Written Lives

For the last few days we have been reading reviews of Written Lives, a newly translated into English book by the Spanish writer Javier Marías. This is what the publisher - Canongate - says:
Written Lives
by Javier Marías, Translated by Margaret Jull Costa

A playful, idiosyncratic and original glimpse into the personas of twenty-five of the most significant writers of the last one hundred and fifty years.

Inspired to revisit the lives of some of the world's most eminent writers of all time, looking at them through some peculiar detail of their lives, Javier Marías provides a lively and illuminating insight into personalities we thought we knew everything about.

[...]

Told with affection and humour, these brief 'written lives' throw a refreshing, and very human, light on authors too often enshrined, or entombed, within the halo of artistic sainthood.

One of these 'written lives' is that of our very own Emily Brontë, though it's in a different section of the book called 'Fugitive Women'.

This is how Carl Rollyson in his review in The New York Sun describes the book:

"The idea," he [Javier Marías] explains in his prologue, is to "treat these well-known literary figures as if they were fictional characters, which may well be how all writers, whether famous or obscure, would secretly like to be treated." By "fictional characters" Mr. Marias does not mean made up, and by myth I do not mean falsehood. Rather, he grants to his biographical subjects the grace of purpose that makes fictional characters so appealing.

The review by Sarah Emily Miano in The Observer provides a little background for those who wish to know more about this well-known Spanish writer.

Categories: Books, Emily_Brontë, Translations