A Favorite of the Gods: A Novel - Tapa blanda

Henry James's theme of the New World (naïve, upright, puritanical) confronting the Old (steeped in sophisticated and unscrupulous charm) is here explored by a novelist who has witnessed two world wars. Her protagonist is Constanza, a beautiful Italian-American pagan born to privilege and happiness-a seeming favourite of the gods. But in the years of her maturity she becomes aware of what she lacks-a purpose and a part. Who am I, she asks, and what is it I can do? This, writes Bedford, is not a poor little rich girl's plaint. It is the quest that lurks within every human creature fortunate to lift its head above the daily grind.Bedford's genius is for writing about people. [Her] excellence is immortal, her career one of great distinction in literature.-Peter Levi.

Sybille Bedford was born in 1911, in Charlottenburg, Germany, and was brought up in Italy, England, and France. in 1953, she made her literary debut with A Visit to Don Otavio, and has since published eight other books - including Jigsaw, A Legacy, A Favourite of the Gods, and A Compass Error, as well as classic accounts of criminal trials and other courtroom cases, and an acclaimed biography of her mentor Aldous Huxley. She was vice president of English PEN and one of Britain's nine Companions of Literature. Ms. Bedford lived in London where she passed away in February 2006.