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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 Through new research, including exclusive access to previously unpublished correspondence and interviews with their friends and family, author Stephen Galloway takes readers on a bewitching journey.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
"It's a riveting story brought to life by the outsized passion that entangled them and later tore them apart."
"an astute biography of that marriage, with wonderfully dishy details of productions such as Rebecca and A Streetcar Named Desire ..."
"Details are already familiar from the many good biographies in existence."
"The most noteworthy aspect of Truly, Madly is the author's treatment of Vivien Leigh's well publicized struggles with mental illness."
"The result is both compelling and frustrating – a thousand anecdotes and names swirl about the narrative, dizzyingly, yet the heart of the drama beats strongly."
"It is here, I think, that Galloway, the former executive editor of the Hollywood Reporter, lifts himself clear of previous chronicles, including Olivier's own self-lacerating memoirs, by supplementing firsthand accounts with retrospective diagnoses by experts like Kay Redfield Jamison and by tracing a genetic link to Leigh's great-uncle, housed in a Kolkata asylum for much the same symptoms."
"Galloway excels at detailing the couple's world ..."
"Galloway clearly spent significant time in the archives (though frustratingly, a chunk of Leigh's side of her correspondence with Olivier remains on the loose)."
"Truly Madly adds little to its predecessors, other than a detailed analysis of Leigh's mental illness, but it is a pacy — at times, racy — account ..."
"As biography, however, this approach often produces a muddle ..."
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