Erotic Vagrancy: Everything about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor

Erotic Vagrancy is a biography of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton that has been praised by many critics as one of the best books of the year. It has been described as a hot thunderstorm of a book, a week of pure joy, and an absolute masterpiece. The book covers thirteen years in the lives of Taylor and Burton, from their childhoods to their marriages and divorces. It explores their celebrity, creativity, flaws, brilliance, sexuality, and the intermingling of a low and highbrow existence. The narrative of Taylor and Burton becomes a Pop Art story, with jewels, private jets, vodka, yachts, and furs. However, it all goes wrong with alcoholism, violence, recrimination, and divorce. Stephen Fry has called it one of the very best biographies he has ever read, and it is considered one of the best books about fame, desire, Hollywood, and mid-to-late twentieth century culture ever written.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 656 pages
Publication date: 04 July 2024
Publisher: Quercus Publishing

The book of the year, according to the Sunday Times, is Erotic Vagrancy by Richard Lewis. It is a hot thunderstorm of a book, according to David Hare, and has never been read like it before, according to Richard E. Grant. Erotic Vagrancy is a biography of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton that surpasses all other biographies of them. It is about celebrity, creativity, being flawed, being brilliant, sexuality, the intermingling of a low and a highbrow existence, pride, insecurity, attraction and repulsion, and devilry. The book follows Taylor's life as a child actress, Burton's emergence as a theatrical animal, and their meeting in Rome during the making of Cleopatra. It then enters 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. However, it all goes wrong with alcoholism, violence, recrimination, and divorce (twice), with Burton depicted as a Faustus figure, damned by fame and dead at fifty-eight. Stephen Fry has said it is one of the very best biographies he has ever read, and it is one of the best books about fame, desire, Hollywood, and mid-to-late twentiet.

Weight: 454g
Dimension: 197 x 130 x 43 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780857381743