Margot Fonteyn: Autobiography [Hardcover]

Margot Fonteyn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 12, 1976

Autobiography by Fonteyn, Margot

Product Details

• Hardcover: 266 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; Third edition (April 12, 1976)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039448570X
• ISBN-13: 978-0394485706
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #675,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars point of view of one of the greatest dancers of the 20C, July 3, 2002

By 

Robert J. Crawford (Balmette Talloires, France) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Margot Fonteyn: Autobiography (Paperback)

This is a wonderful look at the career of Dame Fonteyn. On one level, you witness every step in her career, from her luck at having a great teacher while her father worked in Tietsen China to her greatest triumphs with Rudolf Nureyev in the 1960s. She is gracious, humorful, and in awe of her craft and art. She treats the reader to a wonderful portrayal of her method of creativity: what she thinks about and feels, the regime of her discipline, and the institutions she became a part of. This is valuable stuff.

On another level, the reader is introduced to a vanished milieau of artists in Europe and the US, which is personal history at its best. While the politics of the 20C were viewed from the sidelines here, it was fascinating to me to learn what it did to the arts. There is also Arias, the love of her life, a Panamanian aristocrat who had a strange and dry sense of humor.

Warmly recommended for those who love dance history.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Margot Fonteyn's writing and interest, May 17, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Margot Fonteyn: Autobiography (Hardcover)

Margot Fonteyn wrote a brilliant autobiography with this book. She skims over the less interesting details and concentrates on what her audience would find interesting. She candidly discusses her feelings and thoughts throughout her career, and does her best to present a fair view of herself. This book is interesting to dancers and non-dancers alike

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A common man's point of view., December 15, 2009

By 

Richard Rawls "Richard Ardle Rawls" (Dublin Ga USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Margot Fonteyn: Autobiography (Hardcover)

OK, OK, I confess! I did not buy this book from Amazon, but since they (and their dealers) are still trying to sell copies of it, they shouldn't mind another review which will treat it favorably.

For a while I did not realize I was so deeply in love with Margot Fonteyn, but when I read her biography written by author Meredith Daneman which treated her personal life so shabbily, I thought I should be a brave Don Quixote and at least try to defend her. I believe my love for Margot is just as deep as the Don's was for Dulcinea. I came to that conclusion after reading her own life story where it is obvious she would not have wanted the things Daneman "claims" happened, revealed. Many of the innuendoes about her affairs could never be proved, but.... She never admitted to any sexual impropriety what so ever. I'm going to take Margot's word for it.

Here is a book any young aspiring ballerina should read to get an idea of the magnitude of work and dedication required to become a PRIMA ballerina. Another book to be read is "I, Maya Plisetskaya"....I, Maya Plisetskaya.... another PRIMA to be admired. Maya had an even harder road to travel in the Soviet system, but both these women had the drive to become the best, so read her autobiography too. For the young readers, either autobiography would be ideal reading, but the Daneman biography might be a bit shocking. I think Margot had a little career luck (as well as talent) on her side in the form of her Covent Garden mentor Ninette de Valois, who had the uncanny ability to see 10/15 years into the future, and knew instinctively that Peggy Hookam would become the Margot Fonteyn we know today. Ninette could see the prima quality in Peggy at the age of 14/15. Even the changing of her name is a fascinating story, but I won't spoil your fun by telling it here.

There was even quite a bit of adventure in Margot's life when during one of her husband's misguided escapades, she was arrested and deported from Panama. Another time she was arrested with her dancing partner Rudolph Nureyev in a drug raid in San Francisco. She traveled every continent on earth except Antarcitca, so you could say she was well-traveled. For a girl who was told by her school's headmistress when she decided to give up an academic education, "You will regret this the rest of your life, because you will find yourself an ignoramous among other people", she has proved herself to be far more intelligent than her peers. She does not appear to have regretted any of her career decisions, including her marrige to Panamanian Tito Arias, who Margot had to support financially for the rest of his life, after he was crippled in an assassination attempt. She was on the verge of divorcing him, (because of his infidelity) but after he was disabled, her personal values regarding right and wrong would not allow her to go through with the divorce. She supported several other members of the Arias family also. What character she had. Since she outlived her autobiography, you will HAVE to go to a biography to learn about her final years. I can tell you that she was true to Tito til the end.

Have fun reading about this fabulous ballerina, and lovely muse of the Royal Ballet......Richard.