LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
A must-read memoir of childhood like no other. Where to begin? First, it was sadly published posthumously, he died in 2003, so we will tragically never get the next slice. Second, it’s the journey from childhood into youth of a renowned professor of philosophy and as such exquisitely written. Third, it’s a fascinating period, 1923 on. Fourth, he is the product of a German born impresario and a brainless, obsessive English showgirl whom he despised as he grows up in suburban Surrey during the 20s and 30s. Fifth, divided into three sections, with the middle one a family history, it is unique. With amazing reactions to the world around him, a tremendous gift for observing the minutiae of life and a most pleasant pedantic style, this unusual memoir is not to be missed. Germs: origin or beginning (Chambers Dictionary).
Reviewed by Sarah BroadhurstSarah Broadhurst spent her early working life in the book trade in both retail and wholesale until the arrival of children forced her to look for freelance work she could do from…
More reviews by Sarah Broadhurst About Germs
"Richard Wollheim's Germs portrays the Thames Valley life of his affluent parents -- the distant, dandified father he revered; the beautiful, mindless 'Gaiety Girl' mother he came to regret loathing -- in dazzling detail. However, the dark heart of the book is the merciless, microscopic examination of the development of Wollheim's psyche, not least of his realization that the price of love is fear. So long as Richard was alive, I found the sheer density of this book painful. Since his death, I am able to read it with delight." -- John Richardson'A frighteningly good memoir'Andrew O'Hagan London Review of Books'Germs is not only elegantly written; it is a human document of considerable power and importance'John Armstrong Independent'A masterpiece - an unclassifiable work of startling originality in which the acutely sensual and confusedly cerebral experience of infancy, boyhood and adolescence is brilliantly recreated'Spectator'Wollheim's powers of description astound...Because of the intensity with which a remarkable man has offered us a view of his inner self, I doubt whether anyone who has read it will forget it'Diana Athill Literary Review'Pungently truthful, complex and original'Alan Hollinghurst Guardian
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Germs Synopsis
"Richard Wollheim's Germs portrays the Thames Valley life of his affluent parents -- the distant, dandified father he revered; the beautiful, mindless 'Gaiety Girl' mother he came to regret loathing -- in dazzling detail. However, the dark heart of the book is the merciless, microscopic examination of the development of Wollheim's psyche, not least of his realization that the price of love is fear. So long as Richard was alive, I found the sheer density of this book painful. Since his death, I am able to read it with delight." -- John Richardson
'A frighteningly good memoir'
Andrew O'Hagan London Review of Books
'Germs is not only elegantly written; it is a human document of considerable power and importance'
John Armstrong Independent
'A masterpiece - an unclassifiable work of startling originality in which the acutely sensual and confusedly cerebral experience of infancy, boyhood and adolescence is brilliantly recreated'
Spectator
'Wollheim's powers of description astound...Because of the intensity with which a remarkable man has offered us a view of his inner self, I doubt whether anyone who has read it will forget it'
Diana Athill Literary Review
'Pungently truthful, complex and original'
Alan Hollinghurst Guardian
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Press Reviews
Richard Wollheim Press Reviews
'A frighteningly good memoir'
Andrew O'Hagan London Review of Books
'Germs is not only elegantly written; it is a human document of considerable power and importance'
John Armstrong Independent
‘A masterpiece – an unclassifiable work of startling originality in which the acutely sensual and confusedly cerebral experience of infancy, boyhood and adolescence is brilliantly recreated’
Spectator
'Wollheim's powers of description astound...Because of the intensity with which a remarkable man has offered us a view of his inner self, I doubt whether anyone who has read it will forget it'
Diana Athill Literary Review
'Pungently truthful, complex and original'
Alan Hollinghurst Guardian
Author
About Richard Wollheim
Richard Wollheim was born in London in 1923 and educated at Westminster School and Balliol College, Oxford. He served in the army during the Second World War, seeing action in France and Germany.
From 1949, Wollheim taught philosophy at University College London, becoming, in 1963, Grote Professor of Mind and Logic. He retired from UCL in 1982, and from then until 1985 was Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University. Between 1985 and 2003 he was Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, and, from 1989 until 1996, he was also Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at the University of California, Davis.
Wollheim was married twice – to Anne Powell in 1950 (dissolved 1967) and to Mary Day Lanier in 1969. He had two sons by his first wife, and a daughter by his second.
He died in November 2003.
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