The Essential Rebecca West: Uncollected Prose - Softcover

West, Rebecca

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0980235553 ISBN 13: 9780980235555

Publisher: Pearhouse Press, 2010

Synopsis

A dynamic selection of previously uncollected writing from Rebecca West, hailed as one of the greatest woman writers of the 20th century. West's wit and clear-eyed observations explore many of the great leaders and thinkers of modern times -- from Winston Churchill and Vladimir Nabokov to Aldous Huxley, Bertrand Russell and many others. Essays include a wrenching description of everyday life in wartime Britain and an excerpt from her last novel, "Survivors in Mexico," which vividly imagines the life and times of Montezuma and his fateful encounter with Cortes.

About this title

About the Author

Rebecca West was a renowned journalist, novelist, reviewer and essayist who brought a powerful feminist voice to the 20th century. Her greatest work, "Black Lamb and Grey Falcon" -- an investigation into the nature of war and history structured around a tour of pre-war Yugoslavia – was listed among the most significant books of her generation. In a 1947 cover story, "Time" hailed her as "the world's number one woman writer," and she was made Dame of the British Empire in 1959. Several of her novels have been adapted for film, TV and radio, including "The Return of the Soldier," "The Birds Fall Down" and "The Fountain Overflows."

From Publishers Weekly

Although hardly a household name today, leftist and feminist Rebecca West (1892–1983) was world-famous in her lifetime, writing prolifically in many genres, feted for her New Yorker coverage of the Nuremberg trials and for her 1941 Yugoslavia history, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. In the first of 22 uncollected essays and book reviews, West recalls a 1920s late-night boating expedition in Central Park accompanied by a silent, often sleeping foreigner who turns out to be Pirandello. In another piece, West describes the comedic antics of her cat Pounce, and, in a third, laments the space constraints imposed on book reviewers by newspapers. In her book reviews, West calls Dickens a nasty man; Solzhenitsyn a courageous and immensely gifted patriot; and Richard Nixon, she says, had a mind so unsophisticated and so narrowly educated that he has almost no mental context. Throughout, West is caustic and outspoken. But with a scanty introduction by Anne Bobby, who co-wrote and starred in a one-woman Off-Broadway show about West, and no background information about the pieces, these disjointed articles have the feel of leftovers that won't draw in new admirers. (May)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Pearhouse Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0980235553
• ISBN 13: 9780980235555
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176