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Erotic Vagrancy: Everything about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor Hardcover – March 26, 2024

by Roger Lewis (Author)
3.3 3.3 out of 5 stars 118 ratings
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Thirteen years in the writing, Erotic Vagrancy doesn't only surpass every other biography of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton yet to appear, this rich, vital and passionately articulated book, which is as extravagant and wayward as its two subjects, is also about celebrity, creativity, being flawed, being brilliant, sexuality, the intermingling of a low and a highbrow existence, pride, insecurity, attraction and repulsion, and devilry.

We see Taylor the child actress exchanging dogs and horses for husbands. We see Burton emerging from the mists and brimstone of Wales to be the greatest theatrical animal of his generation. The pair come together in Rome during the making of Cleopatra, which gives Lewis the opportunity for a major farcical set-piece. We then enter a world of jewels and private jets, vodka, yachts and furs - the splendid vulgarity of the Sixties, where the narrative of Taylor and Burton becomes a Pop Art story.

Then, inevitably, it all goes wrong, with alcoholism, violence, recrimination and divorce ( twice ) - with Burton, whom Lewis depicts as a Faustus figure, damned by fame, dead at fifty-eight.

Stephen Fry has said, 'It is one of the very best biographies I have ever read. One of the best books about fame, desire, Hollywood and mid-to-late twentieth century culture ever written. Inside which, brilliant, hilarious and sensitive insights on all manner of subjects fizz and froth. Magnificent, terrible, tragic, triumphant.'
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  1. Print length
    608 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Mobius
  4. Publication date
    March 26, 2024
  5. Dimensions
    6.4 x 2.3 x 9.3 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0857381725
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0857381729
  8. See all details
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From the Publisher

E Vagrancy
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Erotic Vagrancy is about obsessions with sex and fame and luxury, making Taylor and Burton vagrants on a worldwide scale who come to grief, as Antony and Cleopatra do, in a kind of romantic displacement – with Burton adrift from his native Wales and Taylor seemingly born adrift in the make-believe of Hollywood, an unfixed world that she conquered with a towering ego that mesmerized Burton and put him at her mercy…for Mr. Lewis, the Taylor and Burton story can never be over…the point about the couple, though, is that they are unsettling and unforgettable and can be portrayed only in a cyclical account of the cyclical comedy and tragedy of their two marriages – not unlike what we get in their celebrated portrayals of George and Martha in the film of Edward Albee’s ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?―Carl Rollyson, The New York Sun

About the Author

Though he'd have you believe he was an aristocratic orphan left in the jungle and raised by monkeys, Roger Lewis was in fact born in industrial South Wales in the last century, educated in Scotland, and became a Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, at the age of twenty-four. His book The Life and Death of Peter Sellers was made into the Golden Globe and Emmy award-winning film by HBO, starring Geoffrey Rush and Charlize Theron. Lewis, who in 2010 received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters, divides his time between a collapsing Georgian property in the Herefordshire Balkans and a flat above a dirndl shop in the imperial spa town of Bad Ischl, near Salzburg in Austria. When in London he is reliably to be found in Rules, the charming old-world restaurant in Covent Garden.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mobius (March 26, 2024)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 608 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0857381725
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0857381729
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.45 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.4 x 2.3 x 9.3 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.3 3.3 out of 5 stars 118 ratings

