Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century [Paperback]

Written with the cooperation of Elizabeth Taylor, who gave the authors 40 letters written by Richard Burton to her - including one she received a few days after his death - and his widow who gave them his diaries, this is probably the most realistic account of this couple that we are going to get. Elizabeth Taylor told the authors "I don't care what you write about me - as long as you honor Richard". Richard Burton does seem to be the most sympathetic character in this book.

After they met on the set of Cleopatra and fell in love, their lives were never the same. They sincerely loved each other but in the end, one of them was more destructive than good to the relationship. I ended feeling sorry for Richard Burton and thinking he would have been much happier wearing an old sweater and teaching at some university.

I'm glad I read the book. I now have a whole different view of an actor I've enjoyed for years.

The scandal in the 1960s of the love affair and then marriage of Elizabeth Taylor, then the world's most famous movie star, and the great Welsh leading man Richard Burton, may have been the biggest celebrity story of the 20th century that didn't involve murder. The word "paparazzo" to mean a celebrity photographer was even coined in LA DOLCE VITA to describe the kinds of press agents Federico Fellini observed congregating around the two stars during their courtship in Rome on the set of CLEOPATRA, and for the next fifteen years their relationship was inescapably in the public eye, often crowding off the front page the great political events of the period. This new account of this relationship--in many ways a biography of both stars--is supplied by unprecedented access to Burton's diaries and private writings, and by the express consent of Ms. Taylor herself and also Burton's widow Sally; this is probably as close to the full story as we'll ever get to this famous marriage until after Elizabeth Taylor's death.

Even so, she seems to have allowed Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger pretty full much full rein in writing whatever they wanted about her and Burton, and though the authors seem (justifiably) taken with the Burtons' prodigious talents and their charisma, they also do not stint in describing their selfishness, excess, and even at times their cruelty towards one another and (particularly in Richard Burton's case) towards others outside their circle. Burton and Taylor took great pleasure on as living as largely as they could, and their incredible profligate spending, drinking, eating, and sex was not only reported constantly but was very much the basis for their relationship: they both loved such glamorous excessive gestures. (It was what she was very much accustomed to her entire life, and he reveled in this given how deprived he had felt growing up poor in the Welsh coal district.) Yet this took its toll on their health, and on the lives of their children and former partners, and their love of fighting often prompted them to be quite vicious to one another. His propensity for being unkind when drunk led him at times to lash out not just at her but at others in their line of sight, and one of the book's most upsetting accounts is his vicious excoriation of his three mentors--Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, and Ralph Richardson--at a banquet in the Seventies (and we also read his regret expressed the next day in his diary when he's sober).

The book has a strong narrative drive, although it begins perhaps too rushed: we start right off with their first meeting, and are not given as strong a sense of her remarkable film career before CLEOPATRA (culminating in her fine performances with Montgomery Clift in the late 50s, and her winning the Oscar for her histrionic BUTTERFIELD 8 mostly through sympathy for her famous nearly-fatal health crisis) as we might have been. The account also suffers from the eventually wearying details of their excesses (Burton, apparently, was always frightened he would be a boring person without them and without his beautiful voice), and from the writers' often too-florid style, which suffers from an overreliance on cliche: for example, Taylor, we are told, "was born to rule, but she wanted a man's man, and in Mike Todd, she finally got one". But the account is redeemed by the writers' intelligent awareness of both how their talents blossomed in the early years of their courtship--they gave one another confidence, leading them to give their greatest performances ever in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF, and for her to try acting on the stage--, and also of their intense likability. Her constant humorously self-deprecating awareness of herself as essentially a vulgar "broad" has always made it practically impossible to dislike her, and Kashner and Schoenberger are quite good at detailing his great sensitivity and wish to be a better person, which in many ways always redeemed him. These were two actors who found their most exciting roles married to one another and in the public eye, even if these roles as "Liz and Dick" ultimately could not be sustained forever.

I grew up with a mother who was an avid film fan, and read Photoplay and Modern Screen magazines, enjoying the pictures alone until I was old enough to read the stories. I lived through the years of Le Scandale, as Richard Burton described his headline-grabbing affair with Elizabeth Taylor. My mother was horrified by their daring and, to many, immoral, hedonistic behavior and was appalled to read a quote by Ms. Taylor, asking "What are they saying about us now?" during the thick of things. However, I, as a young girl, couldn't get enough of the news of these two larger than life stars. I later grew into a movie fan myself and was constantly amazed by the talent that these two people possessed, as well as their propensiy for excess.

I therefore could not resist purchasing "Furious Love" and devouring it with a great deal of guilty pleasure. It is a book that is obviously sympathetic to Richard and Elizabeth, as they preferred to be called, and referred to themselves. They apparently hated "Liz & Dick," as they were called in the press, but seemed to understand that, under those names, they were a product and were also news. I enjoyed coming to see these two people as human beings, with all their faults.

It is the story of Burton, a frustrated writer and magnificent stage actor who made the uncomfortable transition to movies, where he guiltily enjoyed the money and fame that move brought him, and his insatiable love for Taylor, which he could not quench in spite of the guilt that also produced in him. He left his wife and children, caught up in a grand passion for the woman he was never able to forget.

Taylor and Burton lived life to its gaudy fullest, drinking and brawling their way around the world. Over time, their lifestyle took its toll on both of them, and ultimately led to the demise of their marriage (twice).

I have always admired Ms. Taylor's mental toughness and seeming ability to deal with whatever life deals her. Apparently, she granted unprecedented access to herself and to her correspondence, for information regarding her tempestuous relationship with Burton. This book also had the cooperation of Sally Hay Burton, Burton's widow, as well as personal friends and professionals who worked with them. As such, it is a very revealing piece of work.

I would have liked for photos referred to in the text to have been included in the book. However, the photos that were provided are interesting.

Fortunately for the purposes of this book, Richard Burton was an avid journal-keeper and correspondent, frequently writing love notes and letters to Elizabeth Taylor even when she was in the next room. And the fact that his last letter was written to her on the day before he died is an incredible bit of irony and romance. It is the one letter that Taylor did not allow the authors to quote directly.

This is a sad story of two people who loved each other, but whose relationship was destroyed by a combination of excess (alcohol, spending/consumption, jealousy) and dark passion. But they loved each other nonetheless. In this book, Elizabeth and Richard are seen at their best and their worst. The waste of potential and talent and the subsequent losses they both sustained are truly tragic. But it is also the story of a love that was bigger than two of the biggest stars the movies have ever seen.

If you love reading about Liz and Dick, check out this story about Elizabeth and Richard. I can't imagine that anyone who is interested in these two wouldn't find something new here.

In short, I ate it up. I admit it. There, I said it.