vampyrate
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George
This topic is for discussion of his acclaimed first autobiography, George, which covers his early life from his birth (and before) through 1927, on the eve of his debut on the London stage.
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"It's all rather stylish and pretty and rather worrying" --Timothy Spall on his costume in Sweeney Todd
"He must have been fun." --Emlyn Williams (liner notes from "Emlyn Williams as Dylan Thomas in 'A Boy Growing Up'")
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10/17/2006, 9:14 pm
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htrm
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Re: George
I bought a copy off Ebay, and am currently about 65% of the way through. It is very good, reads like a novel, and has a lot to relate to.
It took me a few paragraphs to get used to his writing style, which I almost never have a problem with. This is also nearly the only book that I have given the honor of pulling out a dictionary for...I used my 1960-something World Book Encyclopedia dictionaries because they are the best for understanding the meaning. His brain was a sponge for words, but that shouldn't scare anyone off since he doesn't over do it.
There will be some spoilers below, although I will try to leave some of it vague. Read the book first if you don't want to know what happens beforehand, and be sure to get one that has the bookmark:
I think that one of the most boring things about any type of biography is that they often start after some turning point in the person's life. This book begins at the perfect place, he was smart enough to start with some family history.
The only bad thing about it, which is probably actually a good thing, is that his acheivements point out my lack of action at that age. I probably loved school more than he did, but could never get myself to sit still and study the way he describes. It is especially evident in my lack of vocabulary in the five or so languages I've studied (I mention that because he studied languages). His talking about taking most of it so nonchalantly just makes it worse. I wouldn't believe him, that he would take certain things so lightly, but I've known other over-acheivers who were the same. Some of it probably is just not admitting to themselves that they care, and some of it is probably because it comes too easily for them to truly appreciate what they are doing.
I was somewhat amused by his needing a bike for school because I need to get my bike fixed for school, but only to go about 1/5th of the distance--it's not worth the short drive considering the parking hassles. I can also relate to the moving around, lack of friends even when not moving around, attending schools where most everyone is rich in comparison, a father rarely seen due to work, a stay-at-home mom who'se uncomfortable in social situations, and parents being proud of but not pushing for anything resembling acheivement. It was amusing that he mentioned some of the same books I have read.
It has definately made me take another look at the two study abroad opportunites I was already interested in. One was to study law at Oxford for a month, but I'm not a law student so I probably wouldn't be chosen. The other is to spend a month studying French language and culture at a school in Paris, which I already know my department would frown upon as unrelated. The reason I hadn't tried study-abroad already is that I would need scholarships or to use more of my credit line (what fun). I get the impression that he wouldn't have been willing to go into as much debt as I have, even accounting for the attitude differences in gender.
One thing that it has me wondering about is his vanity. It's obvious that he knew he was an intelligent, talented, and handsome young man. He would have to be in denial to not acknowledge those things, but I wonder if it ever went to his head. Maybe the answer is given further into this book or the next.
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8/23/2007, 7:36 pm
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vampyrate
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Re: George
Hi, just curious how the book is coming along? I think I got about 1/3 of the way through, and I was enjoying it too much, so I put it aside until I really have the time to savor his beautiful prose. I know what you mean, it's hard to get into at first, but it doesn't take long. (If you want to read him at his most difficult, try Beyond Belief! But once I got into that one, by contrast, I couldn't put it down!)
I know just what you mean: I feel like such an underachiever compared to all the things he accomplished in his life! I guess he never felt held back ... at least not after he met Miss Cooke at school, who encouraged and inspired him for the rest of his life. He was very lucky in that respect, and, of course, he honored her for it in his most successful play! But he certainly didn't seem to lack for energy or enthusiasm, did he?
(I also started reading the second autobiography, in which I found the prose a little more straightforward, and he's really quite funny in the way he tells the story, including all the mishaps that occurred on his way to success! He comes across as very human and even self-effacing and modest, so as for the vanity aspect ... well, I'd have to say you'd have to have a certain amount of vanity not only to want to get up on a stage and entertain people for a living, but to write not one but two autobiographies, with a third one in the works! At the same time, I really admire his candor and generosity in sharing so much of himself with the world. There may be some places where he stretches the truth, as I've heard, but he certainly succeeds in writing a good story, and I figure it's his story to tell as he sees fit. I really wish he'd have finished that third and maybe fourth volume!)
Nevertheless, I don't think it ever went to his head. He was known to have a sharp tongue towards people who annoyed him, but he was also very kind-hearted, and I actually talked to someone who met him at one of his ****ens shows--she said he was still very handsome even in his 80s--and he made a practice of greeting his fans and spending some time with them individually in his dressing room. She said he was really friendly and gave both her and her mother a hug. That's seems pretty down-to-earth to me.
I also find him very inspiring. Within the first chapter of George, he had me sold on learning Welsh. And I feel an affinity with him not just because I'm an aspiring writer who always wanted to be an actress, but also because of his enthusiasm for learning languages!
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"It's all rather stylish and pretty and rather worrying" --Timothy Spall on his costume in Sweeney Todd
"He must have been fun." --Emlyn Williams (liner notes from "Emlyn Williams as Dylan Thomas in 'A Boy Growing Up'")
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9/8/2007, 6:14 am
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htrm
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Re: George
Now that I have only a few pages left to read, I think it was on his first trip to France that he was probably his most vain. He must have really gotten a kick out of people making such a big deal about his being handsome and looking older than he was...young people are always especially flattered by that (unfortunately, I'm past that age).
