Lost Life of Eva Braun, The [Import] [Hardcover]

Angela Lambert (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; Book Club ? edition (January 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844135993
• ISBN-13: 978-1844135998
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,851,366 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A missed opportunity, July 25, 2006

By 

Candace Scott (Lake Arrowhead, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lost Life of Eva Braun, The (Hardcover)

Angela Lambert admits in the preface that she knew nothing about Eva Braun, Hitler or World War II before commencing on this book. Sadly, the limitations show. Her main sources are books published in the past 30 years, all common titles and almost none written in the German language. It's beyond comprehension that she didn't hire a German translator to assist in the project. It's impossible to write a competent book about either Hitler or Eva without being able to read German. The author did absolutely no research on primary sources, didn't visit the archives in Munich or Koblenz and sometimes shows an almost amazing lack of knowledge about her subject's life and times.

The most irritating aspect of the book is a questionable literary device, where Lambert interjects her mother into every chapter. I hate to break it to the author, but no one cares to slog through pointless stories about her mother when the book is supposed to be about Hitler's mistress. The lack of an editor is glaringly apparent in this area. This is by far the book's more crippling downfall.

However, there are some strong points to the book. Lambert's depiction of the early courtship between Hitler and Eva is excellent. In fact, her characterization of Eva is flawless throughout. It's too bad she didn't rely on interviews of Herta Schneider, Eva's best friend and confidante; these would have strengthened the book immeasurably.

Lambert also sensibly dismisses the ridiculous rumors that Hitler was gay, impotent, sado-maschochistic or perverted in bed. He was none of those things and she wisely proves this with abundant anecdotal evidence. Hitler's relationship with Eva was perfectly normal, though hardly of Latin intensity.

Nerin E. Gun's out of print biography of Eva remains the "must read" regarding Hitler's mistress. Lambert gives it the old college try, but lack of research ultimately compromises this biography. It's a fairly good book but the definitive look at Eva Braun has yet to be written.

26 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A footnote, too far!, February 25, 2007

By 

Agatha Comberton (Boston, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Lost Life of Eva Braun (Hardcover)

1/2 of this book is footnotes. Brava to the author for her extensive research...but, she did not need to footnote every piece of paper she read to write this book.

I agree with another poster. No one gives a fig about the author's mother's childhood in Germany. That made the reader become lost in the story of Eva Braun. The two women were not girlhood friends. There was no point to including her mother's life.

I was looking forward to this book and was very disappointed.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Kind of a Let Down, April 15, 2007

By 

J. Hill (Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Lost Life of Eva Braun (Hardcover)

I was excited when I purchased this book and continued to be iterested until about the third chapter when the author kept inserting her mother's life in with Eva's life. She seemed to try to find any little thing in common between the two and was trying to force an association that just wasn't there. It got extremely old very quickly. If she wanted to write a book about her mother, then write it. If she wanted to write about Eva Braun, leave the personal info out. This brings me to my next issue. I wanted to read a book about WWII, not about the author's personal political views on what is happening in the current time. I was flabergasted when I saw a comment about Lindy England (sp?) in the text. Many of these opinions appeared in the lengthy footnotes that appeared on every single page. Yet again, stick to the subject! She could have written three books out the ideas she crammed into this one book. The subject has great potential, but didn't deliver in the end. It has become long winded and is no longer keeping my interest. I would advise potential readers to just look up info on the internet and save your money for a better book.