Inventing the It Girl (eBook)

How Elinor Glyn Created the Modern Romance and Conquered Early Hollywood

Hilary A. Hallett (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2022
464 Seiten
Liveright (Verlag)
978-1-63149-070-5 (ISBN)

Infos

A Publishers Weekly Summer Reads SelectionThe modern romance novel is elevated to a subject of serious study in this addictively readable biography of pioneering celebrity author Elinor Glyn.Unlike typical romances, which end with wedding bells, Elinor Glyns (18641943) story really began after her marriage up the social ladder and into the English gentry class in 1892. Born in the Channel Islands, Elinor Sutherland, like most Victorian women, aspired only to a good match. But when her husband, Clayton Glyn, gambled their fortune away, she turned to her pen and boldly challenged the eras sexually straightjacketed literary code with her notorious succs de scandale, Three Weeks (1907). An intensely erotic tale about an unhappily married womans sexual education of her young lover, the novel got Glyn banished from high society but went on to sell millions, revealing a deep yearning for a fuller account of sexual passion than permitted by the British aristocracy or the Anglo-American literary establishment.In elegant prose, Hilary A. Hallett traces Glyns meteoric rise from a depressed society darling to a world-renowned celebrity author who consorted with world leaders from St. Petersburg to Cairo to New York. After reporting from the trenches during World War I, the author was lured by American movie producers from Paris to Los Angeles for her remarkable third act. Weaving together years of deep archival research, Hallett movingly conveys how Glyn, more than any other individual during the Roaring Twenties, crafted early Hollywoods glamorous romantic aesthetic. She taught the screens greatest leading men to make love in ways that set audiences aflame, and coined the term It Girl, which turned actress Clara Bow into the symbol of the first sexual revolution.With Inventing the It Girl, Hallett has done nothing less than elevate the origins of the modern romance genre to a subject of serious study. In doing so, she has also reclaimed the enormous influence of one of Anglo-Americas most significant cultural tastemakers while revealing Glyns life to have been as sensational as any of the characters she created on the page or screen. The result is a groundbreaking portrait of a courageous icon of independence who encouraged future generations to chase their desires wherever they might lead.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 26.7.2022
• Zusatzinfo: 30 black-and-white images throughout
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Film / TV
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Medienwissenschaft
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Gender Studies
• Schlagworte: 1920s • british aristocracy • classic romance novel • early romance novel • elinor glyn • feminist • Fifty Shades • Film • Glamour • history of erotica • Hollywood • London • Romance • Romance Novel • romantic fiction • Sex • Titanic • wwi
• ISBN-10: 1-63149-070-2 / 1631490702
• ISBN-13: 978-1-63149-070-5 / 9781631490705