Dear reader, I am afraid that Guralnick's celebrated but oh-so-overtly-detailed biography of Presley will have to wait some more, since I found another, far more interesting biography. It actually makes me question the whole idea of re-reading Presley's life, because it was boring first time around, its boring again and I derive no other emotion from it except exhaustion from all those details. I might even give it up completely, since there are so many books inviting me from everywhere and they are easily read without any effort.
Take this book, for example. It is something found it ship's library and I almost finished it now, although I have started only yesterday - pure pleasure of reading, very informative, thought-provoking, interesting, just as biographies should be. It is about Mary Lamb (from Charles & Mary Lamb's brother & sister duo who published "Tales from Shakespeare" in print to this day), notorious for murdering her mother but strangely enough, as she was officially proclaimed lunatic, Lamb lived free and cared for by her brother Charles & even found a fame as a writer. This is the first time I had found a book about her and its excellent - I am still reading it, enjoying it very much - the authoress is Susan Tyler Hitchcock and she is actually very, very good - she had collected tons of material but contrary to Guralnick who overdoes it, she does not force this research on reader but elegantly finds a time and place to present it. For example, Hitchcock mentions that Mary Lamb used to be passionate reader and just as I asked myself what kind of books she would have found in London of her time, the chapter gets in detail of publishing of late 18th century. Lamb's madness parallels that of king George III so perhaps the wide acceptance of his illness helped her, though she was lucky to have loving brother by her side who took her under his wing - for the rest of her life she was his housekeeper and they live in harmony that he called "double singleness" and trough thick and thin even managed comfortable life, ascent to middle class and literary success.
Mary Lamb was a typical product of her time - intelligent, sensitive woman trained to be obedient to her parents and family, always serving and taking care for everybody - later it was admitted that she seemed under the great strain days before she finally snapped and killed her mother (she was already old maid at 32. and probably never knew flirt, romance and suitors). She would have to visit madhouse regularly, every now and than and both herself and her brother suffered depression because of it - they were very attached and had no one else in the world - probably she suffered all sorts of hospital treatments there, but this was never discussed. It seems that it was always some kind of strain (moving of apartment, traveling, conversation, even writing) that triggered off her descent into breakdown but she would usually recover after few weeks in hospital, where they already knew and loved her for her easygoing personality and sweet temper. Typical for the woman of her time, Mary Lamb was not hanging around public taverns but together with her brother would receive visitors at home and it was thanks to these friendships with literary world that both Charles and Mary Lamb started dabbling into poetry and children's literature: the man who published their "Tales from Shakespeare" was William Godwin, widower of Mary Wollstonecraft who died giving birth to future Marry Shelley, author of "Frankestein" - trough the book there are lot of literary friends who shaped the world back than and nice explanations about life the way it was, war, politics and all - even details how Lambs used to live on the fifth floor and Mary would have to bring the water and coal up the stairs every morning. Excellent and very interesting biography. I read it with greatest pleasure.
No comments:
Post a Comment