Jun

12

Opposites

June 12, 2024 |

Gilbert and Sullivan by Hesketh Pearson: sullivan was an inveterate gambler and inventor. personality was opposite to gilbert who was most litigious playwright in history.

From page 195:

Sullivan was at Monte Carlo when this letter arrived. He had recently been staying with the Prince and Princess of Wales at Sandringham, had then accompanied the Prince to the Continent, and was now enjoying princely festivities on the Riviera. His regular visits to the tables were reported in the papers, and he was extremely annoyed when certain English journals commented on his heavy gambling. What with dining among lords and counting his losses, he was in no mood to discuss grand opera with Gilbert. But he wrote again, recapitulating his main objections to Gilbertian comic opera: he was tired of it; his work was too good for it; he did not want to spend the rest of his life in clothing the same old types with music, e.g. "the middle-aged woman with fading charms"; he disliked the inhuman and impossible plots; in fact, the whole business had become distasteful to him.

Hesketh Pearson:

Hesketh Pearson published his first full-length biography, Doctor Darwin, when he was 43. By the time of his death thirty-four years later he had written another eighteen biographies, three travel books (all with Hugh Kingsmill), three books of reminiscences (one written with Malcolm Muggeridge), four collections of brief lives, a collection of short stories and essays, and a book on the craft of biographical writing, as well as numerous articles and talks. In England he was the most popular and successful biographer of his time.

From: Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas

Vic's twitter feed


Comments

Name

Email

Website

Speak your mind

Archives

Resources & Links

Search