fizdale and the late Gold, both concert pianists, show their understanding of the heady artistic world of Paris from 1860 to 1923 and of the special character and needs of performing artists such as Sarah Bernhardt and her theatrical friends. A mercurial creature, living an assortment of roles, Bernhardt is largely known through her own untrustworthy memoirs, her passionate love letters--in which she admits she ``lives for love with fantasy as my guide''--and the opinions of her many distinguished critics and friends, including Hugo, Dumas, Cocteau, Twain, Shaw, Wilde, Freud, Zola, Proust, Henry James, Chekhov, and a whole array of supporting actresses, enemies, and admirers. Born an unwanted and illegitimate child, raised in a convent, initiated at age 16 into the world of the theater and the lucrative role of courtesan by her mother, she died in 1923 at age 78, the first international film star, a rich and charismatic figure acclaimed for her acting every major female role as well as Hamlet. A thin, small lady who suffered stage fright, she had a demonic temper and insatiable appetites for love, power (she came to manage and direct her own theater), companionship (traveling with a legendary entourage), adventure (flying over Paris in a balloon), and collecting everything from animals (she wore live chameleons pinned to her dress) to a skeleton she kept in her bedroom along with the silk-lined coffin in which she liked to learn her lines. Imperious, egotistical, Bernhardt was often selfless: She turned a theater into a hospital, encouraged Zola to champion Dreyfus, devoted herself to her son and his children, and married a Greek actor who became addicted to morphine. Profusely illustrated (50 b&w and eight color pages), full of the wit, gossip, and anecdote Bernhardt loved, this enjoyable book captures her style more than her essence. The newly published love letters alone are a treasure. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

A troublemaker in convent school, Sarah Berhardt (1844-1923) from an early age exhibited an insatiable hunger for attention, reckless gaiety and near-hysterical rages. Channeling her energies into the stage, the tempestuous beauty, daughter of a Jewish Parisian courtesan from Amsterdam and an unknown father, became a living legend and, as actress/manager, formed a theater in her own image. Written with great verve and style, this buoyant, affecting biography by the coauthors of Misia: The Life of Misia Sert sparkles with intimate details of Bernhardt's triumphs and tragedies, her political passions (she supported Dreyfus and America's entry into WW I), her countless love affairs and frustrating quest for sexual fulfillment, her paradoxical neglect of the illegitimate son she adored. A marvelous portrait enlivened by excerpts from letters, journals and comments by her contemporaries, this biography never quite pins down the elusive chameleon, yet Gold (who died in 1990) and Fizdale succeed better than anyone before in bringing this larger-than-life figure down to earth. Photos.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0394528794
• ISBN 13: 9780394528793
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 351