The Dog-Eared Collection: Book 1
Time to inaugurate this place.
I think Miss Bernhardt would be quite thrilled she's the first thing I'll talk about here.
When I first picked this book up, I took to it with zeal. The premise reminded me of a series I used to enjoy when I was young called The Royal Diaries series and the promise of a "fresh" figure whet my appetite. I knew next to nothing about the book's subject, Sarah Bernhardt, an innovative Jewish French stage actress from the later 19th century.
And she was, by most accounts, amazing. Gortner highlights her various talents, such as sculpture (ever seen this Ophelia? That's her work), painting, and, naturally, acting, as well as her tenacious spirit. For example, she converted the Théâtre de L'Odéon into a military hospital for wounded soldiers during the Franco-Prussian war. He also draws attention to her various eccentricities, such as keeping exotic animals (wouldn't recommend) and sleeping in a coffin. And it was all good fun to find out these attributes of the Divine Sarah.
But by the halfway point, I could only read it in small doses.
Gortner specifies in his acknowledgement that, "[his] intent wasn't to depict Sarah's life in its entirety [...] but rather to create a fictional portrait—based as closely as possible on the facts—of her rise to fame as one of the era's most exceptional figures." As a result, he admits to "certain liberties" and use of "personal interpretation" although any errors are not deliberate.
And with someone like Bernhardt, well, I just don't know if a fictionalized account can be more entertaining than the truth.
Life has its ups and downs. You expect that in a biography or a memoir. But, here, the natural fluctuations of life end up as stumbling blocks in this "fictional portrait."
Figures come on to the scene with some flourish only to leave with a footnote, while others receive more attention than they're perhaps due (Comte Émile de Kératry), the pacing fights Gortner almost the whole way through, and the "actress" aspect can feel waylaid. Often by the myriad love affairs depicted.
Granted, I haven't done the research that Mr. Gortner has done. So, I may be off base. But if I understand his depiction correctly, the Sarah he crafts doesn't put great stock into some of them. As a result, I don't know why he did.
At some point, I did pause to wonder what the ethics are of writing a fictionalized first person account of someone's life. Even with biopics, you have some degree of separation because you're external to the subject. You have to watch them after all. But here, you're viewing the world through "her" eyes.
I certainly wouldn't appreciate someone doing that to me. But if Gortner's work is to be believed, Bernhardt might have thought it a great form of flattery. Or an even worse insult. Hard to know.
None of that is to undermine Gortner's work. There is care here and I appreciate the inclusion of a partial bibliography in his acknowledgements. I'll also admit that I did feel somewhat emotional while reading the last chapter.
It's not a book I'll be re-reading and I wouldn't recommend it if one were looking for something prosaic or heavy in the history department. However, it can be a fun jaunt, particularly if you want something to ease you back into reading or need a cursory introduction into the incomparable Sarah Bernhardt.
