From Nabokov to Arendt to Dietrich, a vivid new book captures the love affairs of the greatest creative forces of the 1930s.
Illies is a writer, editor, and art historian who is the author of five international bestsellers, including 1913: The Year Before the Storm. His new book ishe moment Jean-Paul Sartre first gazes into Simone de Beauvoir’s eyes at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris in the spring of 1929 is the only time his mind goes blank. He finally manages to arrange a date with her a few weeks later. He sits in a tearoom in Rue de Médicis waiting for her.
Women can buy their daughters Barbie-like Josephine Baker dolls as well as Josephine Baker skin-care products for themselves, including the famous Bakerfix pomade. Baker’s show, “Un vent de folie” , is the breath of fresh air that all of Paris has been yearning for, but Pepito can see that the effect is gradually wearing off. And so he organizes a grand European tour.
There is one man Leni Riefenstahl worships entirely platonically; in her flat she has erected a small shrine to Adolf Hitler, with countless gold-framed photographs of him. Describing their first meeting, at a secret location by the North Sea, she employs an orgiastic image: “It seemed as if the surface of the earth were spread out before me, like a hemisphere that suddenly splits in two, and a gigantic jet of water came spurting out, so enormous that it touched the sky and shook the earth.
They persuade a fisherman to take them out to sea, and every evening they cruise along the coast into the never-ending sunset. Walter thinks he has found salvation. Yet the more Olga realizes that the man she is embracing is in free fall, the more she withdraws from him, and Benjamin’s laughter soon dies. In a ludicrous attempt to keep her, he asks Olga if she will marry him. She turns him down.
This time, though, everything bothers him. Suddenly there are Spanish and German tourists everywhere. There’s no proper accommodation for him, so he stays in a building the Noeggeraths have half finished. He writes frequent reviews for German newspapers, publishing them under pseudonyms. He is terrified for his fifteen-year-old son, who is still living in Berlin and is not only Jewish but also an active communist. Dora has lost her job, and Benjamin’s brother is in detention.
There are cages for parrots and her three monkeys, and kennels for the various dogs, whose number has now swelled to thirteen. They’re free to wander at will, with only the bathroom off-limits. When the weather is warm, Josephine takes her daily bath in a huge marble-clad outdoor pool filled with water lilies and goldfish. She has created a miniature paradise for herself. She refuses to read any newspapers: she doesn’t want to be woken from her dreams.
After her mother has returned to Germany to be with her husband, Arendt sets about forging an independent life in France. She takes Hebrew lessons because, she says, she wants to “get to know [her] people,” and she finds a job with the Jewish charity Agriculture et Artisanat. Mainly, though, she writes. Slowly but surely, Hannah Stern reverts to Hannah Arendt.Marlene Dietrich returns to Hollywood in September.
He can’t speak a word of German, though, so to his regret he has to take “a French girlfriend,” Marie Ville, the dreamy wife of a staff member at the Institut Français. When he tells Beauvoir about this, she obtains sick leave from work and goes to Berlin. Sartre introduces her to his new lover and tells her she has nothing to fear; Marie is just a minor fling. He even puts a wedding ring on Simone’s finger—but only so she can pose as his wife and rent a small flat near the Institut.
He goes on and on in this vein. The gulls disperse, the sea turns darker, and tears well up in Simone’s eyes.Heinrich Blücher followed in Hannah Arendt’s footsteps by escaping from Berlin to Paris via Prague, but they do not meet in Montparnasse until the spring of 1936. He is a committed Berlin communist and a tried-and-tested street fighter, but in exile he adopts the guise of an aristocratic tourist: a three-piece suit, a hat and cane.
Somehow, despite this stalemate, the couple manage to meet up in Prague on May 22. After Vladimir has owned up to the affair and declared it over, Véra agrees to move to Cannes with him. It will take a long time for the poison of mistrust and the pain of betrayal to dissipate. But the day will come when he writes to her: “I love you, I am happy, everything is fine.” Their marriage will endure for fifty-two years, and the stain with the dog groomer grows out of it like hair dye.
Österreich Neuesten Nachrichten, Österreich Schlagzeilen
Similar News:Sie können auch ähnliche Nachrichten wie diese lesen, die wir aus anderen Nachrichtenquellen gesammelt haben.
Alex Beresford's life off screen from marriage split to finding love againCelebrity Race Across The World is back and with it, we'll see the familiar face of TV weather presenter Alex Beresford take on the challenge - but what's his life like off screen?
Weiterlesen »
Barbara Windsor's husband says she would be 'happy' for him finding love againScott Mitchell and Tanya Franks bonded while training for the London Marathon alongside a team of EastEnders stars in support of Alzheimer's Research UK.
Weiterlesen »
Great British Bake Off, The Long Shadow and Mrs Brown's Boys: TV highlights this weekHere are some of the biggest television events from the week beginning Saturday, September 23, including The Great British Bake Off and The Long Shadow.
Weiterlesen »
Labour 'would reverse Rishi's Net Zero u-turn,' Shadow Environment Secretary confirmsLabour would reverse Rishi Sunak's 'U-turn' on the sale of petrol and diesel cars, the Shadow Environment Secretary has confirmed.
Weiterlesen »
'Shadow figure' caught on camera as Telford ghost hunters spend night in hotelGhost hunters from Telford spent a night in an historic Midlands hotel where things have been going bump in the night.
Weiterlesen »