Iris Origo: Marchesa of Val d'Orcia
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"Iris Origo was one of those rare characters who, despite being born with a platinum spoon in her mouth, went on to accomplish great things. In Origo's case, she managed to add light and colour to everything she touched, leaving for posterity a body of work - biography, autobiography and literary criticism - that has become recognized as a model of its kind." "She was born a Cutting, a wealthy and long-established Long Island family, but her talented and beloved father (who resembled, more than a little, a character right out of Henry James) died of consumption when she was only seven. She spent the following years travelling the world with her self-centered and eccentric mother and an extensive entourage, settling finally at the Villa Medici at Fiesole. There she was introduced to the privileged world of wealthy Anglo-Florentine expatriates, a volatile community that included the Berensons, Harold Acton, Janet Ross and Edith Wharton, and whose petty bickering, and pettier politics, had a profound influence on her values and on how she spent her life." "Her marriage to Antonio Origo, a wealthy landowner and sportsman, was as much a reaction against this insular world as it was a surprise to her family and friends. Together they purchased, and single-handedly revived, an extensive, arid valley in Tuscany called Val d'Orcia, rebuilding the farmsteads and the manor-house. Although dearly sympathetic to Mussolini's land use policies, they sided with the Allies during World War II, taking considerable risks in protecting children, sheltering partisans, and repatriating Allied prisoners-of-war to their units." Caroline Moorehead has made extensive use of unpublished letters, diaries and papers to write what will surely be considered the definitive biography of this remarkable woman. She has limned a figure who was brave, industrious and fiercely independent, but hardly saintly. What emerges is a portrait of one of the more intriguing, attractive and intelligent women Publishers Weekly An affectionate history of the writer and charmer Origo (1902-1988), this biography offers lush descriptions of Italian landscapes and the social intrigues of expatriate life in Florence between the wars. But Moorehead (Bertrand Russell: A Life) ultimately fails to make the reader care about her subject, in part because she neglects to firmly establish her subject's place in modern literature at the outset. Origo (n e Cutting and later married to an Italian nobleman) was an aristocratic Anglo-American reared in Italy. Though an early acquaintance of such luminaries as Edith Wharton and Somerset Maugham, Origo did not launch her writing career until later in life; she had been sidetracked by family tribulations, her conversion of an arid Tuscan valley into a thriving agricultural community, her work with destitute children, the rise of Mussolini and WWII. And while Origo was certainly more than the sum of her literary contributions, it was primarily through her biographies, memoirs and criticism that she gained renown. Moorehead waits too long to bring the full force of Origo's literary ambitions and achievements to bear. Moreover, Origo's presence, admittedly reserved at times, is undermined by excessive scene-setting and a parade of lesser characters. In the end, the reader may depart with the sense of having visited Italy and the forgotten worlds of the idle rich and interwar intelligentsia, but not necessarily of having been permitted a dance with the remarkable marchesa herself. B&w illus. (Mar. 30). Forecast: Godine published Origo's autobiography, Images and Shadows, in 1999; her fans and those interested in Italy's cultural scene before and between the wars will look for this. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
IllustrationsviiiIA different child3IIThe Anglo-Florentines23IIIAn unpleasant noise off-stage50IVLaunched63VLa Foce94VINo past and no future113VIIWater145VIIIA long green feather in her hat172IXOnly man is mad193XThunder in the air212XILa progettista229XIIVoices whispering welcome254XIIIShadows and doubts279XIVSplendid to its bones302XVA vocation for friendship326Afterword346Acknowledgements351Select Bibliography353Index355
