The Letters of Noel Coward by Noel Coward
|
List Price: Our Price: $9.00 You Save: $28.50 (76%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.24 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Letters of Noel Coward
Book Review: The Letterrs of Noel Coward
Summary: 5 Stars
An absolute treasure. I purcheased it as a gift and the recipient was thrilled.
Thank you!
most sincerely yours,
Bill Peterson
Book Review: Wondeful Book
Summary: 5 Stars
Avid fan of Noel Coward and this books is a welcome addition to my library. Great purchase!!Book Review: Coward: A Genius
Summary: 4 Stars
If There Wasn't Death
Noel Coward was a genius. In 1925, he had four plays running in the West End. He was twenty-six years old. The first play that brought him success and recognition was The Vortex, about a middle aged woman who is sleeping around with younger men, and one day her young son comes home. The Lord Chancellor of London briefly thought about banning the play for reference to drug use (Coward had to appear in person and plead his case to the contrary)and for deep Freudian implications and someone said to ban the play was to ban Hamlet forever.
I am just mentioning this to show what kind a mature thinker Coward was at an early age. He wrote extensively, and he wrote verses which were funny, tart and at times poignant:
Cocktails and laughter
But what comes after?
Nobody knows.
He had a tendency to sign his epistles with terms like Poppa, Snoop, Master.
In case you did not know, he was gay.
But his inner circle consisted of three women, including Joyce Carey, daughter of Lillian Brathwaite who played the unhappy woman, mother to Coward in the Vortex. (Don't confuse her with him: Joyce Cary, the celebrated Irish novelist), Gladys Calthrop and the invaluable Lornie. So whatever he was, he was not flashing it around.
He helped Laurence Olivier's early career (Larry might not have agreed to that) and John Gielgud was his understudy in the Vortex.
This is an epistolary feast, spanning decades and stretching to 800 pages in the current tome.
It is delicious, it is delectable and one reads and wonders what manner of man could think of such lines as:
With shoulder-straps of shagreen and maybe
A brassiere of lapis lazuli.
Forget that one truth must be faced-
Although you may measure repentance at leisure-
You HAVEN'T been married in haste.
This was interestingly to Ian Fleming (remember him?) for they worked in British Intelligence during the war.
I am not going to mention the oft repeated Mad Dogs . . . but his was a free spirit, although at times incarcerated in relationships (Jack Wilson for example.)
Still it is a triumph for Barry Day, the editor.I have read letters of many great letter writers (the last one was of John Gielgud) and in this book the arrangement-closing a chapter by breaking chronology and adding comments that gives this book almost a novel like quality. One can get lost in it like in a Noel Coward play and not realize these are just a bunch of letters.
I strongly recommend the book to literature lovers, playgoers, appreciator of verses and of the glorious English Theatre. (I put the spelling knowingly)
Book Review: Fun theatre read!
Summary: 4 Stars
You have to read between the lines a bit on this one as both the writer and Noel Coward are very closeted BUT it is a fun dishy read for anyone who is interested in the theatre world. Noel's vast talents and endless productions left me breathless with writer's block!! The man was driven: writing, directing and starrring in play after play. Really inspirational. Ironic how a deeply closeted (well, that was the times) gay man ended up in Jamaica, of all places, now famous for its Review: A Likeable ManSummary: 4 Stars It is no surprise that Noel Coward appears clever, even precocious in this volume. What has surprised me is that he emerges as such a decent and "respectable" guy. No kant, no hypocracy. Common sense, kindness, and a sense of humor.
I found him a very pleasant companion, much more than I had expected.