Background
Quennell, Peter was born on March 9, 1905 in Bickley, Kent, England. Son of C. H. B. and M. Quennell.
("In history," wrote the distinguished 19th century noveli...)
"In history," wrote the distinguished 19th century novelist Prosper Merimee, "I love only anecdotes, and among anecdotes I prefer those where I think that I can distinguish a true picture of the customs and characters of any given period." From this passage Peter Quennell has taken the title of this book. In CUSTOMS AND CHARACTERS, he concentrates on portraying a remarkably diverse collection of men and women who have interested and impressed him during the last 50 years. His portraits are candid, sharply drawn, and frequently affectionate. Among the subjects he has chosen are: Greta Garbo, Cecil Beaton, Lady Diana Cooper, Augustus John, Alice Keppel (friend and confidante of Kind Edward VII) and her daughter Violet Trefusis, Harold and Vita Nicolson, Roger Fry, Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, Elizabeth Bowen, Rose Macauley, T. S. Eliot, Triehard de Chardin, and the celebrated woman of fashion Daisy Fellowes. Admirable, enviable, disturbing, or outrageous, each of these portraits is brought to life with Quennell's signature lightness of touch and depth of insight.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316728799/?tag=2022091-20
Quennell, Peter was born on March 9, 1905 in Bickley, Kent, England. Son of C. H. B. and M. Quennell.
Berkhamsted Grammar School and Balliol College, Oxford.
Professor, of English Literature, Tokyo Bunrika Daigaku 1930.
("In history," wrote the distinguished 19th century noveli...)
(Two Volume Set of Quennell's brilliant autobiography)
(Alexander Pope the education of Genius)
(American Heritage Press (1973))
(sl tear to dw, 1972, 272pp)
(Book by Quennell, Peter)
(Book by Quennell, Peter)
(Biography)
Author: Baudelaire and the Symbolists. A Superficial Journey. Byron: The Years of Fame, Byron in Italy, 1941.
Caroline of England, Four Portraits, 1945. Ruskin: The Portrait of a Prophet, 1952. Spring in Sicilly, The Singular Preference, Hogarth's Progress, 1954.
The Sign of the Fish, 1960. Shakespeare: The Poet and His Background, 1963. Alexander Pope: the Education of Genius, 1968.
Romantic England, 1970. Casanova in London, 1971. Samuel Johnson, his Friends and Enemies, 1972.
The Marble Foot, 1976. The Wanton Chase, 1980. Customs and Characters: Contemporary Portraits, 1982, The Pursuit of Happiness, 1989.
Editor: Aspects of 17th Century Verse. (translation) Memoirs of the Comte de Gramont. Letters of Madame le Lieven.
Memoirs of William Hickey. Byron. A Self Portrait (1798-1824).
Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor, 3 vols. Marcel Proust: 1871-1922, 1971. Genius in the Drawing Room.
Vladimir Nabakov, his Life, his Work, his World, 1979. A Lonely Business: A Self Portrait of James Pope-Hennessy, 1981. Editor Cornhill Magazine, 1944-1951, History Today, 1951-1979.