When my grandmother called to tell me about my teenage cousin attending a high school student economics summer camp at Harvard and being offered scholarships to several ivy league schools etc. etc. I mentioned this book, so she wrote the information down to recommend it to him. The next day I read the part about the hookers in France
As far as other people disagreeing with what he wrote, everybody remembers things differently. I would much rather read about how he viewed his life, or at least how he wished to present his view, than to read something full of perfect facts that didn't make him who he was. And, I don't think he delved too far into any touchy subjects, although I didn't care to know so much about the prior actions of the first woman he was with.
All of his talk about music at the end made me decide to plug in my radio and pull out my records of '20s music ("S'Wonderful" is stuck in my head right now). It's strange to think that only one of my grandmothers was born by that time. Just like with "highways" in the 1800's I don't think most people today would think of people in his time as having "wireless". However much language changes, some things, even slang, stay in use. I highly recommend that anyone who decided to read this book look up Oxford Terms/Slang online before they get to that part.
The one thing that I can't help but laugh AT him about are his bellbottom trousers. Picturing it is making me giggle right now. Whoever sold him that outfit truly did him wrong. He was definately correct in his late realization that someone of his stature or build should not wear pants that go wide at the foot, unfortunately many girls don't realize that today.
His play "Full Moon" sounds interesting. I've gotten the impression he liked dark stuff even before his major depression, along the lines of Poe and Stephen King. He seemed to run into the same problem I had with people thinking that they want light and fluffy instead of dark. Unfortunately, people who write like that have to prove themselves before others will actually read into what they wrote. Obviously, he had that opportunity and got Full Moon out there.
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9/9/2007, 6:02 pm
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vampyrate
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Re: George
So I take it you must have finished it by now. (?) Obviously, I never got as far as you in reading it, although I read a bit about the French hookers in another bio of him (not in any great detail though). The way you describe it, he does sound quite vain. I guess he was still riding pretty high on his success when he wrote the book; Emlyn, which he wrote in the '70s, after the devastating deaths of Miss Cooke and his wife Molly, however, has a much different tone, just from what little I've sampled from both. But I do have to say that I at least find the beginning of George very charming, and I love his candidness and eagerness to share of himself. (In fact, in the one biography I read, authorized by his family, it says he was an inveterate talker ... There's a story in there about how he was once stung on the tongue by a wasp and couldn't talk for days. One friend quipped that it was poetic justice, while another told Molly she must be enjoying the break!)
Oops, I hope your teenage cousin is a slow reader and doesn't decide to go to France for his education as a result of reading the book! (Of course, Emlyn was talking about the France of the 1920s; things could be different now.)
quote:
htrm wrote:
Now that I have only a few pages left to read, I think it was on his first trip to France that he was probably his most vain. He must have really gotten a kick out of people making such a big deal about his being handsome and looking older than he was...young people are always especially flattered by that (unfortunately, I'm past that age).
Yeah, I remember the first time someone called me "ma'am"--what a horrible milestone in your life! 
quote:
As far as other people disagreeing with what he wrote, everybody remembers things differently. I would much rather read about how he viewed his life, or at least how he wished to present his view, than to read something full of perfect facts that didn't make him who he was.
Exactly. I love his storytelling skills, and if he wants to embellish a bit, I'd rather read that than a litany of dates and dry facts. (Although you can get the truth from other sources.) I really enjoy reading it from his perspective.
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And, I don't think he delved too far into any touchy subjects, although I didn't care to know so much about the prior actions of the first woman he was with.
I really must put this book next on my reading list! I don't want to know that much detail either, but his birthday is coming up, and it would be nice to get a biography up on the site in honor of the occasion. And I don't want to do that before reading all the source material I have ... which is a lot. And I want to get as much as possible from his point of view.
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All of his talk about music at the end made me decide to plug in my radio and pull out my records of '20s music ("S'Wonderful" is stuck in my head right now).
Yeah, I love the way he really pulls you into his life like that--it makes me feel like I knew him; that's what I love about his writing. (Even Beyond Belief, for all its obtuse style, made me feel like I was sitting down having a conversation --albeit one-sided--with him rather than reading a book. He may have been a vain chatterbox, but he sure was an interesting one! He might have made a great teacher. ... Or a preacher, as his mother wanted him to be! lol Can you imagine??)
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The one thing that I can't help but laugh AT him about are his bellbottom trousers. Picturing it is making me giggle right now.
Me too! Emlyn in bell-bottoms?! I can only imagine it in a comical vein. (Don't tell me he was wearing elephant bells by the end of 1927 though! He must've come forward a bit to the "present" for an afterword or something? But still ... wasn't the book written in 1961? Still too early for bell-bottoms, unless that's a fashion trend from the '20s that I didn't know about.)
Well, it's clear I'd better get working on this book before I try to comment any further on it. At least you've given me some great teasers to whet my appetite.
---
"It's all rather stylish and pretty and rather worrying" --Timothy Spall on his costume in Sweeney Todd
"He must have been fun." --Emlyn Williams (liner notes from "Emlyn Williams as Dylan Thomas in 'A Boy Growing Up'")
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9/10/2007, 11:21 pm
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