Imatge de l'autor

Paula Byrne (1) (1967–)

Autor/a de The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things

Per altres autors anomenats Paula Byrne, vegeu la pàgina de desambiguació.

10+ obres 1,616 Membres 55 Ressenyes

Sobre l'autor

Paula Byrne is the critically acclaimed author of six biographies, including Kick: The True Story of JFK's Sister and the Heir to Chatsworth, Belle: The Slave Daughter and the Lord Chief Justice, The Real Jane Austen, and Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead. She is married to the mostra'n més academic and biographer Jonathan Bate and lives in Oxford, England. mostra'n menys

Obres de Paula Byrne

Obres associades

Jane Austen in context (2005) — Col·laborador — 86 exemplars

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A page-turning, thoughtful rendering of a vibrant but less well known member of the Kennedy clan, Kathleen Kennedy (second daughter), whose life was full but cut short by her death in an airplane crash aged 28. She lived much of her life in Britain.
 
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Caroline_McElwee | Hi ha 6 ressenyes més | Nov 5, 2023 |
Talk about bringing an idol down off the pedestal; I’ve always joked that Barbara Pym is my patron saint, but oof this was a rough read. I actually knew that the first draft of Pym’s first novel was written in the 1930s and was creepily pro-Nazi (thanks to Laura Shapiro at the Pym conference) and was disturbed then, but wow I definitely didn’t know that she herself visited Germany so many times and was in love with a Nazi too; I mean JFC in the extreme. That was enough, but then there was the entire boy-crazy aspect of her life which was annoying; I not sure if that was more Byrne’s interpretation, or if Pym truly only ever wrote about men in all her diaries.

It all makes one think about what you leave behind too as she wrote to herself along with her novels and stories; the fact that she ripped out and destroyed pages of those diaries is telling, and it’s so interesting to wonder about what was lost. I do ponder still how Byrne decided to tell Pym’s story; this was a crazy long bio for what was generally a fairly ordinary life, but I wish that we actually saw more of that ordinary part which Pym so beautifully writes about in her novels (although perhaps that was the point—the novels were the ordinary part…).
… (més)
 
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spinsterrevival | Hi ha 6 ressenyes més | Sep 23, 2023 |
I enjoyed this biography of one of my favorite authors. I found that what a vaguely knew of Pym was largely wrong. What I thought I knew was that she was an Emily Dickinson type - who lived a sheltered, unexciting life and wrote a bunch of novels that were barely published during her life or got little recognition. (I'm probably wrong about Emily Dickinson too . . . )

What I found instead was that Pym led a fairly modern and ahead-of-her times life. As a young woman at Oxford, she had many (disappointing) love affairs and seems to have enjoyed the sexual parts of these relationships. She traveled quite a bit, having a love affair with 1930s Germany the country and a young German man. She even thought Hitler was a good leader for Germany, before the war and atrocities came to light. She also was a Wren during WWII and traveled to Italy. She began writing novels in a focused manner in her 30s, and had six novels published between 1950-1961 which were fairly widely read. In the 60s, her style of novel, focused on "real people" and everyday life, fell out of favor during the sexual revolution. They were viewed as spinster-ly and old-fashioned, though her actual readers will know that there's quite a bit of forward-thinking in her novels. So she was unable to get any of her next novels published for a long stretch of time. In the late 70s, she was rediscovered and her novels have been in print ever since.

I liked this biography, though I was annoyed in the first third of the book at how much focus was put on her sexual relationships with men. It read like a string of failed relationships and as though that was all she cared about in her 20s. I wanted more about her female friendships, her academic endeavors, her family, her travels, etc. I think the focus of her male relationships stems from the fact that this book was largely based on Pym's diaries. I think it's normal that young women write about their love life to the exclusion of other things in their diaries! But it doesn't mean that in day-to-day life it's their primary focus or all-consuming. I wish the author had balanced the diary writings with other source material a little better. This evens out later, and I suppose in a way, Byrne was really trying to set up the fact that Pym was a liberated sexual woman. It provides good background to how incorrect it was when she's viewed as sedate, spinster-ish, and a bit prude in the 1960s. But, nevertheless, the beginning did bother me. Too much about the men!

Either way, I did enjoy learning more about Pym and I will read her novels with new eyes and better background when I reread her next.
… (més)
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japaul22 | Hi ha 6 ressenyes més | Jul 11, 2023 |
FROM AMAZON: Encouraged to be "winners" from a young age, Rose and Joe Kennedy's children were the embodiment of ambitious, wholesome Americanism. Yet even within this ebullient group of overachievers, the fourth Kennedy child, the irrepressible Kathleen, stood out. Lively, charismatic, extremely clever, and blessed with graceful athleticism and a sunny disposition, the alluring socialite fondly known as Kick was a firecracker who effortlessly made friends and stole hearts.

Moving across the Atlantic when her father was appointed as the ambassador to Great Britain in 1938, Kick - the "nicest Kennedy" - quickly became the family's star. Despite making little effort to fit in to British high society, she charmed everyone from the beau monde to Fleet Street with her unconventional attitude and easygoing humor. Growing increasingly independent, Kick would also shock and alienate her devout family by falling in love and marrying the scion of a virulently anti-Catholic family - William Cavendish, the heir apparent of the Duke of Devonshire and Chatsworth. But the marriage would last only a few months; Billy was killed in combat in 1944, just four years before Kick's own unexpected death in an airplane crash at 28.… (més)
 
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Gmomaj | Hi ha 6 ressenyes més | May 7, 2023 |

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1,616
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#15,943
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Ressenyes
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ISBN
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