Quicksands: A Memoir
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Product Description
Review
"A splendid book, lucid, balanced, humane, and civilized. It does what we ask books to do."
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Review
"Bedford is an excellent stylist and a splendid narrator." The New Yorker "The surface of her book is like late Impressionist painting, full of sunlight and flowers and figured carpets and ladies in large hats. Her special talent lies in the ability to manipulate that brilliant surface to reveal something a good deal more substantial, even sinister, beneath." Harper's "A writer of consummate artistry." Auberon Waugh"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
I shall begin as I hope to continue: from the middle. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
I shall begin as I hope to continue: from the middle. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Sybil Bedford is (or, rather, was) a rare and remarkable writer. In this memoir, her last book, she retells the stories around which she varied the narratives of her novels: A Legacy, A Compass Error, A Favourite of the Gods and Jigsaw. All of them fragment personal experience across the fragmented geography of mid-century Europe, and yet none is the same and none is quite as extraordinary as the life that comes out of Quicksands, at once privileged and yet subject to frequent privation; fiercely intellectual but seldom immune to emotional intelligence. She flies between the autocratic and the democratic; admires luxury and asceticism; and she is as wise and wonderful a guide through her extraordinary life as one could wish for. Ravishingly well written, sparkling with a life richly led, this is one of those few books you want to re-read as soon as you come to the end. That it marks the end of such a remarkable and generously rendered life is a gift for which we should all give thanks.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Sybille Bedford, OBE (16 March 1911 - 17 February 2006) was a German-born English writer: a novelist, journalist and biographer. She was born Sybille von Schoenebeck in Berlin. Her parents were Baron Maximilian Josef von Schoenebeck (1853-1925 and his wife, Elizabeth Bernard (1888-1937). Sybille was raised in the Roman Catholic faith of her father at Schloss Feldkirch in Baden, and had a half-sister, from her father's first marriage ( Maximiliane Henriette von Schoenebeck). Her parents divorced in 1918, and she remained with her father, until his death in 1925. Sybille then went to live in Italy with her mother and stepfather. With the rise of fascism in Italy, her mother and stepfather settled in Sanary-sur-Mer, a small fishing village in the south of France. Sybille settled there as a teenager, living near Maria and Aldous Huxley, with whom she became friends. Sybille Bedford also met some of the other writers and intellectuals (including Alma Mahler, Wilhelm Herzog, Lion Feuchtwanger, Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht) who also settled in this area during that period.
During this period, Sybille's mother became addicted to morphine and, in what was for me, some of the most moving writing in this memoir, Sybille describes how this occurred and how she became responsible for procuring and administering the drug to her mother. There is no self-pity in Ms Bedford's account, simply a description of causation, events and consequences.
`My next account - not joyful - will have to be about a destructive blow of fate brought about through a blend of antecedents, chance, ill luck.'
In 1935, Sybille entered a marriage of convenience with Walter `Terry' Bedford. The marriage did not last, her use of his family name did. With the assistance of Maria and Aldous Huxley, Sybille Bedford left France for America before the German invasion of France. Her memoir ends once she is in America.
`Wish I could tell the half of it ... But, I repeat, there seems to be no time.'
`Had I but world enough and time ... I have not. And shall not now write about the life that followed.'
This memoir covers Sybille Bedford's life from World War I in Berlin, to World War II when she leaves Europe for the USA. I do not recognise much of the world in which she lived and of which she writes, but her writing gave me some sense of that world and of her experiences within it. At one stage, when she has a guest for a period, she writes:
`What I minded was the loss of solitude - essential to the cashing in of writing-thoughts.'
This is the first of her books I have read: I hope to read some of her novels later this year. I enjoyed both the content and the presentation of this memoir. I found it inspiring: there is no room for self-pity, nor is there any sign of resentment. Things just happen, and they are written about. Perspectives may change.
`To get into one language deeply, I found, one has to forsake all others.'
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
During this period, Sybille's mother became addicted to morphine and, in what was for me, some of the most moving writing in this memoir, Sybille describes how this occurred and how she became responsible for procuring and administering the drug to her mother. There is no self-pity in Ms Bedford's account, simply a description of causation, events and consequences.
`My next account - not joyful - will have to be about a destructive blow of fate brought about through a blend of antecedents, chance, ill luck.'
In 1935, Sybille entered a marriage of convenience with Walter `Terry' Bedford. The marriage did not last, her use of his family name did. With the assistance of Maria and Aldous Huxley, Sybille Bedford left France for America before the German invasion of France. Her memoir ends once she is in America.
`Wish I could tell the half of it ... But, I repeat, there seems to be no time.'
`Had I but world enough and time ... I have not. And shall not now write about the life that followed.'
This memoir covers Sybille Bedford's life from World War I in Berlin, to World War II when she leaves Europe for the USA. I do not recognise much of the world in which she lived and of which she writes, but her writing gave me some sense of that world and of her experiences within it. At one stage, when she has a guest for a period, she writes:
`What I minded was the loss of solitude - essential to the cashing in of writing-thoughts.'
This is the first of her books I have read: I hope to read some of her novels later this year. I enjoyed both the content and the presentation of this memoir. I found it inspiring: there is no room for self-pity, nor is there any sign of resentment. Things just happen, and they are written about. Perspectives may change.
`To get into one language deeply, I found, one has to forsake all others.'