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Roger Lewis

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Customer reviews

3.3 out of 5 stars
3.3 out of 5
118 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Avid Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Book with a Major Caveat
Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2024
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This book is truly fascinating, but you really have to want to read it to get through the 600+ pages. I almost gave up a couple of times, before I adjusted to the author’s style and rhythm. He writes upfront that he isn’t creating a traditional biography and indeed, it is not. There is some chronological order, but mainly the narrative wanders forwards and back in time. The author enjoys taking side jaunts into a variety of subjects (e.g., Rex Harrison, Sophia Loren), and sprinkles his own witty observations throughout. The more I got into the book, the more it began to feel as if I were privy to someone leisurely recounting his memories, maybe in front of the fire with a good drink in hand, as one recollection triggers another, often straying from the main topic. (For example, this quote from page 346: “I’ve always thought of Taylor and Burton as a comical couple. Their ridiculous side is what is mostly on display. But as regards the question of fatality — questions of accident and chance — when I think more deeply, as I am doing now, today, they are tragic. In the end, obsessed with desire for each other, for possession, they were left utterly alone. As unapproachable as ghosts, they were unaware of the rest of us — at best, impatient with the rest of us. We — other people, that’s to say — are not to be cared about.”) But this book certainly captures the phenomenon of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, or “Liz and Dick,” as they were known at the time. It’s all there: passion, scandals, excesses, luggage, private jets, jewelry, movies, entourages, yachts, temper tantrums, health crises, addictions, fights, reconciliations! If they flew commercial, they bought all the tickets in first class; if they stayed at a hotel, they rented the entire floor. In the days long before social media, Liz and Dick were constantly splashed across the pages of tabloids and magazine covers, and their exploits were frequently reported on network news programs. My biggest reservation is that I just can’t imagine anyone being interested in this book unless they experienced the 1960’s and 1970’s firsthand, or are true aficionados of that era. But once you get onboard, it’s a freewheeling, interesting, and enjoyable ride.
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Hayworth
1.0 out of 5 stars Trash
Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2024
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What a disgusting, useless piece of trash! As someone who knows or knew the majority of the "names" mentioned in this book, I can attest to the fact that there is another side to this story which has been completely ignored. The book is full of lies, inaccuracies and utterly useless information. What is the point of remarking on the fact that Mark Gatiss, a superbly talented writer, director, actor etc., played a minor character in a recent limited series about Noele Gordon? This has absolutely NOTHING to do with Elizabeth Taylor and/or Richard Burton. The book is full of such stupidities, and gives us only one spurious side of the rich and unique story of two magnificent talents. Let's not forget that it was Elizabeth Taylor who first forced Ronald Reagan to say the word "Aids"...her contribution in this area far outshines the wild inaccuracies about her life and career depicted in this book. Yet there is no mention of this in all the 645 pages of the book which, by the way, is so badly produced it literally fell apart as I was reading. Of course, it will sell like hotcakes - perhaps Mr. Lewis can donate some of his ill-gotten gains to ETAF.
One person found this helpful
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christopher j rago
2.0 out of 5 stars Not a fan…
Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2024
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This author obviously doesn’t like Elizabeth Taylor so maybe you should’ve just wrote a book about Burton or the other fellas. Elizabeth wasn’t perfect but she was a great and giving person…Are you Roger Lewis??? Just know that Elizabeth Taylor at her worst is better than you could ever hope to be! What a waste of 608 pages
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*TUDOR^QUEEN*
4.0 out of 5 stars Irreverent, mammoth biography chock full of juicy details
Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2023
4.5 Stars

At just over 600 pages this is a mammoth biography of the controversial Hollywood couple Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. I have read a few other high quality biographies on the subject in the past, but this one was very unique and engaging. I'm hard pressed to try and verbalize just how this biography was served up to the reader, but I'll give it the old college try. It certainly wasn't in the strictly dry/historical style of stating the hard facts in chronological order that can sometimes bore the reader. This was a concoction mixed of stream of consciousness, poetry in motion, a blunt crassness, and an occasional "off the beaten path" diversion to peripheral players surrounding these two. The outcome was an irreverent book about a Hollywood couple that had an animalistic hunger for each other and didn't care who they hurt/pushed out of the way to satisfy it. We are treated throughout the book to fascinating excerpts from Richard Burton's diaries and the minute details of movies that Taylor and Burton starred in together and individually. The book is chock full of juicy details such as one of Richard's nicknames for Elizabeth: "monkey nipples". Need I say more?

