Dangerous Ambition: Rebecca West and Dorothy Thompson: New Women in Search of Love and Power

This is an Early Reviewers book.
The author did an amazing job of juxtaposing two biographies into one comprehensive book. Dorothy Thompson and Rebecca West lived at an essential historical period: prior to, during, and following WW II. Both were journalists and authors. Both were brilliant, driven, and ahead of their era.
The author develops a clear sense of the character/personality of each woman as well as their oeuvre. The women were moving in "uncharted waters." They "forged" opportunities unprecedented in their time. They married famous, brilliant, inadequate men.
Biographically, each woman is revealed to have an expectation that some man would make them feel whole, worthy, significant. Their marriages failed them. Neither woman show more knew how to be married. Both were parents. Neither woman understood motherhood. Neither was drawn to the feeling of nurturing.
The book offers important glimpses of the era politically and historically. I found myself totally immersed when the book arrived at the period developing WW II.
These women had failings: their failings were similar. As each felt less important in their professional worlds, they became more prejudiced. Dorothy Thompson moved from a position supporting Israel to an anti-semitic one. Rebecca West became increasingly paranoid.
I am impressed by how completely Susan Hertog developed and revealed the characters of these amazing women as well as the period of their lives. I strongly recommend the book. show less

Rebecca West & Dorothy Thompson were amazing women who led incredible lives, so Hertog is lucky in her choice of subject; it would be difficult to write an uninteresting book about these women. In my purely subjective opinion, though, Hertog has failed in writing this biography. She intrudes too much, injects novelistic imaginings when a straightforward account of her subjects’ lives would be so much more interesting. A previous reviewer cites this as a strength in the book; those who like their biographies to read like fiction will be pleased here. I, however, am less interested in what Hertog thinks happened than in what really did. I wish more of the text were given over to the womens’ letters. I neither care nor agree that show more “One might imagine that Dorothy would have preferred to pass through the magnificent archways of Budapest’s Inner City Church on her way to the altar” (69). One might just as easily imagine she didn’t.

I should admit: I was put-off of this book almost immediately when I read in the publisher’s information that Hertog is a fellow of the far-rightwing American Enterprise Institute. West and Thompson were excoriated by AEI sorts in their day. I wonder what they’d make of their biographer’s politics. show less

I requested Dangerous Ambition: Rebecca West and Dorothy Thompson: New Women in Search of Love and Power from LT Early Reviewers because I’d recently been watching a host of Science Channel programming about the legacy of H.G. Wells. Like many of us, I knew mainly about this prolific visionary though the reading of his classic sci-fi tales like War of the Worlds and The Time Machine. But I knew so little about the man and his private life (though I did know he’d been linked to Rebecca West) that when I happened on this interesting new book by Susan Hertog, I thought this seems just the thing to help fill in the gaps. Well, did I get an eye-opening education into Mr. Wells and so much more!

The book covers the complete lives of two show more very unconventional women for their time—authors and friends Rebecca West (1892-1983) and Dorothy Thompson (1893-1961). Dangerous Ambition comprehensively lays out how each woman’s insatiable need to fulfill her individual ambitions brought each of them fame and respect in their chosen fields but also how their choices levied a heavy personal price on both their families and friends as well as themselves.

When I began the book, I didn’t know much about either woman, except for the fact they were both successful writers: Thompson an influential journalist and radio broadcaster and West a novelist, journalist, critic and travel writer— Time magazine calling her "indisputably the world's number one woman writer" in 1947. Thus it was compelling to learn how these talented women met and became lasting friends; they apparently bonded for over a mutual love of politics and social activism. But their lives were also similar in that both Thompson and West succeeded against all odds and became major influences in their chosen fields.

And, this is not to mention they each had tumultuous relationships with husbands/lovers who disappointed them on a major scale. Thompson was married to American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright Sinclair Lewis. They had one child and divorced after 14 years of marriage. West, on the other hand, ended up in a clandestine relationship with the oft-married Wells, learning first-hand how utterly selfish and misogynistic the famed author truly was. I may admire Wells for his literary craftsmanship but as a human being, he seems to have been totally devoid of love and compassion as well as a host of other human emotions as well. As I said earlier, eye-opening. Especially in that West—so clearly a woman of superior intelligence and accomplishment who had a child by Wells—would even bother to put up with him once his true nature was revealed. A mystery indeed.

Other life parallels include the fact that both Thompson and West’s relationships with each of their sons were so damaged (primarily by their ambitious, globe-trotting mums not being there for most of their childhood) that both children ultimately rejected their mothers entirely. A sad, sad result for these women’s outsized ambitions—the price shouldn’t have had to been that high.

It is important to note that both women, initially, both tried to make “normal lives” for themselves in an era where the party line dictated that a woman’s sense of achievement and self-worth should come primarily from excelling in the roles of wife, mother and housekeeper. However, both Thompson and West quickly realized (and not without pangs of despair) that their individual ambitions could not be denied no matter how hard each of them worked at making their lives and relationships work in the conventional sense.

