A publishing event! The first and definitive collection of letters (most of them previously unpublished) both from and to the incomparable Noël Coward, a unique and irresistible portrait of a society and age—from the Blitz to the Ritz and beyond.
The range, charm, and vitality of his talents—he was a playwright, actor, composer, librettist, lyricist, director, painter, writer, cabaret singer, wit—brought him into close encounters, and often close friendship, with the great and the gifted. He knew everybody who was anybody in the theater and in the movies, in literature and in politics, on both sides of the Atlantic.
Among those at his “marvelous party”: George Bernard Shaw . . . T. E. Lawrence . . . Virginia Woolf . . . the Churchills . . . Daphne Du Maurier . . . Greta Garbo (she wrote asking him to marry her; he wrote back saying he almost accepted) . . . Ian Fleming . . . W. Somerset Maugham . . . Marlene Dietrich (he advised her, “To hell with God damned ‘L’Amour.’ It always causes far more trouble than it is worth”) . . . Tallulah Bankhead . . . Edith Sitwell . . . FDR . . . Gertrude Lawrence (in a cable about Private Lives : “Have written delightful new comedy stop good part for you stop wonderful one for me stop”), and many more.
There are letters about his productions of Bitter Sweet . . . Cavalcade . . . In Which We Serve . . . Brief Encounter . . . Private Lives, etc. . . . about his activities during World War II (he was a spy for the British government along with co-conspirator Cary Grant) . . . about the move to make him a knight that was endorsed in a personal letter from King George VI and blocked by Winston Churchill. Here are letters to and from his beloved mother, Violet . . . his longtime set and costume designer, Gladys Calthrop . . . his traveling companion from the 1930s on, Lord Amherst . . . and his business manager and onetime lover, Jack Wilson, in which he reveals his “secret heart.”
Profoundly savvy, witty, loving, bitchy, and often surprisingly moving, The Letters of Noël Coward gives us “Destiny’s Tot” at his crackling best. An irresistible portrait of a time, of the man himself, and of the world he lived in and enchanted.
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从整体的结构布局来看,这本书的编排处理得相当具有逻辑性和层次感,尽管题材是零散的信件汇集,但编辑者显然下了一番苦功夫来梳理和串联。它并非简单地按照时间顺序堆砌,而是似乎在尝试构建一种“主题式”的叙事流。例如,开篇可能集中于早期的创作心路和友谊的建立,随后会自然而然地过渡到战时背景下的心境变化,再到对戏剧界和演艺圈内幕的犀利剖析。这种结构上的精心设计,使得即便是初次接触该领域背景的读者,也能逐步建立起对作者生活轨迹和思想演变的清晰认知。更值得称赞的是,那些看似无关紧要的附录或注释部分,其信息密度极高,为理解信件中提及的那些晦涩的时代背景、人名典故提供了关键的钥匙,它们是帮助读者穿越时空迷雾的可靠导航图。这种对阅读体验的全局观考量,让这本书的阅读体验远超一般的文集汇编,更像是一部精心策划的传记性作品。
评分这本书的文字风格变化莫测,着实考验读者的适应能力,但一旦捕捉到其中的韵律,便会发现其内在的精妙。某些篇章的语气极其轻快诙谐,充满了上流社会特有的那种不动声色的讽刺和自嘲,读来令人会心一笑,仿佛能听到作者本人在耳边低语,讲述着那些光怪陆离的轶事。然而,风格的转变往往是猝不及防的,下一页可能就转为一种近乎哲学思辨的深沉和内省,笔触细腻得令人心惊,直抵人性中最幽微和难以言说的角落。这种跨越了轻浮与严肃的巨大张力,使得阅读过程充满了新鲜感和挑战性,绝非单调乏味的流水账。特别是那些需要反复咀嚼的段落,句子结构错综复杂,充满了古典的长难句,但每一个停顿和转折都服务于作者精确的情感表达,显示出一种炉火纯青的文字功力。阅读它,就像是跟着一位技艺高超的音乐家,时而沉浸在轻快的爵士乐中,时而又被宏大的交响乐所震撼,整体的阅读体验是起伏跌宕、引人入胜的。
评分这本书的装帧设计着实让人眼前一亮,那种古典与现代交织的微妙感,简直是艺术品级别的呈现。封面选用的纸张质地非常考究,带着一种沉甸甸的历史厚重感,但字体排版却又透着一股清爽的现代气息,让人忍不住想一再摩挲。内页的印刷质量也无可挑剔,墨色纯净,字迹清晰锐利,即便是长时间阅读也不会感到视觉疲劳。装帧的细节处理更是体现了出版方的匠心,比如书脊的锁线装订,不仅保证了书籍的耐用性,也让整本书可以完全平摊开来,阅读体验极为舒适。我尤其欣赏它在细节上对“时代感”的把握,比如在一些重要章节的开头,会点缀着一些与那个年代相关的素描或照片风格的插图,虽然不是核心内容,却极大地丰富了阅读的沉浸感,仿佛真的能触摸到那个遥远却又充满魅力的沙龙时代的空气。这本书的重量和尺寸也拿捏得恰到好处,既有实体书的满足感,又不至于笨重到难以携带,无论是放在书架上作为装饰,还是随手翻阅品味,都显得恰如其分。从拿到手的那一刻起,我就知道它绝不仅仅是一本普通的读物,而是一件值得珍藏的艺术品。
评分这本书的语言节奏掌握得非常具有煽动性,它总能在不经意间抓住你的注意力,让你产生一种强烈的“这是为我而写的”代入感。作者的叙事视角极其个人化,仿佛直接将读者拉入了他所处的那个私密空间,去分享那些最坦诚的观察和最尖锐的批评。这种“亲密感”的营造,很大程度上得益于其对日常细节的精准捕捉。无论是对一场演出散场后观众的反应的描摹,还是对某个不合时宜的天气变化产生的微妙情绪,都被他以一种极富画面感的方式呈现出来。这些细节的堆砌,并没有使叙事变得冗长,反而起到了锚定时间与空间的作用,让抽象的情感体验变得可触摸、可感知。阅读的过程,就像是参与了一场漫长而富有张力的对话,你被邀请去审视一个天才的内心世界,见证他如何处理荣耀与寂寞,如何应对期待与失望。读罢合卷,仍能感受到那种强烈的回声,仿佛那位充满魅力的叙述者尚未远去,仍站在不远处的角落,带着一丝洞悉一切的微笑。
评分这本书在情感的表达上展现出惊人的复杂性和深度,它绝非是那种一览无余、直白宣泄的作品。相反,它更像是一面多棱镜,折射出人物内心的无数个侧面。在那些看似轻描淡写、用以掩饰的语句背后,隐藏着巨大的孤独感和对自我价值的反复确认与挣扎。读者需要付出极大的耐心去“解读”那些未说出口的部分,去体会字里行间那种强烈的克制感。有些信件流露出对友谊和亲情的珍视,但这种珍视又是被一种对“完美”的苛求所包裹,显得既温暖又疏离。最引人深思的是其中对“公众形象”与“真实自我”之间鸿沟的探讨,这种内在的撕裂感贯穿始终,使得角色形象异常立体和真实,而非高高在上的神坛人物。读完之后,留下的不是简单的故事满足感,而是一种对“表演”与“真实”这一永恒命题的久久回味,让人思考自己生活中的种种“面具”。
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