Thank you to the publisher Hachette Book Group, riverrun who provided an advance reader copy via NetGalley.
5 people found this helpful
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Nikki
5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, just wow! Get this and start reading. A masterpiece.
Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2024
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Is all I can say after reading only a part of this work. How the author oscillates between the 60s, 70s, only to end up in the 20s, in German Expressionism, is the equivalent of singing the part of the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Zauberflöte. Just riveting, exhilarating. Very well done indeed.

Get this book and start reading. It is a true pleasure while exercising one’s brain and enjoying the soft waves of words whirling around, both discipline and muse.

Putting Taylor and Burton in historical context crystallizes the essence of each of them: Elizabeth Taylor had guts, so very rare, and Richard Burton was shattered from early childhood, that is the kernel of truth, foreshadowing all.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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C. BROWN
5.0 out of 5 stars Portrait of an era as well as of Rich and Elizabeth
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 24, 2024
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This is an extraordinary book - in no sense a conventional biography and yet we learn more about its subjects than we could get from a conventional biography. In a way this its a portrait of an age - the second half od the 20th C seen through their films. Every page (really every page) has something that makes one think, an observation out of the blue which turns things round, or simply a diversion as the author is reminded of something interesting. Difficult to describe - just read it (and at 99p on Kindle the bargain of the year)
One person found this helpful
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Claudio Manari
1.0 out of 5 stars Un libro impossibile
Reviewed in Italy on April 22, 2024
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Il libro è noioso, illeggibile, pieno di bugie e totalmente inutile: sono autore di due biografie di Elizabeth Taylor e possiedo qualsiasi libro o rivista mai pubblicata in Italia e all'estero in diverse lingue su di lei. Mai visto un testo peggiore. A parte la totale mancanza di immagini che è già di per sè un grave errore, quello che spaventa è il testo. Scritto male, confusionario e impreciso. Spazzatura!
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Cynthia Rabet
1.0 out of 5 stars Pretentious and boring
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 18, 2024
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I have only "given up" on two books in the last year - this was the second one, which I threw away 1/2 the way through, after hoping it might improve. It didn't. I thought it was going to be a book about Burton and Taylor but the few real facts in the book about this couple are well known, and the rest is supposition. I didn't expect to have to read about Shakespeare and, even worse, pages about Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris. The author goes off the point all the time, and obviously doesn't like Taylor! Sorry - I didn't like it and I certainly don't recommend it.
7 people found this helpful
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paul lumsden
2.0 out of 5 stars BLOATED
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 17, 2024
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The media could not be loaded.
 It was definitely enjoyable but really really bloated with irrelevant details, trivia and name-checking. It's as if the author was desperate to show the minutiae of his 13 years of research.
Several times I flicked through paragraphs and indeed pages of tiresome names of hotels, streets, locations and people which meant nothing to me and had no quality of insight into the two people, Taylor and Burton.
One person found this helpful
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Olesha
5.0 out of 5 stars Fun With Dick & Liz
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 27, 2024
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I realise that Roger Lewis is literary Marmite, but I have high hopes for this biography, given how I lapped up the author’s excellent take on Peter Sellers. Will report back once I’ve got through it.

As promised, I’ve now lapped this book up and can heartily recommend it. Boy, can Roger Lewis write. Moreover, he underpins the coverage of Dick and Liz with his always witty and gargantuan background knowledge which enables him to arrive at shrewd conclusions. For instance, he’ll list and provide telling details of the films in which a character has appeared in, or the literature they’ve written. But - and this is important - he wears his knowledge ever so lightly, pulling off the trick of convincing the reader that he or she is just as bright, commanding the same number of cultural references as well as being just as witty and insightful. Alas, Roger Lewis is in reality on another, far more exalted, plane. A wonderful, wonderful author. A master in the art of biography writing. Buy this: you'll learn a lot and have a good laugh in the process. Also track down his biography of Peter Sellers, which first alerted me to Lewis’s talent as a writer.
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