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1900
1900 (A Studio Book) [hardcover] West, Rebecca [Apr 27, 1982] …
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1996
About the author
Rebecca West
149 books465 followersCicely Isabel Fairfield, known by her pen name Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, DBE was an English author, journalist, literary critic, and travel writer. She was brought up in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she attended George Watson's Ladies College.
A prolific, protean author who wrote in many genres, West was committed to feminist and liberal principles and was one of the foremost public intellectuals of the twentieth century. She reviewed books for The Times, the New York Herald Tribune, the Sunday Telegraph, and the New Republic, and she was a correspondent for The Bookman. Her major works include Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941), on the history and culture of Yugoslavia; A Train of Powder (1955), her coverage of the Nuremberg trials, published originally in The New Yorker; The Meaning of Treason, later The New Meaning of Treason, a study of World War II and Communist traitors; The Return of the Soldier, a modernist World War I novel; and the "Aubrey trilogy" of autobiographical novels, The Fountain Overflows, This Real Night, and Cousin Rosamund. Time called her "indisputably the world's number one woman writer" in 1947. She was made CBE in 1949, and DBE in 1959, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to British letters.
A prolific, protean author who wrote in many genres, West was committed to feminist and liberal principles and was one of the foremost public intellectuals of the twentieth century. She reviewed books for The Times, the New York Herald Tribune, the Sunday Telegraph, and the New Republic, and she was a correspondent for The Bookman. Her major works include Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941), on the history and culture of Yugoslavia; A Train of Powder (1955), her coverage of the Nuremberg trials, published originally in The New Yorker; The Meaning of Treason, later The New Meaning of Treason, a study of World War II and Communist traitors; The Return of the Soldier, a modernist World War I novel; and the "Aubrey trilogy" of autobiographical novels, The Fountain Overflows, This Real Night, and Cousin Rosamund. Time called her "indisputably the world's number one woman writer" in 1947. She was made CBE in 1949, and DBE in 1959, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to British letters.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 26, 2018
This is occasional work, but when Rebecca West is in good form, which is almost all of the time, she is untouchable. She is particularly good here with sharp-eyed portraits of Henry James, Wilde and Proust, along with a comic take on Colette. In between, she takes apart some of the British politicians of the time. With illustrations.
March 19, 2026
3.5-4 stars
This was an enjoyable read, somewhere between a personal memoir and the dispassionate (and often biting) observations of Lady Whistledown; if all history books were written this way, I would have enjoyed history classes in high school much more!
The narration is, at times, a bit hard to follow as there are a lot of metaphors for which I had no frame of reference (comparisons to other people, places, or events that I am not familiar with) and some spiraling, rabbit-hole-esque asides and observations that make the text at times dense and somewhat incomprehensible (numerous times my husband and I said, "I have no idea what she means by that / I have no idea what she's saying"). And the author is very firmly placed in the upper middle class (and yet liberal in her social views which is a point in her favor), which colors her views of things - if this book had been written by someone working class or very poor during the time period, the views would have been quite different and perhaps much less dispassionate.
Despite the above quibbles, this was a truly enjoyable book, with a wonderful close up and very personalized view of seminal events, people, and attitudes from the time period. I learned a lot from this book and enjoyed every minute of doing so!
This was an enjoyable read, somewhere between a personal memoir and the dispassionate (and often biting) observations of Lady Whistledown; if all history books were written this way, I would have enjoyed history classes in high school much more!
The narration is, at times, a bit hard to follow as there are a lot of metaphors for which I had no frame of reference (comparisons to other people, places, or events that I am not familiar with) and some spiraling, rabbit-hole-esque asides and observations that make the text at times dense and somewhat incomprehensible (numerous times my husband and I said, "I have no idea what she means by that / I have no idea what she's saying"). And the author is very firmly placed in the upper middle class (and yet liberal in her social views which is a point in her favor), which colors her views of things - if this book had been written by someone working class or very poor during the time period, the views would have been quite different and perhaps much less dispassionate.
Despite the above quibbles, this was a truly enjoyable book, with a wonderful close up and very personalized view of seminal events, people, and attitudes from the time period. I learned a lot from this book and enjoyed every minute of doing so!
Want to Read
December 14, 2019 Why this book? I'm reading her bio by Rollyson. I've read a great deal of her work, though not everything..., (and not this book, yet),..that would be like reading all of Rollyson. I'd love to be the kind of biography fiend that had read all of him. In my next life I plan to be a book collector, (and a cowboy), and I'll probably need 1900 for my collection. Have you read Larry McMurtry's Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Freeze? do I have the title right? Who am I addressing here?
January 21, 2015
To learn about the period I recommend reading Barbara Tuchman's The Proud Tower. Then read 1900 and imagine hearing the voice of Maggie Smith as Downton Abbey's Dowager Countess at age 88. She meanders through personal memories and historical discourse about a pivotal year, replete with sometimes bizarre digressions and witty bon mots about the classes, the Queen, the Boer War, and so on.
July 19, 2007
captivating text and photos of the 'new
January 12, 2012
An interesting book on what western life was like, especially for women, at the beginning of the last century.
November 6, 2013
An excellent study of 1900. West's prose is creates not only accurate description but conveys the nuances of the time in history.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews