Elizabeth Smart

By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Originally published in 1945, this book of poetic prose encapsulates former journalist Elizabeth Smart's relationship with poet George Barker. Instantly, upon picking up a book of his poetry while browsing through a London bookshop, Smart fell in love with the poet. They would soon begin an indulgent love affair during which she gave birth to four of his children. He, however, remained legally married to his wife. This tale of passionate but fanatical love is a modern reflection of the Romantic poets. Accompanied in this edition by The Assumption of the Rogues and Rascals, a short novel that may be read as its sequel, By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept has been hailed by critics worldwide as a work of sheer genius. Foreword by Brigid Brophy

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Seitenzahl: 240
• Erscheinungstermin: 3. März 1992
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 205mm x 131mm x 17mm
• Gewicht: 264g
• ISBN-13: 9780679738046
• ISBN-10: 0679738045
• Artikelnr.: 21587154

Autorenporträt

Elizabeth Smart was born in Ottawa,Canada, in 1913. She was educated at private schools in Canada and for a year at King's College, University of London.  One day, while browsing in a London bookshop, she chanced upon a slim volume of poetry by George Barker—and fell passionately in love with him through the printed word.  Eventually they communicated directly and, as a result of Barker's impecunious circumstances, Elizabeth Smart flew both him and his wife to the United States. Thus began one of the most extraordinary, intenese and ultimately tragic love affairs of our time. They never married but Elizabeth bore George Barker four children and their relationship provided the impassioned inspiration for one of the most moving and immediate chronicles of a love affair ever writtten—By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept. Originally published in 1945, this remarkable work is now widely recognized as a classic work of poetic prose which has retained all of its searing poignancy, beauty and power of impact.     After the war, Elizabeth Smart supported herself and her family with journalism and advertising work. In 1963 she became literary and associate editor of Queen magazine but subsequently dropped out of the literary scene to live quietly in a remote part of Suffolk.  Elizabeth Smart died in 1986.

Rezensionen

'Like Madame Bovary blasted by lightening ... A masterpiece.' Angela Carter

'At some point every good reader comes across "By Grand Central Station I sat Down and Wept". And he or she recognises an emotion essential and permanent to us.' Michael Ondaatje

'A revelation...This short, powerful work has a profound influence on me and was one of the factors that made me want to be a writer.' Beryl Bainbridge

'I doubt if there are more than half a dozen such masterpieces of poetic prose in the world.' Brigid Brophy

'Explores a passion between a man and two women, one of them his wife - a love despairing and triumphant upon which the reader may gaze, awed, appalled, or even, perhaps, envious.' The Times

'Few writers have ever captured the full honesty of what passion means as shockingly and as piercingly as Smart. Today, its force still strikes us hard in the face, a beautiful and bloody blow.'Lesley McDowell, Independent on Sunday

'Constructed as a single, sustained climax, it is like a cry of ecstasy which, without changing volume or pitch, becomes a cry of agony.' Spectator

'The emotion, the truth and abject affliction comes through...to move the reader, and even to awe him.' London Review of Books