Customer Reviews

Wystan and Chester

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In her recent memoir of the time of her life that she spent with Wystan and Chester, Thekla Clark gives us an unassuming and very personal view of these two great characters of the 20th. century. Although I probably should'nt compare the two, it is a far more personal and approachable account than that of Richard Davenport-Hines' very bookish biography, which I have also just read.(Perhaps they should be read in series to balance things out a bit!) In any case, Thekla Clark's love for these two is apparent and charming, as her perception of the moralistic age in which they were forced to live. A must-read for any Audenophile or Kallmanist!

This is not biography or an essay about the titular couple, but rather more like selections from Clark's daily diary that concerned Auden and Kallman during her summers in Italy and Austria. Written in stream-of-consciousness recollections, each paragraph flits from reminscence to reminscence, with Clark as the central figure, raising her daughter and reflecting on the meaning of her marriages. Unless a reader is familiar with all the vacationers crossing paths with Clark, many of the paragraphs in this slim volume will be puzzling more than illuminating. The book may be of value to dissertation writers sifting through Audeniana for obscure name references or datelines; for general readers this will vie for longest 120-page book. The personality characteristics of Auden and Kallman come through in some of the anecdotes, while most are snapshots of 50s and 60s domestic life in Europe.