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
25 of 29 people found the following review helpful
A disappointment
15 July 2005
Format:Hardcover
I had eagerly awaited "Quicksands," undoubtedly the last of this wonderful writer's books, given her advanced age, but sadly I was disappointed. Bedford's novels, which I have read, are autobiographical, despite her disclaimers, but I didn't realize how true to life they were until reading her memoir. Bedford lived an erratic, charmed, difficult life, part of the European artistic generation between the wars, when one could exist for long periods of time on the generosity of friends and move relatively freely from country to country. But Bedford's memoir feels removed from her life, in a way her vivid novels are not. "Jigsaw's" characters reappear--her father and mother, Oriane, Issa, Allessandro--but she observes them from afar, and they feel flat to me. She assumes the reader knows a lot already from her novels, so some incidents are briefly and cryptically covered in a way that without prior knowledge they are meaningless. An example is the story of Rosie, whose lover was a famous English jurist who secretely led a double life for many years. Bedford covers this emotional, painful, amazing story in a page and a half for the sole purpose of finally revealing the jurist's name, but without the vivid background from her novel the revelation has little impact. "Quicksands" is leading me back to the novels I haven't yet read--she's an exquisite writer. Try "Jigsaw" for the real story of this amazing woman's life.
17 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Quicksilver
5 Jun 2005
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A very good writer tells of her unconventional past in Europe, with the memories harvested mainly from the time between the two great wars. Ms. Bedford omits the retelling of many episodes covered in her previous books (none of which I have read) and assumes the reader knows more of history and twentieth century literature than is probably true of most current readers. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the book and admired its many "true" sentences.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
`I shall begin as I hope to continue: from the middle.'
2 May 2012
Format:Paperback
Sybille Bedford, OBE (16 March 1911 - 17 February 2006) was a German-born English writer: a novelist, journalist and biographer. She was born Sybille von Schoenebeck in Berlin. Her parents were Baron Maximilian Josef von Schoenebeck (1853-1925 and his wife, Elizabeth Bernard (1888-1937). Sybille was raised in the Roman Catholic faith of her father at Schloss Feldkirch in Baden, and had a half-sister, from her father's first marriage ( Maximiliane Henriette von Schoenebeck). Her parents divorced in 1918, and she remained with her father, until his death in 1925. Sybille then went to live in Italy with her mother and stepfather. With the rise of fascism in Italy, her mother and stepfather settled in Sanary-sur-Mer, a small fishing village in the south of France. Sybille settled there as a teenager, living near Maria and Aldous Huxley, with whom she became friends. Sybille Bedford also met some of the other writers and intellectuals (including Alma Mahler, Wilhelm Herzog, Lion Feuchtwanger, Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht) who also settled in this area during that period.
During this period, Sybille's mother became addicted to morphine and, in what was for me, some of the most moving writing in this memoir, Sybille describes how this occurred and how she became responsible for procuring and administering the drug to her mother. There is no self-pity in Ms Bedford's account, simply a description of causation, events and consequences.
`My next account - not joyful - will have to be about a destructive blow of fate brought about through a blend of antecedents, chance, ill luck.'
In 1935, Sybille entered a marriage of convenience with Walter `Terry' Bedford. The marriage did not last, her use of his family name did. With the assistance of Maria and Aldous Huxley, Sybille Bedford left France for America before the German invasion of France. Her memoir ends once she is in America.
`Wish I could tell the half of it ... But, I repeat, there seems to be no time.'
`Had I but world enough and time ... I have not. And shall not now write about the life that followed.'
This memoir covers Sybille Bedford's life from World War I in Berlin, to World War II when she leaves Europe for the USA. I do not recognise much of the world in which she lived and of which she writes, but her writing gave me some sense of that world and of her experiences within it. At one stage, when she has a guest for a period, she writes:
`What I minded was the loss of solitude - essential to the cashing in of writing-thoughts.'
This is the first of her books I have read: I hope to read some of her novels later this year. I enjoyed both the content and the presentation of this memoir. I found it inspiring: there is no room for self-pity, nor is there any sign of resentment. Things just happen, and they are written about. Perspectives may change.
`To get into one language deeply, I found, one has to forsake all others.'
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
During this period, Sybille's mother became addicted to morphine and, in what was for me, some of the most moving writing in this memoir, Sybille describes how this occurred and how she became responsible for procuring and administering the drug to her mother. There is no self-pity in Ms Bedford's account, simply a description of causation, events and consequences.
`My next account - not joyful - will have to be about a destructive blow of fate brought about through a blend of antecedents, chance, ill luck.'
In 1935, Sybille entered a marriage of convenience with Walter `Terry' Bedford. The marriage did not last, her use of his family name did. With the assistance of Maria and Aldous Huxley, Sybille Bedford left France for America before the German invasion of France. Her memoir ends once she is in America.
`Wish I could tell the half of it ... But, I repeat, there seems to be no time.'
`Had I but world enough and time ... I have not. And shall not now write about the life that followed.'
This memoir covers Sybille Bedford's life from World War I in Berlin, to World War II when she leaves Europe for the USA. I do not recognise much of the world in which she lived and of which she writes, but her writing gave me some sense of that world and of her experiences within it. At one stage, when she has a guest for a period, she writes:
`What I minded was the loss of solitude - essential to the cashing in of writing-thoughts.'
This is the first of her books I have read: I hope to read some of her novels later this year. I enjoyed both the content and the presentation of this memoir. I found it inspiring: there is no room for self-pity, nor is there any sign of resentment. Things just happen, and they are written about. Perspectives may change.
`To get into one language deeply, I found, one has to forsake all others.'
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
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