Anthony Blunt: His Lives (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "For a man whose posthumous reputation would be mired in myths and rumours, Anthony Frederick Blunt had prosaically conventional beginnings..." (more)
Key Phrases: registry papers, hunger marchers, artistic theory, Soviet Union, Goronwy Rees, Guy Burgess (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This engaging and important biography examines the many masks of the infamous Anthony Blunt (1907-1983), the Cambridge art historian turned spy who worked simultaneously for British Intelligence and the Soviet Union during WWII. Why did he betray his country? Carter provides an exhaustive psychological study of Blunt's early life. His brutalizing public school (where he was unhappy and unpopular), Carter argues, "inadvertently fostered a questioning and subversive attitude and a profound distrust of authority." When the Depression hit England in the 1930s and the specter of fascism threatened Europe, communism became fashionable among left-leaning intellectuals like Blunt and his Cambridge friend Guy Burgess. Blunt's homosexuality, like Burgess's, also appears to have alienated him from the establishment. During WWII, Blunt was assigned to British intelligence, giving him easy access to military secrets, which he smuggled to the Soviets. After his Cambridge spy friends Burgess, Donald MacLean and Kim Philby defected to the Soviet Union after the war, British Intelligence began investigating Blunt. In 1964, he was granted immunity in exchange for his confession and full cooperation. British intelligence worked hard to keep "the Blunt affair" a secret. He wasn't publicly exposed until 1979, when Margaret Thatcher denounced him. The biggest challenge any Blunt biographer faces is Blunt himself, a man of almost legendary emotional detachment. Blunt revealed little about his personal life, yet Carter has managed to bring readers as close to this enigmatic man as humanly possible. Thoroughly researched and carefully crafted, this is sure to be the definitive biography. 16 pages of photos not seen by PW. (Jan.)Forecast: Blunt's story isn't quite the sensation here that it is in England; devotees of spy tales and contemporary British history will read this.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Publisher and journalist Carter's first book is a massive and meticulously researched study of "the lives" of Anthony Blunt arguably the most enigmatic of the Cambridge-educated spies associated with Burgess, Maclean, and Philby. Before his exposure in 1979, Blunt was known primarily as an art historian and director of the Courtauld Institute. Carter's 18-chapter biography begins with "Son" and closes predictably with "Traitor." The way stations in between present not only a multifaceted portrait of the man but also a panorama of 50 years of British intellectual life. Carter presents vivid accounts (enlivened by the recollections from scores of interviews with Blunt's friends and colleagues) of Blunt's public school experiences at Marlborough College, his companions and escapades at Cambridge, and his transformation from left-wing intellectual rebel and homosexual into an outwardly conforming member of the establishment. However, even this flow of information fails to explain Blunt's acts and motives. Not surprisingly, many of those interviewed have markedly different recollections of crucial events. Indeed, if this biography has a fault, it is that the writer presents the reader with too many versions of the elusive Blunt's remarkable lives. For large public libraries and academic libraries with an interest in espionage. Robert C. Jones, Central Missouri State Univ., Warrensburg
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 592 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st American ed edition (January 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374105316
• ISBN-13: 978-0374105310
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.3 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #417,080 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Famous Quintet, April 17, 2002

By	taking a rest - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

The individuals who comprised The Cambridge Five have been extensively documented as individuals as well as a group. Miranda Carter's book is worthwhile for it not only brings truly new information to this man's duplicity; she also spends a great deal of time on the man himself. This is a thorough autobiography and not just a spy novel barely elevated to the non-fiction category. Some readers may find the book too long on the man and too brief on his activities as a spy. Anthony Blunt was a traitor, but to limit his long life to that one word is to greatly minimize who this man was. The wide-ranging life he lead together with the positions of influence he held outside of intelligence agencies, makes him an even more fascinating character. None of his actions diminish or justify his perfidious conduct; they do make him much more than a one-dimensional traitor to his country.

