- Hardcover: 480 pages
- Publisher: Allen Lane (3 April 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0713995726
- ISBN-13: 978-0713995725
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.8 x 4.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 502,456 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Express, April 19, 2003 (by Roger Lewis)
"Monsters are huge fun to read about and this is an extraordinary and rancorous book, sulphuric in its rage."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Daily Mail, March 28, 2003 (by John Casey)
"Egoists make the best diarists, provided they write honestly and vividly...these memoirs are wonderfully alive and bleakly moving."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
The gas lamp outside our door has been lit again for the first time since 1914. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
The gas lamp outside our door has been lit again for the first time since 1914. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I do not normally write comments here, but as one who curated the originals of these diaries for several years, it seems appropriate to comment in view of the one-star diatribe this book has merited from another reviewer.
It is hard to fail to see the wit in Rowse's writing. He has been castigated by some as a scholar, but the quality of his writing was matched by very few twentieth century historical authors. Indeed, it is just that, the quality of his writing (and not so much his scholarship) which will preserve his name for years to come. This is present in abundance in this book.
Rowse had thousands of friends, literally, and reading through a list of his correspondents is like flicking through Who's Who. He was also a great controversialist, and an indomitable character, but one who could be very engaging. Thus to have a version - albeit heavily edited, due to its size - of his diary is very valuable. Ask anyone interested in Rowse himself, or Oxford in the thirties and forties, or All Souls, or Adam von Trott, or most twentieth century historians, or any number of other subjects, whether they would prefer for there NOT to be an edition of the diaries, and they would be unanimous in saying this is an excellent addition to the Rowse oeuvre, and much appreciated.
Most of my favourite entries in the Rowse manuscripts are here present, though not all. I particularly liked the entry relating to his visit to see Churchill in 1956. Indeed, I would favour there being a complete edition. (Rowse himself always thought there would be.) The problem would be finding all the last bits, which are scattered throughout his voluminous archive. I don't believe that anyone will ever do this for his sake, but it might happen due to wide interest in the many people he knew, and the lynchpin of intellectual and upperclass society he provided (though born working class). And then of course there is the fluidity of the prose itself.
I think anyone who knows something already about Rowse will not be disappointed by this book, except in that they will wonder at what remains left to see at Exeter University, unpublished. That can only be a good thing.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A.L. Rowse is little-known to the British public today, though he was at one time, in old age (b. 1903), hard to escape on shows mediated by people like Parkinson or Russell Harty in the 1970's. He was a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford and most noted, perhaps, for his Shakespearean scholarship.
These diaries, a small selection of the entries he made throughout his academic life, show a very "Oxford" life and life of thought, though one of the remarkable facts about Rowse (forever retailed on TV to the point of boring repitition) was his uprbringing as the son of a very poor and all-but-illiterate Cornish china clay miner. He was a rare person whose eminence was solely due to his own intelligence, diligence and overall merit. I do not think that the notes of this book mention that Rowse won the one scholarship to Oxford given by the County of Cornwall in every year.
Rowse was, I think, well-known or accepted as gay, his main lover (in these diaries anyway) seemingly the German diplomat and (from the point of view of the Reich government) traitor Adam von Trott zu Solz, who is believed to have been an agent of British Intelligence before and perhaps during WW2 and who was executed after the 20th of July 1944 bomb plot, in which Hitler was nearly killed (by a device made by the British, I believe).
These diaries, to me, were very bitty (the entire period of the Second World War only has two or three entries!) and I did not, frankly, find much of the book very interesting, though, at the same time, some entries were interesting, showing a very highly cultured mind indeed, though one very much of the ivory tower. For me, the most interesting entry was one from after the Second World War, in which Rowse says that Churchill admitted to him that, in 1940, the Germans had been totally incapable of invading the UK because of lack of water transport; this fact was known to the British Government at the time, though the British people themselves were kept in ignorance (most British people, probably, still believe what the TV and radio tell them, that an invasion based on the contingency plan Operation Sealion (Fall Seelowe) was a real likelihood in 1940).
I have to admit that I skimmed through a lot of this book and, for me, it is not a great read overall. It does have atmosphere though, that of tea or sherry at an Oxford college, perhaps.
OK, but not really recommended for a general reader.
These diaries, a small selection of the entries he made throughout his academic life, show a very "Oxford" life and life of thought, though one of the remarkable facts about Rowse (forever retailed on TV to the point of boring repitition) was his uprbringing as the son of a very poor and all-but-illiterate Cornish china clay miner. He was a rare person whose eminence was solely due to his own intelligence, diligence and overall merit. I do not think that the notes of this book mention that Rowse won the one scholarship to Oxford given by the County of Cornwall in every year.
Rowse was, I think, well-known or accepted as gay, his main lover (in these diaries anyway) seemingly the German diplomat and (from the point of view of the Reich government) traitor Adam von Trott zu Solz, who is believed to have been an agent of British Intelligence before and perhaps during WW2 and who was executed after the 20th of July 1944 bomb plot, in which Hitler was nearly killed (by a device made by the British, I believe).
These diaries, to me, were very bitty (the entire period of the Second World War only has two or three entries!) and I did not, frankly, find much of the book very interesting, though, at the same time, some entries were interesting, showing a very highly cultured mind indeed, though one very much of the ivory tower. For me, the most interesting entry was one from after the Second World War, in which Rowse says that Churchill admitted to him that, in 1940, the Germans had been totally incapable of invading the UK because of lack of water transport; this fact was known to the British Government at the time, though the British people themselves were kept in ignorance (most British people, probably, still believe what the TV and radio tell them, that an invasion based on the contingency plan Operation Sealion (Fall Seelowe) was a real likelihood in 1940).
I have to admit that I skimmed through a lot of this book and, for me, it is not a great read overall. It does have atmosphere though, that of tea or sherry at an Oxford college, perhaps.
OK, but not really recommended for a general reader.
4 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As a lover of diarists from theatrical, political and general fields I waited this book with some eagerness. I wanted to find out about the sheltered world of Oxford and get a sense of what it was to be like living in a world dedicated to learning in the early to mid twentieth century. This book is tedious and boring in the extreme, of interest to those who knew the subject or his (few) friends. Self indulgent (well OK - it is a diary) with purple prose that is positively cringe making in parts. If you want a good diarist go to James Lees-Milne don't waste any money on this load of rubbish.
Listmania!
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