Francine du Plessix Gray (1930–2019)
Forfatter af Them: A Memoir of Parents
Om forfatteren
Francine du Plessix was born in Warsaw, Poland on September 25, 1930. She received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Barnard College in 1952. For two summers she studied at the Black Mountain College in North Carolina. After writing radio reports at the United Press for two years, she moved to vis mere Paris to report on fashion for the French magazine Réalités. She returned to the United States and married the painter Cleve Gray in 1957. She wrote both fiction and nonfiction. Her novels included Lovers and Tyrants, World Without End, October Blood, and The Queen's Lover. Her nonfiction works included Divine Disobedience: Profiles in Catholic Radicalism, Hawaii: The Sugar-Coated Fortress, Soviet Women: Walking the Tightrope, and biographies of the poet Louise Colet, the Marquis de Sade, Simone Weil, and Madame de Staël. Them: A Memoir of Parents won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2006. She died from complications of congestive heart failure on January 13, 2018 at the age of 88. (Bowker Author Biography) vis mindre
Værker af Francine du Plessix Gray
Rage and Fire: A Life of Louise Colet : Pioneer Feminist, Literary Star, Flaubert's Muse (1994) 87 eksemplarer
Goldengrove 1 eksemplar
Madame De StaÌÇl 1 eksemplar
Madame DeStael The First Modern Woman 1 eksemplar
Associated Works
Philosophy in the Boudoir: Or, The Immoral Mentors (1795) — Introduktion, nogle udgaver — 1,023 eksemplarer
Going Hungry: Writers on Desire, Self-Denial, and Overcoming Anorexia (2008) — Bidragyder — 78 eksemplarer
Satte nøgleord på
Almen Viden
- Kanonisk navn
- Gray, Francine du Plessix
- Juridisk navn
- Gray, Francine du Plessix
- Andre navne
- du Plessix, Francine (birth name)
- Fødselsdato
- 1930-09-25
- Dødsdag
- 2019-01-13
- Køn
- female
- Nationalitet
- USA (naturalized)
- Fødested
- Warsaw, Poland
- Dødssted
- Manhattan, New York, USA
- Bopæl
- Paris, France
Rochester, New York, USA
Warren, Conneticut, USA - Uddannelse
- Barnard College
Bryn Mawr College
Spence School - Erhverv
- biographer
literary critic
novelist
essayist
journalist - Relationer
- Liberman, Alexander (step-father)
Gray, Cleve (husband) - Organisationer
- The New Yorker
- Priser og hædersbevisninger
- American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature ∙ 1992)
- Kort biografi
- Francine du Plessix grew up in New York City with glamorous parents, the power couple Alexander Liberman (her stepfather), editorial director of Condé Nast, and the aristocratic Tatiana du Plessix, milliner to high society. They were both Russian émigrés who entertained grandly at their Manhattan townhouse. Francine won a scholarship to the Spence School and studied philosophy and religion at Bryn Mawr and Barnard Colleges. In 1957, after a brief career in fashion publishing, she married Cleve Gray, a painter. The couple had two sons and lived in a Connecticut farm house. Francine du Plessix Gray worked as a reporter and wrote numerous books, including the Pulitzer Prize-nominated At Home With the Marquis de Sade: A Life (1998) and a memoir, Them (2005), that chronicled "the chimeric world of couture" her parents inhabited.
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Simone Weil (Penguin Lives) af Francine du Plessix Gray
write about comments from those you know who hold opposing views of Simone - with which do you most agree?
The acclaimed author of Rage and Fire provides a definitive portrait of the complex life and times of one of the twentieth century's most profound thinkers and describes her diverse roles as intellectual, activist, union organizer, philosopher, and Christian mystic.
Weil's story itself is fascinating, which kept me going through the book. As a biography it was good in places but overall mediocre. Among other things, the author seemed intent on convincing readers that Weil was essentially anorexic. Perhaps it's true, but I didn't pick up this book for a retroactive diagnosis of Weil's eating habits.
Overall I don't at all regret reading it, but maybe it's worth investigating a different biography of Weil.
Overall I don't at all regret reading it, but maybe it's worth investigating a different biography of Weil.
As I dive further and further into the genre of Historical Fiction, I've realized something. The more you enjoy the historical period surrounding the story? The more you'll love the book. In fact, I picked up The Queen's Lover mainly because I am fascinated by Marie Antoinette and everything that happened in her time period. I'd not heard a lot about her affair with Count Axel von Ferson, other than that it was a possible occurrence. So I was intrigued to see where Francine Du Plessix Gray would take me, and what I would be shown.
The Queen's Lover reads as Count von Fersen's memoir, showing us his life through a long stream of letters and diary entries. There is quite a lot of his thoughts recorded here and I'll admit that it was rather fascinating. The one thing that threw me off almost instantly though, was that this is much more Count von Fersen's story, and not so much Marie Antoinette's. Out of the entire book there is maybe a third that actually mentions their relationship with one another. The rest is a very detailed look at his travels, and his (ahem) conquests.
One thing I can definitely say about Du Plessix Gray's writing, is that she isn't afraid to show Count von Fersen for who he really is. There is no sugar coating here. Presented is a man in his most raw form. He was married to a code of conduct that was not too well received at that time, and definitely would be frowned upon in today's society. As I mentioned above, there is a lot of information about his conquests, and obviously his opinion of women was that they were there to be bedded. Need I say more? It's tough to decide whether or not you are supposed to pity or despise this man. However it is true that his life is definitely not dull.
Although The Queen's Lover is the title, this story is a lot more about Count von Fersen as a man and not so much as Marie Antoinette's lover. That was the one thing that kept me from fully loving this story. Nonetheless, it is a fascinating look into the time period surrounding these characters and Du Plessix Gray goes to great lengths to fully immerse you in their world. If you are a fan of Historical Fiction, and particularly of Marie Antoinette's possible love affair, this is something you'll want to check out.… (mere)
The Queen's Lover reads as Count von Fersen's memoir, showing us his life through a long stream of letters and diary entries. There is quite a lot of his thoughts recorded here and I'll admit that it was rather fascinating. The one thing that threw me off almost instantly though, was that this is much more Count von Fersen's story, and not so much Marie Antoinette's. Out of the entire book there is maybe a third that actually mentions their relationship with one another. The rest is a very detailed look at his travels, and his (ahem) conquests.
One thing I can definitely say about Du Plessix Gray's writing, is that she isn't afraid to show Count von Fersen for who he really is. There is no sugar coating here. Presented is a man in his most raw form. He was married to a code of conduct that was not too well received at that time, and definitely would be frowned upon in today's society. As I mentioned above, there is a lot of information about his conquests, and obviously his opinion of women was that they were there to be bedded. Need I say more? It's tough to decide whether or not you are supposed to pity or despise this man. However it is true that his life is definitely not dull.
Although The Queen's Lover is the title, this story is a lot more about Count von Fersen as a man and not so much as Marie Antoinette's lover. That was the one thing that kept me from fully loving this story. Nonetheless, it is a fascinating look into the time period surrounding these characters and Du Plessix Gray goes to great lengths to fully immerse you in their world. If you are a fan of Historical Fiction, and particularly of Marie Antoinette's possible love affair, this is something you'll want to check out.… (mere)
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Statistikker
- Værker
- 19
- Also by
- 14
- Medlemmer
- 1,555
- Popularitet
- #16,569
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- ISBN
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- Sprog
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