Elgar by Ken Russell

Elgar by Ken Russell

This novel biography focuses a literary rather than camera lens on the private lives of Elgar and Delius with no holds barred In these new novel-biograhies Ken Russell reinvents the quintessentially English Edward Elgar (1857-1934) and Frederick Delius (1862-1934) for the printed page. Here the two musicians' both provincial lads come alive in a new way in biographical novels that are revealing yet boisterously entertaining occasionally outrageous and iconoclastic.

In Elgar: The Erotic Variation, Russell explodes his own myth of offering the last word on his subject. Here the man emerges from Victorian morality complete with mistresses and muses in the form of the women who captivated his soul, including his childhood sweetheart Helen Weaver and the emancipated headmistress Rosa Burley.

Delius: A Moment with Venus is largely based on the recollections of the composer's amanuensis, Eric Fenby, who became a friend of the author during the making of the Monitor drama-documentary. Some of the extra-marital material in this novel was unknown to Russell when he made his film, but the baptism of Frederick Delius the Yorkshireman as Fritz is the hilarious starting point for the revelations about the secret life of this cantankerous old pagan genius.

Ken Russell was a successful photographer before being hired as an independent filmmaker by the BBC. Between 1959 and 1970 he made thirty-five 35mm films for the BBC that advanced the art of filmmaking in England and which are still mostly unavailable. He enjoyed worldwide box-office success with Women in Love (1969), The Music Lovers (1970) and Tommy (1975) and, in Britain in the 1970s, he had more number-one hit films than any filmmaker. Ken Russell made the last great (and least expensive) M.G.M musical, The Boy Friend (1971). His 1971 feature film, The Devils is increasingly recognised as being the boldest and the finest film made by an Englishman.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780720612905
ISBN 10	072061290X
Title	Elgar
Author	Ken Russell
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Peter Owen Publishers
Year published	2007-03-01
Number of pages	220
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.