The Darkness Of Wallis Simpson (2006) - Plot & Excerpts
Description: Wallis Simpson, the twice-divorced American woman for whom Edward Vlll abdicated in 1936, ended her life as the prisoner of her lawyer who would not allow anyone - friend, foe or journalist - to visit her in her Paris flat. Rose Tremain takes this true story and transforms it into an imaginative and ironic fiction. Her thesis is that Wallis, gaga and bed-ridden, has forgotten the king who gave up an empire for love of her.http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wwbzjBBC's description: A play imagining the last days of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, the woman for whom King Edward VIII gave up the throne of England in 1936. Wallis is now 79 years old. Edward has been dead for fourteen years.The play pivots upon a single dramatic conceit: that Wallis, now entering the darkness of approaching death, has forgotten every single thing about Edward. Her entire part in what an American journalist once called "the greatest story since the Resurrection" has completely gone from her mind. Other moments in her life she can vividly recall, but the world-shaking events at the heart of it are lost to her - apparently forever.She lies bedridden in her house in Paris. A lawyer friend, Maitre Suzanne Blum has taken charge of her care. But, believing that Wallis has deliberately chosen to forget her "role in history", Blum is determined to force her to remember this vital bit of the past, before she dies. Original Music by David ChiltonIt seems that summer 2015 has been full of loving that which others find iffy and being ambivalent over the treasured. Truly not trying to be contrary but Hey Ho!, here I go, again:Tremain's vilified Wallis is great surface fun though we must never forget that if it hadn't been for this woman, the United Kingdom of Great Britain would have been saddled with an extremely unstable and inappropriate monarch. Kudos to the author for outing the mostly unsaid.
Rose Tremain writes short stories with a wonderful punch. I was impressed by the variety of subject matter and that she has no identifiable style either in her novels or short stories. Every story had a new locale or was possibly set in an earlier period of history. The first one--almost a novella--and never published elsewhere, was a stunning representation of Wallis Simpson's life. I now need to read a biography to expand on what Tremain began. Tremain is an author that deserves to be more well-known, though her last novel won the Orange Prize, so she has gotten some recognition.
What do You think about The Darkness Of Wallis Simpson (2006)?
I didn't read the book. I listened to the radio play preparatory to reading That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor. I was impressed by the script, less so by the story. This is just a brief review because the words of the author on her own book illuminate this strange, dark play better than I can.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tv...Since she and her husband, the King Edward VIII who abdicated for her (the only king to have ever abdicated by his own free will in the UK) were best mates with Hitler and Edward was to be restored as (the puppet) king when Hitler rolled in triumphant to the defeated UK, I think the whole entire world got served best by his abdication. She was just a money-hungry adventurer, and the entire mystery lies in what this plain woman had that attracted so many men, so much money and created so much scandal.
—Petra X
I love Rose Tremain's writing; especially her wit and turn of phrase. The Darkness of Wallis Simpson is a novel of short stories which I am not in the habit of reading. I prefer large novels (if they are good) and hate it when they finish. However this collection of short stories was cleverly written as usual but the stories were very dark unlike her Merival character, as in Restoration abd its newer sequel, which was everything - witty, entertaining and dark in places but not to be taken so seriously. However, I love that Rose can write so engageingly in any genre and I love her for it. Her books ooze the story emotionally and picturesquely.
—Laureen
