Research Catalog

Devils, lusts and strange desires : the life of Patricia Highsmith

Title

Devils, lusts and strange desires : the life of Patricia Highsmith / Richard Bradford.

Author

Bradford, Richard, 1957-

Publication

London, UK ; New York : Bloomsbury Caravel, 2021.
©2021

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person.	Text	Use in library	JFE 21-3781	Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

Details

Description

xiii, 258 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"Made famous by the great success of her psychological thrillers, The Talented Mr Ripley and Strangers on a Train, Patricia Highsmith is lauded as one of the most influential and celebrated modern writers. However, there has never been a clear picture of the woman behind the books. The relationship between Highsmith's lesbianism, her fraught personality - by parts self-destructive and malicious - and her fiction, has been largely avoided by biographers. She was openly homosexual and wrote the seminal lesbian love story, Carol. In modern times, she would be venerated as a radical exponent of the LGBT community. However, her status as an LGBT icon is undermined by the fact that she was excessively cruel and exploitative of her friends and lovers. In this new biography, Richard Bradford brings his sharp, incisive style to one of the great and most controversial writers of the twentieth century. He considers Highsmith's bestsellers in the context of her troubled personal life; her alcoholism, licentious sex life, racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny and abundant self-loathing."--Amazon.

Subject

Genre/Form

Biographies.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical resources (pages 245-246) and index.

Contents

The beginning -- Barnard -- Boarding the train -- Yaddo and consequences -- Carol -- Ellen -- Ripley -- Marijane -- 'So much in love' -- Eccentricity -- France -- Animals and us -- 'It's good you never had children' -- Her last loves -- 'I'm sick of Jews!' -- Those who walk away.

Call Number

JFE 21-3781

ISBN

9781448217908
1448217903

OCLC

1155073688

Author

Bradford, Richard, 1957- author.

Title

Devils, lusts and strange desires : the life of Patricia Highsmith / Richard Bradford.

Publisher

London, UK ; New York : Bloomsbury Caravel, 2021.

Copyright Date

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical resources (pages 245-246) and index.

Chronological Term

1900-1999

Research Call Number

JFE 21-3781

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