Rate this book

A Book Of Secrets: Illegitimate Daughters, Absent Fathers (2010)

by Michael Holroyd(Favorite Author)

2.99 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0701185341 (ISBN13: 9780701185343)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Chatto & Windus

review 1: Like other readers I too think this had some really interesting facts about the lives of his subjects. However, my interest in them was not book length. Part One could have made a nice long article about the marginalized women. Part Two suddenly seemed an effort to launch the career of an Italian writer whom Holroyd takes a shine to. She sends him "playful emails "we are told. In my thinking, Holroyd thought he was on to something and either didn't have enough material and or fell under the sway of of the driven (and perhaps tragic) Tiziana. Maybe that is exactly the story he most wants to tell as he experiments with biography, but it left me wondering why.
review 2: A Book of Secrets: Illegitimate Daughters, Absent Fathers by Michael Holroyd. This book w... moreas one of the Time Magazine Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2011 and a Publisher's Weekly's Best Nonfiction Title for 2011. I'm not sure why. The book was interesting but it didn't have the spark to light my biblio-fire. Here's what the publisher says: "A Book of Secrets is a treasure trove of hidden lives, uncelebrated achievements, and family mysteries. With grace and tender imagination, Holroyd brings a company of unknown women into the light. From Alice Keppel, the mistress of both the second Lord Grimthorpe and the Prince of Wales; to Eve Fairfax, a muse of Auguste Rodin; to the novelist Violet Trefusis, the lover of Vita Sackville-West—these women are always on the periphery of the respectable world."2011 No 188 less

Download links for: A Book of Secrets: Illegitimate Daughters, Absent Fathers

Advertising