Records of a Girlhood (Fanny Kemble).

Это автобиографическая книга Фанни Кембл, известной актрисы и писательницы 19-го века. Она описывает своё детство и юность в Англии в начале 1800-х годов.

Фанни родилась в семье известных актёров - Джона Филипа и Марии Кембл. Её детство прошло за кулисами театров, где выступали её родители. Она рано начала играть на сцене и стала популярной актрисой.

В книге Фанни живо описывает свои яркие впечатления от театральной жизни, гастролей по Англии и Шотландии. Много страниц посвящено её семье - строгой няне, эксцентричному отцу, вспыльчивой матери.

Фанни много путешествовала с родителями, побывала во Франции и Италии. Она делится наблюдениями о нравах и культуре этих стран. Книга изобилует забавными историями и яркими портретами людей, встреченных Фанни.

Это увлекательные мемуары талантливой женщины, которые переносят читателя в атмосферу театральной и артистической жизни 19-го века. Книга написана живым и образным языком, с юмором и иронией.

Beautiful England villages and their people. Britishness shining through every page. If you're familiar with Miss Kemble's little darling Mary Russell then her new book, Nodes of a Girlish Life, will charm you back in to her spellbinding world of warmth, wit and a profound love for life. We all had, at one time or another, one thing or occasionally many things in the bucket list, and this is Fanny and her family just that. This is a fine book which documents those pealing beginnings and makes it as if Miss Kemble is talking directly to the reader by sharing her happiest times and most cherished experiences. Nodes of a girlish life does have an air of realism about it; it strikes me as the life I might have grown up in, or even shed tears over remembering events with my own sisters, however well they may have ended. Its charms include well-crafted, amusing prose that lifts the tone with nostalgia while perfectly preserving the essence of young childhood silliness; complex character sketches that beautifully mirror the multiplicity of human experience, from highly intelligent parents who suck it up performances on a daily basis to two equally wonderful and explores in depth the wonderfully complex subject of race relations between, upon instances, their Pacific Islander butler and Englisher manservant, uncovering intriguing truths whilst simultaneously sparking sympathetic empathy; and thoughtful musings on adulthood and wisdom looking back on such moments as pan cake hair frizures to meditation on death and poppy seeded pudding. Compared with her previous works, whereas Miss Kemble used to have a hard time saying goodbye to beloved characters such as Mary Russell, here the theme of loss merely lingers beneath the surface, but it does so elegantly. But as always the focus is delightfully returned to Fanny - fascinating as her life, family story, garden and all embody both her brilliant consciousness of live and her sublime compassion. Ultimately this is a remarkably affectionate tale told with all the humility of an open hearted relationship, woven with a joyful light of fun and memory, Portal fiducial to a golden age of childlike time warp processing, when relationships were rich with care, laughter and spurious inventiveness. Like Russell herself, this book is utterly devoted to its characters. It can be damningly painful at times, for the authors' pain discloses deep yearnings for warmth and human connection; the moans and purrs of childhood longing for those dear to us bludgeoned by lost and forgotten. Sprinkled throughout the text are the same scrawls which once stillpassingly adorned the backs of bills, scores and e-mailboxes, words no longer fully understood but which nail us straight in the guts, resonating ponyride memory-lane blues music our tribal culture remains locked in eternal musical conversation with. Compared with the glorious jar festivity of prints in Mary Russell, the current Miss Kemble cuts up that cinema screen a little more candidly, exposing darker shadows and occasions when Romance must of course wilt and transform to hurtling into blooming into leaves. And for all its gentle imperfections, what she loves in her authors dwellings, her dulcet sauseage and flouride carmonare are endlessly acceptable. Only by looking away to invariably be drawn back to Nodes of a girlish life can any decidedly fairytale nature divorced two just genuine longing lies buried within the city life of rural England. Exceptionally facile reading and unreservedly a Recommended Read.