Dorothy L. Sayers: A Biography

Dorothy L. Sayers: A Biography

Sayers wanted no biography till 50 years after her death; .. Brabazon has been given the Sayers papers and the family's blessing. The result is a literate, full, intriguing, book-- isolated Edwardian childhood: a vicar's daughter, she grew up with few playmates, living in books, becoming subject to ""lack of contact with reality"" and unable to ""trust her emotions."" And as Dorothy goes on, to Oxford and London and success, often behaving quite badly...Still, nearly all the facts are here, many of them only guessed at before: her emphatic heterosexuality, despite longtime virginity; one unrequited love and one who wanted sex without marriage; her affair with motor-mechanic ""Bill,"" father of her secret son ; marriage to older journalist ""Mac""--.. illness ""shackled"" Dorothy to the profitable Wimsey series, which she regarded as an ""aberration"" in her career. And he moves on quickly to the later careers: playwright; the Church of England's ""multi-purpose champion"" (in lectures and earthy radio plays), despite her own lack of spiritual ""inner experience""; creative theologist (of all her work, The Mind of the Maker ""deserves to last""); and possessed translator of Dante. To his credit, Brabazon doesn't hide Sayers' snobbishness, her petulant feuds, her ""self-indulgence"" in food, drink, and verbal abuse. But he seems excessively anxious to justify and dignify her behavior--and his downplaying of her quasi-Wagnerian anti-Semitism is totally unconvincing. As life history, then, this Finally seems half-baked--dabbling with psychology but failing to follow through. And those looking for an evocation of Wimsey backgrounds will be disappointed. But it's thorough, modest, fairly stylish--and, simply on the basis of source material, without competition as the Sayers biography of choice.
Country USA
Brand Encore Editions
Manufacturer Charles Scribner's Sons
Binding Hardcover
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780684168647
ReleaseDate 0000-00-00

Country	USA
Brand	Encore Editions
Manufacturer	Charles Scribner's Sons
Binding	Hardcover
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780684168647
ReleaseDate	0000-00-00

Dorothy L. Sayers: A Biography

You might also like...