Most of the spies that are exposed today have often become extremely wealthy for betraying their country. When Blunt was first recruited it was during a time when the Oxford Union Society within the college carried the debate with the motion, "that this house declines to fight for King or Country". In October of 1933 the Labor Party on, "no issue but the pacifist one", according to Stanley Baldwin replaced the Conservatives. And Europe in general was not interested much less enthusiastic about a second world war less than a generation after the first finally ended. Persons notable not only for their fame but also for their gullibility marketed Communism with success including their tours and subsequent spreading of nonsense regarding Potemkin Villages. These folks were believers; they were not making a living. They were supporting something they actually believed in at one time as opposed to those who are on the hunt for their various pieces of silver.

What Miranda Carter meticulously documents is Blunt's life as a nearly unbroken series of either unconventional or anti-establishment choices. There is also a great deal of evidence that as competent an art historian as he may have been, it also appears participating in art fraud was yet another of this man's defects. I found her documentation of his almost ascetic living conditions interesting as well.

There may be something that I am missing but I was amazed with the leniency England treated men like Blunt. In 1964 he admitted to his activities for which he was granted complete immunity. It was not until Margaret Thatcher revealed this deal in 1979 out of either personal anger or thought for political gain was he finally exposed. As the defections of his more notorious comrades had already taken place and England had been greatly embarrassed, it seems odd that fear of further embarrassment would cause them to make a deal with this criminal long after he was a meaningful asset to the Former USSR. Miranda Carter also documents the periods when none of the Cambridge Recruits were believed to be genuine by Moscow, and how vast amounts of information they delivered was never even read.

I have read a number of books on this topic and would recommend this book for anyone who is interested. I expect there will be more books if and when additional documents are found/released, but until then this is the best work I have read on Blunt.

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Art, sex, royalty and spies -- all in one man's life!, December 30, 2001

By	John H. Zaugg (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Miranda Carter's biography of Anthony Blunt in an engrossing account of a man who lived multiple careers, some of the contradictory. In the 1940s he helped establish the discipline of art history in England, became one of its leading scholars, even art curator to Buckingham Palace. All the while he was spying for the Soviet Union. Ms. Carter has structured her book like an onion, peeling back the layers of her subject's life, including his colorful homosexual pursuits, until he is exposed as a spy in 1979. Hers is a very sympathetic portrait, and in the final 100 pages Ms. Carter even conveys the tragic dimension of Blunt when he is humiliated in public.

This is not just another tell-all biography. Ms. Carter scrupulously weighs earlier evidence from Blunt's friends and foes, accepting or rejecting them according to rigorous standards. Hardly a detail finds its way into her pages that is not based on a checked source. Ms. Carter has also accessed Soviet espionage files and agents' accounts that have come to light since 1989. Her book is a masterful piece of research that is also at times amusing and sad.

Unfortunately, Ms. Carter's publisher, Farrar Straus and Giroux, does not seem to share her scruples for detail. They have printed an American edition that is downright slovenly. Reader beware: there are typos and/or omitted words on the following pages: 66, 80, 300, 351, 363, 402, 404, 429 and 448. And these are just the ones I spotted.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The great trade-off, February 23, 2002

By	Jon Hunt "musician, teacher" (Old Greenwich, Ct. USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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Miranda Carter's intriguing new book has everything one would want if this had been merely a spy novel. The good news is that Anthony Blunt was the real thing. Carter's in-depth approach and occasional analysis takes what could have been an ordinary book and raises it several notches. She gives the reader an astounding amount of the rich detail of Blunt's life from his birth to his death while still allowing one to judge Blunt's actions in the context of his times. How one man could move so effortlessly through the upper crust of British society (he maintained good relations with the Royal family) while passing documents to Russia over a period of years without the knowledge of his family and many of his friends is a mystery deserving of a book like this one.

Unfortunately, the narrative sometimes suffers. Carter's writing style, while informative, tends to be dry and overloaded with names that have little bearing on Blunt's life. With often minimal introduction to the large cast of characters she tends to dive into paragraphs as if she were in the middle of an explanation. I found myself on many an occasion wanting to reach for a roster of names as I tried to remember how each one fit in to the story. It has the tendency of slowing down the reading almost to a point of disinterest.

That being said, this book is well worth it. Carter has given us a unique look at a man whose double life (in so many ways) was extraordinary. Her service to her subject and to us lies in her research. Each reader may come to different conclusions about Anthony Blunt but it is to Miranda Carter's credit that she has taken the time and the care to present him to us.