Thirteen years in the writing, Erotic Vagrancy doesn't only surpass
every other biography of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton yet to
appear, this rich, vital and passionately articulated book, which
is as extravagant and wayward as its two subjects, is also about
celebrity, creativity, being flawed, being brilliant, sexuality,
the intermingling of a low and a highbrow existence, pride,
insecurity, attraction and repulsion, and devilry. We see Taylor
the child actress exchanging dogs and horses for husbands. We see
Burton emerging from the mists and brimstone of Wales to be the
greatest theatrical animal of his generation. The pair come
together in Rome during the making of Cleopatra, which gives Lewis
the opportunity for a major farcical set-piece. We then enter a
world of jewels and private jets, vodka, yachts and furs - the
splendid vulgarity of the Sixties, where the narrative of Taylor
and Burton becomes a Pop Art story. Then, inevitably, it all goes
wrong, with alcoholism, violence, recrimination and divorce ( twice
) - with Burton, whom Lewis depicts as a Faustus figure, damned by
fame, dead at fifty-eight. Stephen Fry has said, 'It is one of the
very best biographies I have ever read. One of the best books about
fame, desire, Hollywood and mid-to-late twentieth century culture
ever written. Inside which, brilliant, hilarious and sensitive
insights on all manner of subjects fizz and froth. Magnificent,
terrible, tragic, triumphant.'
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