Princess Merle: The Romantic Life of Merle Oberon (Paperback)

~ Higham (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Pocket (April 1, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671500821
• ISBN-13: 978-0671500825
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,428,104 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The beauty of Merle Oberon, February 20, 1999

By A Customer

In his usual, racy tell-all style, Higham has constructed a finely written bio on one of Hollywood's great beauties - Merle Oberon. He tells of her childhood in India, the offspring of an Indian mother and Irish-English father. Light enough to "pass" for white, she left India for England, and the rest is history. We get lots of interesting little tidbits on the British film industry, which Merle, with the help of her Svengali and husband, Alexander Korda, helped to establish. Merle's feuds with Marlene Dietrich and Lawrence Olivier, her Wuthering Heights co-star, are also well-documented. It almost reads like a romantic novel, a woman trying to hide her past, racism, infertility, romantic interludes, and even a stint working for British Intelligence during World War II. Higham waxes poetic about Merle's breathtaking beauty, but supplies far too few photographs to support this fact, though there is an arresting picture of her on the book's cover. Higham poignantly brings to light the stresses and strains of Merle being forced to hide her racial origins in a xenophobic Hollywood.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars far to little info, January 7, 2006

By	CarmenJones (Cleveland Oh.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Princess Merle: The Romantic Life of Merle Oberon (Hardcover)

i was pleased to find this book being a fan of merle's but the book has way to much info on merle's films and lifestyle but not enough info on who this woman was , and the writing got a little to murky at times. the only info about merle that stayed with me was that we share the same favorite meal, me being half indian as well, we both adore oxtail stew!lol

5.0 out of 5 stars Lives Up to..., October 11, 2009

By	P. Lugo - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Princess Merle: The Romantic Life of Merle Oberon (Hardcover)

...expectations.

The authors put one on the scene with accurate, but not tawdry details.