Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century
by Nancy Schoenberger, Sam Kashner
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Book Summary Information
Author: Nancy Schoenberger, Sam KashnerEdition: Kindle Edition
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Kindle eBook
Published: 2010-06-03
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 548
Publisher: HarperCollins e-books
Book Reviews of Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century
Book Review: Richard and Elizabeth, unrivaled in love, lust and bad behavior
Summary: 4 Stars
Richard Burton called her "Twit Twaddle" or "Mrs. Lumps." The endearments changed but in his letters to Elizabeth Taylor, Burton remained constant in his appreciation for her allure and his belief in her abilities. "You are probably the best actress in the world, which, combined with your extraordinary beauty, makes you unique."
For Burton, Taylor represented a siren song. From the very beginning in Rome, she bewitched. "I am forever punished by the gods for being given the fire and trying to put it out. The fire, of course, is you," he wrote.
Burton prized the written word and wrote to Taylor regularly throughout the 20-year tempest that was their relationship. They met in 1962 on the set of "Cleopatra," the most expensive movie ever made. They married and divorced, twice. He died at the age of 58 in 1984. Taylor, now limited to getting around in a wheel chair, is 78. When she dies, she wishes to be buried next to Burton, whom she says was the love of her life.
Burton's letters, which Taylor made available to the authors, describe an enduring passion. Taylor says that in his final letter, which arrived at her Los Angeles home after his death and is the only one she has kept private, Burton asks for one more reconciliation. Taylor says, "I will always believe we would have been married a third time . . . from those first moments in Rome we were always madly and powerfully in love. We had more time, but not enough."She keeps that final letter in a bedside drawer.
"Furious Love" is really two books. It's the story of Richard and Elizabeth who together and each on their own left a legacy of great performances, on stage and on the screen. Hers: "National Velvet" (1944), "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1958), "Suddenly last Summer" (1959), "BUtterfield8" (1960). His: "Beckett" (1964), "Hamlet" (1964), Night of the Iguana" (1964), "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" (1965). Together: "Cleopatra" (1963), "The Taming of the Shrew" (1967) and their greatest achievement "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" (1966).
It is also the story of Liz&Dick and the outrageous love affair that eclipsed any modern-day romantic entanglement in its excesses and indulgences, for the money earned and the money spent. They were well matched in their appetites both sensual and material. Liters of vodka swilled daily for years, the largest and rarest of diamonds and other jewels, chili flown in daily to Rome from Elizabeth's favorite Los Angeles restaurant, the desire that never ebbed, constant lovemaking and, of course, the epic battles private and public. Liz&Dick was a story made for the tabloids except that it was all true.
The book appears to be well researched and sources carefully credited. Access to Burton's diaries and his letters to Taylor, which she shares for the first time, give "Furious Love" dish and an insider's view of the price of celebrity. His letters declare Burton's passion for Taylor and what he termed her "special and dangerous loveliness." His ardor never faded. Late in their relationship he wrote admiringly, "Your breasts jutting out from that half-asleep languid lingering body, the remote eyes, the parted lips." For her part, Taylor says their bond remained, even when they were no longer together. "He was magnificent on the stage, he was magnificent in film, he was magnificent in making love."
"Furious Love" says that during the filming of "Cleopatra," the director Federico Fellini coined the word "paparazzi" (little insects) to describe the unrelenting swarm of photographers that followed Burton and Taylor. Their affair bedazzled. Who could not be drawn in by it all? "Let's face it," Taylor says, "a lot of my life has lacked dignity." That's certainly true, but Taylor and Burton were unrivaled in the way they loved and lusted, and that made up for a great deal of bad behavior.
Summary of Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century
The definitive story of Hollywood's most famous couple
He was a tough-guy Welshman softened by the affections of a breathtakingly beautiful woman; she was a modern-day Cleopatra madly in love with her own Mark Antony. For nearly a quarter of a century, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were Hollywood royalty, and their fiery romance?often called "the marriage of the century"?was the most notorious, publicized, and celebrated love affair of its day.
For the first time, Vanity Fair contributing editor Sam Kashner and acclaimed biographer Nancy Schoenberger tell the complete story of this larger-than-life couple, showing how their romance and two marriages commanded the attention of the world. Also for the first time, in exclusive access given to the authors, Elizabeth Taylor herself gives never-revealed details and firsthand accounts of her life with Burton.
Drawing upon brand-new information and interviews?and on Burton's private, passionate, and heartbreaking letters to Taylor?Furious Love sheds new light on the movies, the sex, the scandal, the fame, the brawls, the booze, the bitter separations, and, of course, the fabled jewels. It offers an intimate glimpse into Elizabeth and Richard's privileged world and their elite circle of friends, among them Princess Grace, Montgomery Clift, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Peter O'Toole, Michael Caine, Marlon Brando, Rex Harrison, Mike Nichols, Laurence Olivier, Robert Kennedy, Tennessee Williams, NoËl Coward, John Huston, Ava Gardner, the Rothschilds, Maria Callas, and Aristotle Onassis. It provides an entertaining, eye-opening look at their films, their wildly lucrative reign in Europe and in Hollywood?and the price they paid for their extravagant lives.
Shocking and unsparing in its honesty, Furious Love explores the very public marriage of "Liz and Dick" as well as the private struggles of Elizabeth and Richard, including Le Scandale, their affair on the set of the notorious epic Cleopatra that earned them condemnation from the Vatican; Burton's hardscrabble youth in Wales; the crippling alcoholism that nearly destroyed his career and contributed to his early death; the medical issues that plagued both him and Elizabeth; and the failed aspirations and shame that haunted him throughout their relationship. As Kashner and Schoenberger illuminate the events and choices that shaped this illustrious couple's story, they demonstrate how the legendary pair presaged America's changing attitudes toward sex, marriage, morality, and celebrity. Yet ultimately, as the authors show, Elizabeth and Richard shared something priceless beyond the drama: enduring love.
Addictive and entertaining, Furious Love is more than a celebrity biography; it's an honest yet sympathetic portrait of a man, a woman, and a passion that shocked and mesmerized the world.
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