Dangerous Muse: The Life of Lady Caroline Blackwood

by Nancy Schoenberger

Book Overview

You can see her dark-eyed beauty in photos by Walker Evans, and her bewitching figure in paintings by Lucian Freud. She is the mermaid of whom poet Robert Lowell writes in The Dolphin (and he was... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 038548979X
• ISBN13: 9780385489799
• Release Date: June 2001
• Publisher: Nan A. Talese
• Length: 377 Pages
• Weight: 1.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.6" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

The Last of the Muses

I just finished reading my copy of this book at 7:10am CST and I found it hard to believe that it was over. The one question that burned through my mind was: why is it that the majority of writers and poets back in the day were so self destructive? Drug users, alcoholics, manic-depressives, etc., and yet they produced such brillant works of art and literarute. As a published author, I found myself longing for the days when poets were revered by the public and when writers were treated like celebrities after reading this work. Lady Caroline Blackwell was a genius in her own way, a talent that was raw and invigorating, and yet she posed to be such a tragic figure in the eyes of her peers and family. Now that I have read about her life, I want to experience her written words; I feel like I am truly ready to read the works of the Last Great Muse.

Great, except for one area

I have to admit that when I first began reading this biography of Lady Caroline, it did not immediately enthrall me the way I thought it might, after having read the book's description. The first chapter or so deals almost exclusively with her family's history, and I found the endless names and descriptions of the different people boring. *However* as I began to read forward, I found myself fascinated with the sort of wit and charm Caroline Blackwood posessed (as is evident with her writings) The little excerpts from her fiction and non-fiction works scattered throughout the length of the biography were very important, as I think they fit perfectly with what Miss Schoenberger had been describing within Caroline's life. They provided a lot of insight into what was happening in her life, in an almost poetical manner. There is no doubt that the author has a strong talent for writing, but I think the fact that different members of Caroline Blackwood's family refused to contribute hurt Nancy Schoenberger's effort for a deeper story. All in all, by the end of the book, I definitely wanted more to read. The author's fluid style of writing fit the subject matter well and it wasn't repetitive or dull by any means. I was however, disappointed with one aspect of the novel, and that is why wasn't more written about the development as Lady Caroline as a writer? I've read a few of her books, and she is obviously extremely talented in the area of psychological prose...there was more emphasis put on Caroline Blackwood's relationships than what was really the most fascinating thing about her, and that was her ability to so vividly and acutely write a novel of the psychological aspect...that was her true genius, not the fact that she was beautiful and had famous husbands. Too bad that wasn't put across, and that that's what Caroline will be remembered for, instead of what she *should*. Nevertheless a great biography by Nancy Schoenberger, given what she had to work with.

A paradoxical and beguiling figure,

Lady Caroline is extremely charming and repugnant at once, to this reader. Like another reviewer, I found the book to be impossible to put down, and I read almost straight through, until I was done. Beautiful, high-born, and slovenly, a constant smoker of cigarettes and a night-and-day-long consumer of vodka, Lady Caroline Blackwood nonetheless marries both a well known painter and America's leading poet of her time. She never stops attracting famous, wealthy men. Nancy Schoenberger peels off layer after layer to reveal both Lady Caroline and her aristocratic and wealthy set of friends and relations. I thought hard about those jet set and well born, many of them famous, friends of hers, as I read, and it occurred to me to think that they were blessed with money and talent and free time and fame, while the rest of us are even more blessed in that we have been given the work ethic, common sense, and bills to pay. The book inspires such thoughts and comparisons, whether or not they are on the money. I enjoyed it hugely.

Rode Hard and Put Away Wet

This would be an excellent description of wellborn Lady Caroline Blackwood, legendary Anglo-Irish beauty. She had a penchant for marrying artistes. Her first marriage was to savage, wild man artist Lucian Freud, grandson of Sigmund. Her third and last husband was Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Robert Lowell. Lady Caroline became a fine writer in her own right. She began writing seriously while married to Lowell and continued to do so for about ten years after his death. This accounted for 15 years of her 65 years on earth. She lost her father at age 13, and was sadly neglected (emotionally) during her childhood.To an upper-class English or Irish reader of her generation (1931-1996), her childhood would sound fairly normal with the nannies and the governesses and seeing her parents once a day for an hour at teatime. But Mother Maureen, a Guinness heiress, was a singularly spoiled, vain woman who had almost no interest in her children. There is no doubt Lady Caroline suffered and had almost no parental guidance. After the proper coming out and a debut year in London, she immediately embraced the bohemian life in Soho. Men fell at her feet, homo and heterosexual; all were in her thrall. She was a girl of great silences and steady gazes out of her magnificent eyes. She was also a drunk and slovenly her entire life. As she grew older, her beauty could not stand up to her lifestyle. She began to look like a ravaged Jeanne Moreau; yet never lost her tremendous appeal to men.Ms. Schoenberger has done a beautiful job of detailing Lady Caroline's life. She is meticulous in her research and scholarship. Her writing skills are admirable; she neither intrudes, nor is she stiffly reserved. She at all times appears tolerant and non-judgmental. I see on the book jacket that the author is a poet as well as a writer. If this book is any example, I hope she continues her writing.My problem with the book was I found the subject most unlikable. Lady Caroline never lost her sense of entitlement in that however objectionable she looked, smelled or acted; she felt she was God's chosen. She emulated her mother in irresponsibility and neglect of her own children. Her outlook on life was pessimistic in the extreme, but she was stand-up proof for the adage `living well is the best revenge.' Recommended for the excellent writing and scholarship.

A BRILLANT PIECE OF WORK!!!

Dangerous Muse: The Life Of Lady Caroline Blackwood is a wonderful true story of a woman born into a georgian irish- anglo estate in 1931. Lady Caroline lives a bohemian life far removed from the lifestyle she had been born into. She is a fascinating women, one you would like to sit next to at a dinner party. Nancy Schoenberger does an outstanding job of getting beneath the surface of Caroline's life. This is a book you will lose yourself into and wonder where the hours have gone. I highly recommend this book as one of the top ten of the year.