Though this book was painful to read at times, I would highly recommend it because it shows how difficult the lives of intelligent, motivated women could be back in the not-too-distant past. Interestingly, after reading this book, you learn that each woman truly believed that she should be satisfied with the roles society dictated for women at the time, but when she was not and went after her heart’s desires in an effort to gain fulfillment, both Thompson and West each ended up being mystified by their own overall lack of happiness in the end. Perhaps both women were much too idealistic for their own good—intellectually believing they could “have it all” and a world that, even today, makes life fulfillment an often elusive dream for many women. show less

A dual biography was an inspired but not completely successful choice for this book on Rebecca West and Dorothy Thompson, two talented, fascinating and flawed women who lived and wrote in the early and middle part of the last century. For one thing, British Rebecca and American Dorothy were longtime friends, and in many ways their lives of ran parallel. Both had broken homes as children, Dorothy because of her mother’s death and Rebecca because of her father’s desertion, both wrote articles and books analyzing the world situation in the time surrounding the world wars, both had sons by famous men, Rebecca had an affair with H.G. Wells when she was very young and Dorothy married Noble Prize winning author Sinclair Lewis, and both show more women had severely strained relationships with those sons, in part because as early career women they had little idea and no models for balancing career, love and family. I was moved and intrigued by Dangerous Ambition, and it sent me on a quest for other books by and about her subjects, but covering two women meant that the author had to go back and forth in time which was sometimes befuddled the narrative. Also there is a little more speculation than I feel comfortable with; “One would imagine . . .,” and similar phrasings are not uncommon, and they proceed conjectures about circumstances or inner thoughts that the author must have no documentation for. Still, on the whole I greatly enjoyed the unique perspective of this book about two intelligent, driven, influential women that I had known almost nothing about. show less

I won Dangerous Ambition through the Goodreads First Read program, and overall I'm glad I did. This was a fascinating and extensively researched biography of two very intriguing women.

I didn't know much about either Rebecca West or Dorothy Thompson, but I do believe that this book gave me a comprehensive overview of their good and bad qualities. It's true that neither woman came off as a completely likeable person, but I didn't find this to detract from the appeal of the book. In fact, I enjoyed it all the more because the author clearly held nothing back.

Both women lead dynamic lives, especially considering the time periods in which they lived. Dorothy was an accomplished journalist. In fact, she was the first reporter to be granted an show more interview with Adolf Hitler, and was likewise the first reporter expelled from Germany, after she questioned his manhood, breeding and mental stability.

Rebecca was extremely prolific, and wrote dozens upon dozens of critiques. She was of the opinion that her female contemporaries were writing the best work, and that the 'establishment' deemed their work as 'minor fiction'.

Of course much of this book centers around the love lives of these women, which I wasn't particularly looking forward to - until I discovered that Dorothy was married to Sinclair Lewis, and that Rebecca had a long-term affair and child with H.G. Wells. The look into the lives of these accomplished authors was quite interesting in its own right, especially as the book followed their successes and falls from grace.

I expected there to be more overlap between Rebecca and Dorothy's lives, and I expected that they would be very good friends. As it turned out, while there did seem to be an awful lot of coincidences in their lives, they weren't really close friends. I thought the dual biography setup was interesting, unique and ultimately successful, though it didn't turn out the way I expected it to.

Of course, the book wasn't perfect, and my main issue was the way it jumped around in time. One chapter would cover one woman's life in 1930, and the next would jump to the other woman's life in 1915. There didn't seem to be a method behind the jumping, and it got especially jarring when while reading a chapter about one women, there would be a mention of something that happened to the other - only we hadn't gotten to that chapter yet.

Overall, this book was jam-packed with information, and was extremely detail rich and really immersed me in the world of these women. At the same time, it was quite accessible and I would highly recommend it to anyone who's interested in feminist literature, literary history, or simply a thought provoking biography. show less

Dangerous Ambition by Susan Hertog is a joint biography about the English journalist, novelist and critic Rebecca West and the American journalist, and first female head of a news bureau Dorothy Thompson. This biography explores the similarities and differences between these two fascinating and complex women of the mid-twentieth century who managed to maintain a very close personal friendship for over forty years.

I was intrigued by the idea of this book when I came across it because I thought it would be interesting to see how the author handles a joint biography. I have to say that I was very impressed with Susan Hertog’s writing and her ability to allow me into the minds of these two influential women. While reading this book there show more was never a time when I felt bored by facts or details because Susan Hertog does a specular job of making you feel as if you are reading a work of fiction. The research is through and well planned out and the segments and transitions are handled very smoothly.

Before reading this book, I had read some novels and critiques by Rebecca West but I had not read yet read anything by Dorothy Thompson. When I was finished reading this joint biography I was inspired to pick up any novel, article or critique I could get my hands on that was written by these two women. I really feel as if I have some small bit of idea what it must have been like to live during the exciting time that these women lived in and I also felt as if I got to share some of their trials and hardships with them. show less

While the subjects of this dual biography of Rebecca West and Dorothy Thompson were of great interest to me, the book itself was
oddly organized (not exactly chronological but alternating chapters on each woman) and could have used a good editor. Perhaps the structure defeated me, but the cost to their lives for each of these ambitious, historically-significant writers and their ill-chosen alliances should have left a more memorable mark on my reading horizon. It was more of a plod than a sweep.