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Truly, Madly: Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, and the Romance of the Century
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About This Book
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST A New York Times Bestseller "A "well rounded and entertaining" ( New York Times ) Hollywood biography about the passionate, turbulent marriage of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. In 1934, a friend brought fledgling actress Vivien Leigh to see Theatre Royal , where she would first lay eyes on Laurence Olivier in his brilliant performance as Anthony Cavendish. That night, she confided to a friend, he was the man she was going to marry. There was just one problem: she was already married—and so was he. TRULY, MADLY is the biography of a marriage, a love affair that still captivates millions, even decades after both actors' deaths. Vivien and Larry were two of the first truly global celebrities – their fame fueled by the explosive growth of tabloids and television, which helped and hurt them in equal measure. They seemed to have it all and yet, in their own minds, they were doomed, blighted by her long-undiagnosed mental-illness, which transformed their relationship from the stuff of dreams into a living nightmare. Through new research, including exclusive access to previously unpublished correspondence and interviews with their friends and family, author Stephen Galloway takes readers on a bewitching journey. He brilliantly studies their tempestuous liaison, one that took place against the backdrop of two world wars, the Golden Age of Hollywood and the upheavals of the 1960s — as they struggled with love, loss and the ultimate agony of their parting.
Reviews
"Weaving in uncovered correspondence and interviews with family and friends, Galloway delivers a taut narrative, charting the couple's rise to stardom on stage and screen ..."
"Galloway earnestly pulls these sources together, corroborating from multiple perspectives."
"Galloway splices this material seamlessly with old interviews and enough new ones with those Of That Era, such as Korda and Hayley Mills, to inject some pep and freshness ..."
"The pain of Leigh's issues and heartbreak brings her to life for us, even though Galloway seems to have a less-than-stellar appreciation of her acting ability ..."
"Will greatly appeal to cinema buffs, theater aficionados, and fans of the doomed lovebirds."
"The first two-thirds of the book race by in full Technicolor, while the last third is thinner, reading more like an IMDB page or an obituary, which it eventually becomes for Galloway's two tragic and beautiful subjects."
"Anyone who loves the dramatic arts will be engrossed by Galloway's perceptive history of this iconic duo."
"In its final chapters, the book is deeply harrowing, not least because mental illness remained a misunderstood scandal in mid-20th-century Western culture ..."
"More lucidly than ever, we can see how, in the grip of her own brain chemistry, Leigh quite literally lost her mind."
"Galloway wisely resists the urge to pathologize his subject post-mortem ..."
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