The Bolter
Where to buy The Bolter books online?
- ISBN13: 9780307476425
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year
An O, The Oprah Magazine #1 Terrific Read
In an age of bolters—women who broke the rules and fled their marriages—Idina Sackville was the most celebrated of them all. Her relentless affairs, wild sex parties, and brazen flaunting of convention shocked high society and inspired countless writers and artists, from Nancy Mitford to Greta Garbo. But Idina’s compelling charm masked the pain of treachery and heartbreak.
Now Frances Osborne explores the life of Idina, her enigmatic fantastic-grandmother, using letters, diaries, and family tree legend, following her from Edwardian London to the hills of Kenya, where she reigned over the scandalous antics of the “Pleased Valley Set.” Dazzlingly chic yet warmly intimate, The Bolter is a fascinating look at a woman whose energy still burns bright nearly a century later.
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I thought I would delight in this book because at least the beginning of it addresses an era that interests me, the Victorian and Edwardian years in England, and WWI. I loved the first hundred pages, but after that the book started to drag. Too many details and not enough emotion. Even the deaths in WWI failed to go me as they usually do. The people described were really unlikeable. I got bored and quit at page 146. I just didn’t need to read my way through “and then she did this and then she did that.”
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
I first encountered the “Bolter” in the VHS, “White Mischief”; there she was; full frontal nudity, what a woman! I was in like. But she wasn’t known by that name until I met her again in the DVD, “Like in a Cold Climate”. No more full frontal nudity but rather a worn down looking trollop with some rather excellent advice for her daughter, like “don’t do it”. Her daughter in that movie was a very sweet young woman and now along comes the Bolter’s real-life grand daughter and writes this tell-all book about her grand mere, “The Bolter”. I had to have it, I have it and will keep it and re-read it until I know all there is to know about women. (I can nearly hear your laughter). The “Bolter” lived in an appealing period of England’s history and was part of the “pleased valley” crowd. If this last bit of knowledge doesn’t prompt you to order this woman’s appealing life tale, then you just don’t really have a decent appreciation of glorious, ancient-fashioned, dissipation. Male readers will want to keep a closer eye on what their wives are up to, too much “bolting” in the suburbs as it is!
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
too much family tree history it first 100 pages. could have been condensed. it becomes appealing around pages 108 and book two. this is when Idina comes alive.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
I saw the leader discussing this on tv. She insisted it reads like a novel. I don’t agree with that assesment, but it is historically appealing.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
Every time I looked at the book take in, it bugged me that the leader selected the theme’s least satisfying portrait for the most prominent spot. You’d never know from this photo that clothes hung so perfectly on Idina that a designer offered to give her his designs to wear. She looked downright frumpy in the take in photo.
The leader had access to personal diaries and interviews with people who knew Idina. This shows in her exhaustive chronicle of Idina’s and her allies’ doings. As a matter of fact, the nearly-daily log of Idina’s and her first spouse’s activities were such that I wished the leader would get on with it a bit; the reader already knew she had to dispense with four additional husbands before she was done.
I wished the leader provided a clue about pronouncing the first spouse’s name: Euan. Evan? Ian? You-un? I settled on Evan.
The leader did a valiant job of trying to place a privileged meaning on Idina’s life, with limited success. And I reflect Euan got off a small light in his contribution to the marital troubles. What a lightweight! The whole book – and all of its characters – place me in mind of The Fantastic Gatsby: “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let additional people clean up the mess they had made.”
If I view the book as an anthropological piece, I feel it succeeds very well. Despite all of the personal diaries and interviews, but, it fails to illuminate the players’ personal thoughts or motivations. I missed that.
On another level, it was like reading about the self-absorbed exploits of celebrities like Madonna, Brittany, or Paris, only several generations earlier. I can only imagine the response to Madonna’s so-called “shocking” coffee table book, “Sex,” by any of Idina’s extant acquaintances: A huge yawn. “So fin de siecle, dahling.”
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5