![]() ![]() Nonetheless, Hoare has profiled vividly and in depth a complex legend who had a talent for creating and re-creating both himself and his works. The author's prose can be stilted, and his prolix plot summaries of Coward's plays could be tighter. ![]() Nor does Hoare hide Coward's personal shortcomings-his financial mismanagement, temper and quarrels with England-which show the ring around his Eton-collared image. While Hoare pays homage to Coward's numerous plays, revues, songs and stories, he doesn't ignore the failures. Particularly insightful are the accounts of how, in bursts of creativity, Coward translated real-life encounters and experiences into written art, though often to the extreme displeasure of the friends he wrote about, like Edith Sitwell. In painstaking detail, Hoare chronicles Coward's devotion to his mother, his homosexual affairs and his travels within the beau monde. Written in English 463pages From Goodreads: Stephen Tennant died intestate in 1987, aged 80, and has become a cult figure. The author traces Coward's colorful family history back to the early 17th century and shows how his middle-class upbringing only fueled his passion for success, a yearning that remained with Coward throughout his life. Serious pleasures the life of Stephen Tennant by Philip Hoare 0Ratings 3 Want to read 1 Currently reading 1 Have read This edition was published in 1992by Penguin Booksin New York. ![]() Like his life of Stephen Tennant, Serious Pleasures (1990), Hoare's substantial biography of Coward is fastidiously researched and documented. ![]()
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