"Vivien Leigh: A Biography" --Anne Edwards

Vivien Leigh: A Biography
by Anne Edwards
1978 (1977) Coronet Books
334 pages

Vivien Leigh, remembered world-wide for her role as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind, is enigmatically brought to life in Anne Edwards' intelligent biography of this great actress.

My only regret is that I did not read it sooner! Having sat on my bookshelf for months, I finally picked it up and read it through enthusiastically. Anne Edwards describes the delicious Vivien in compassionate detail. Her childhood, sparkling personality, her first failed marriage, her love for the stage, her 20-year marriage and eternal love for Laurence Olivier, and her tragic struggles with her health are wonderfully covered with the energy they deserve.

I was most captivated by the discussion of her battle with mental illness, which I was not even aware that Vivien Leigh suffered from. She seriously manic-depressive, which resulted in devastating attacks and periods of suffering. Although ashamed of her illness, she battled with it bravely until her death in 1967 from tuberculosis.

For Edwards, Vivien is certainly a tragic heroine. Every aspect her life is romanticised, eternalised as unique and completely capivating. The work, however, does not suffer from this profound sympathy. By contrast, it is an enriching sentiment in any biographer, and Edwards is no exception. Vivien Leigh is framed in a charming portrait displaying both her talent and beauty, but also her frailty and suffering.

"Josephine; The Rose of Martinique" --Andrea Stuart

Josephine; The Rose of Martinique
by Andrea Stuart
2004 Pan Books
455 pages

Josephine is known is history as Napoleon's first wife. He divorced her in 1809 in order to marry Marie Louise of Austria in the hope that she would produce him a direct heir to his empire. Josephine ended her days in comfort albeit heartbroken. Her lifestory is one of courage and survival, as recounted in brilliant detail by Andrea Stuart. Stuart's lucious narration sheds a penetrating light on the times, places, people and emotions of Josephine's life and brings them to life with sensitivity and maturity.

Josephine was born Rose de La Pagerie on the island of Martinique in 1763. There she spent a happy Creole childhood, experiencing both the pleasures of the easy life in the beautiful Caribbean, as well as its more violent aspects like slave revolts. She travelled to France at sixteen to consummate an arranged marriage with Alexandre de Beauharnais, with whom she had two children and an otherwise unhappy and lonely marriage. After they separated she finally transformed into a confidant, self-sufficient woman. Without this courage she would not have survived the Great Terror during which she was imprisoned in a blood-stained prison. Her husband eventually succumbed to the cruel fate of thousands of the merciless blade of the guillotine.

Stuart's description of this period was the most captivating. The unimaginable cruelty and bloodthirstiness of the period is recounted in gruesome and heartbreaking detail. After imprisonment, Rose manoeuvered her way into Parisian society, which celebrated Robespierre's fall in decadence reminiscent of Weimarian permissiveness. She eventually married the Napoleon, yet to rise to stardom, whom she fell in love with only later. He was the one who renamed Josephine.

Henceforth the story is one of glamour, conquest, riches, and life at the imperial court. Here too Stuart almost literally makes the period glow. Every page is proof of her extensive research and historical professionalism. Bravo. Encompassing several periods of the most exciting times in French history, Stuart succeeds in reliving them for us as if we were there. I highly recommend this wonderfully readable book of an admirable woman.