Written Lives

Synopsis

In these short, capricious and irreverent portraits of twenty-six great writers, from joyce to nabokov, sterne to wilde, javier marías, winner of the dublin impac prize and author of the bestselling a heart so white, throws unexpected, and very human, light on authors too often enshrined in the halo of artistic sainthood. Revealing that conrad actually hated sailing and emily brontë was so tough she was known as 'the major', among many other stories of eccentricity, drunkenness and even murder, this joyful book uses unusual angles and peculiar details to illuminate writers' lives in a new way.