
Images and Shadows
Part of a Life
Iris Origo(Author)
NYRB Classics (Publisher)
Published on 15. October 2019
Book
Paperback/Softback
392 pages
978-1-68137-365-2 (ISBN)
Description
"Images and Shadows, Iris Origo's autobiographical account of her early life, is as extraordinarily perceptive and humane and as beautifully written as her celebrated memoir War in the Val d'Orcia. Origo's father came from an old and moneyed American family, her mother was the daughter of an Irish peer, and she grew up under the most privileged of circumstances, moving between family estates in Long Island and Ireland while also traveling the world. Tragedy struck when her father, not yet 30, died of tuberculosis and at his request--'Bring her up where she does not belong, ' he had enjoined his wife--her mother moved to Fiesole, where she and Iris developed a close friendship with their neighbor, the influential American connoisseur and art historian--a great and fascinating character, too--Bernard Berenson. Introduced early to both American and British high society, Origo eventually found fulfillment in tending to the life of the desolate and deforested country estate she and her Italian husband bought in Italy, which is where she also discovered her true calling as a writer. In Images and Shadows, she paints portraits of her shy, loving father and her headstrong mother, describes beloved places, the books that formed her sensibility, and how she grew up and made her way in the world. She reflects on the pleasures and challenges of writing and evokes both the persistence and fragility of memory. Images and Shadows is an autobiography that is as thoughtful as it is profoundly touching"--
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
New York Review Books
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 141 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
402 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-68137-365-2 (9781681373652)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
01/2020
NYRB Classics
€22.49
Available for download
Persons
Iris Origo (1902-1988) was a British-born biographer and writer. She lived in Italy and devoted much of her life to the improvement of the Tuscan estate at La Foce, which she purchased with her husband in the 1920s. During the Second World War, she sheltered refugee children and assisted many escaped Allied prisoners of war and partisans in defiance of Italy's fascist regime and Nazi occupation forces. She is the author of A Chill in the Air: An Italian War Diary, 1939-1940 and War in Val d'Orcia: An Italian War Diary, 1943-1944 (both NYRB Classics); Leopardi: A Study in Solitude; and The Merchant of Prato, among others.