The private life of an author? was Re: O'Brian compared to AR


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Posted by Adam Quinan on November 06, 2007 at 12:29:44 from 99.226.247.88 user Adam.

In Reply to: Re: O'Brian compared to AR posted by Owen Roberts on November 06, 2007 at 09:43:24:

Owen commented that he found his views of O'Brian coloured by his son's description of his life after his parent's marriage broke up. He posted a very one-sided view by his son. O'Brian's step son, Nikolai Tolstoy, has written a biograpy of O'Brian that gives what appears to be a more balanced view.

There is a strong parallel with Ransome's apparent treatment of his daughter Tabitha after he and Ivy separated. Is Owen's view of Ransome also coloured by Ransome's treatment of Tabitha? Or has he never considered why Tabitha grew to have such a bad opinion of her father.

Family separations can cause all sorts of distress to the children and their impressions of what happened may or may not reflect what actually happened between the adults.

The other interesting point is how much should your knowledge of an author or artist or composer's private life affect how you view his output. Is Wagner's music more evil because he was anti-Semitic and beloved of Hitler? Do the sex lives of Oscar Wilde or Picasso affect how we should view their work?

Unfortunately I will shortly be leaving for the rest of the week and probably won't have Internet access so I won't be able to read and respond to any comments in a timely manner.


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