The Splendid and the Vile
A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
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The Splendid and the Vile
Lu par :
John Lee, Erik Larson
Acheter pour 20,43 €
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Lu par :
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John Lee
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Erik Larson
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De :
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Erik Larson
À propos de ce contenu audio
NAMED ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2020 BY The Washington Post • HuffPost • The Seattle Times • Lit Hub • The Week • PopSugar
On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally—and willing to fight to the end.
In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people “the art of being fearless.” It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it’s also an intimate domestic drama, set against the backdrop of Churchill’s prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course 10 Downing Street in London. Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports—some released only recently—Larson provides a new lens on London’s darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his family: his wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter, Mary, who chafes against her parents’ wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful, unhappy wife, Pamela; Pamela’s illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and the advisers in Churchill’s “Secret Circle,” to whom he turns in the hardest moments.
The Splendid and the Vile takes readers out of today’s political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when, in the face of unrelenting horror, Churchill’s eloquence, courage, and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together.
This audiobook includes a recording of Winston Churchill's 1941 Christmas Eve speech.
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Sadly, for this book dealing with the 1940-41 Battle of Britain, the approach falls flat. Apparently, no source was found regarding Winston Churchill’s perceptions. Thus, the reader feels short-changed as to what the story’s looming character thought. Who cares if his son was an ill-mannered womanizer, his 18-year-old daughter wanted to get engaged there and then or a secretary to whom he dictated thought he mumbled his words?
What stands out is that Churchill drank a lot of champagne, smoked many cigars and systematically went to the country on weekends. An investigation on his past, his beliefs and his psychology would be far more enlightening.
Some space is devoted to Herman Göring, Joseph Goebbels and even Adolf Hitler, certainly the “Vile” referred to in the book’s title. Strangely, this gives them a human dimension that many may judge inappropriate.
Unfortunately, the book is also a bit short on historical facts and on context. For instance,
• Charles de Gaulle first appears as a weekend dinner guest; not a word is said of how he created the Free French Forces or of his famous radio address to the French nation in June 1940;
• there is much discussion of the French Fleet in relation to Operation Catapult, but the reader is never told what happened to it in the end, even in the epilogue (it was scuttled by the French in 1942);
• what was the Australian prime minister doing in London during the Blitz?
• why is it that, as Britain is under attack, the prime minister and many Cabinet members drove many miles to see off the new ambassador to the United States as his ship left port?
In the audio version, some may be surprised to hear half-hearted impersonations of Churchill and Roosevelt, even when their letters are read. No German accent is given to the Nazis, however.
Overall, it appears best to pass this offering.
Disappointing!
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