Charmed Circle: Gertrude Stein and Company
by James R. Mellow
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Avant-garde Paris comes to life in this "meticulous and loving reconstruction of the period" (The New York Times Book Review)On almost every Saturday of the first half of the twentieth century, Gertrude Stein would open her door to the likes of Picasso and Matisse, Hemingway and Fitzgerald, Cocteau and Apollinaire, welcoming them into a salon alive with vivid avant-garde paintings and sparkling intellectual conversation. In Charmed Circle, James R. Mellow has re-created this fascinating show more world and the complex woman who dominated it. His engaging narrative illuminates Stein's writing--now celebrated along with the work of such literary giants as Joyce and Woolf--including her difficult early periods, which adapted cubism and abstraction to the written word. Rich with detail and insight, it conveys both the serene rhythms of daily life with her devoted partner, Alice B. Toklas, and the radical pulse and dramatic upheavals of her exciting era.Spanning the years from 1903, when Stein first arrived in Paris, to her final days at the end of the Second World War, Charmed Circle is a penetrating and lively account of a writer at the heart of modernity. show lessTags
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This isn't a particularly long book. Why then, did it take me so very long to read it? Because it was very boring. This is one of those rarities -- a boring book on an interesting subject.
That subject is Gertrude Stein and her circle of friends. The friends include Picasso, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Juan Gris, Matisse, Cezanne, and many, many others. Those people and that time and place fascinate me, and I've read accounts about and by many of them. And I must say that of all those fascinating and talented people, Gertrude seems to me to be the least talented.
On the other hand, it is fascinating to see how far she got with so little going for her. What she had in her favor was a brother who was a brilliant art collector, and the luck of show more being in the right place at the right time. She had an ego to rival that of Salvador Dali, but not the talent. She helped many young writers, but would usually drop them if they reached a level to be a threat to her professionally. She supported Petain if not because she was a fascist, then at least because it was in her own self-interest to do so. I think her greatest attribute was her personality that many people found profoundly attractive. I also give her credit for forming a lifelong bond with her partner Alice Toklas. They were together for 40 years, until her death. In that she was also lucky. show less
That subject is Gertrude Stein and her circle of friends. The friends include Picasso, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Juan Gris, Matisse, Cezanne, and many, many others. Those people and that time and place fascinate me, and I've read accounts about and by many of them. And I must say that of all those fascinating and talented people, Gertrude seems to me to be the least talented.
On the other hand, it is fascinating to see how far she got with so little going for her. What she had in her favor was a brother who was a brilliant art collector, and the luck of show more being in the right place at the right time. She had an ego to rival that of Salvador Dali, but not the talent. She helped many young writers, but would usually drop them if they reached a level to be a threat to her professionally. She supported Petain if not because she was a fascist, then at least because it was in her own self-interest to do so. I think her greatest attribute was her personality that many people found profoundly attractive. I also give her credit for forming a lifelong bond with her partner Alice Toklas. They were together for 40 years, until her death. In that she was also lucky. show less
Stein and her circle are rather an obsession with me so I loved this book. So much was happening in Paris at the time in the art world and Stein was in the middle of it all.
Academic and dense, a volume for the keen student or afficianado. I like it.
Mentioned in The Princessa: Machiavelli for Women by Harriet Rubin.
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Author Information
11 Works 920 Members
Awards and Honors
Awards
Notable Lists
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1974
- People/Characters
- Gertrude Stein; Alice B. Toklas; Ernest Hemingway; Henri Matisse; Pablo Picasso
- Important places
- Paris, France
- Important events
- World War I (1914 | 1918); World War II (1939 | 1945)
- Dedication
- For my mother and father, who taught me the quirky realities of life -- what was gently funny, what was interesting, what might be beautiful, what was worthwhile.
- First words
- A visitor to the studio at 27, rue Fleurus in the early years of the twentieth century might well have believed he had been admitted to an entirely new form of institution -- a ministry of propaganda for modern art.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Even in death, she did not intend to intrude upon Gertrude's eminence.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Afterword: Writing about the past in like attempting to restore an old house: You can never bring it back to what it once was, but you can hope to make it livable again. - Canonical DDC/MDS
- 818.5209
- Canonical LCC
- PS3537.T323
Classifications
- Genres
- Biography & Memoir, Nonfiction, Literature Studies and Criticism
- DDC/MDS
- 818.5209 — Literature & rhetoric American literature in English American miscellaneous writings in English 20th Century 1900-1945 Biography
- LCC
- PS3537 .T323 — Language and Literature American literature American literature Individual authors 1900-1960
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 375
- Popularity
- 83,375
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (3.65)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 10
