Pavilions of the Heart The Four Walls of Love

by Blanch, Lesley

• ISBN13: 9781845116033
• ISBN10: 1845116038
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-05-15
• Publisher: Atlas Books

Summary

Lesley Blanch takes the reader on a uniquely romantic journey to the 14 settings where lovers have come together for a moment, a night or a lifetime. Chosen carefully from those places in her travels where she has come upon a story that has fired the imagination, Blanch writes of Nelson and Lady Hamilton's scandalous affair conducted in a modest house near Wimbledon; Balzac's Parisian love-nest created for his Polish inamorata; the estate of Woronince in the steppes of southern Russia from where Liszt and Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein had to flee; and the house overlooking Lake Lucerne where Wagner and Cosima von Bulow came together. She conjures Sultan Murad's room in the Seraglio and tells the story of Aurelie Picard, whose pavilion of the heart was deep in the Saharan desert. Replete with drama, history and passion, Pavilions of the Heart is a seductive and lyrical glimpse at the places where love has reigned. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Lesley Blanch, 1904-2007, was at heart a nomad. She travelled extensively and adventurously throughout her extraordinary life although her great passion was always for the Middle East and Russia. Married to the French diplomat and writer, Romain Gary, for 18 years, Blanch became arts features editor of Vogue in the thirties and turned to writing and journalism soon after. She was Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the author of The Sabres of Paradise, Pierre Loti (both Tauris Parke Paperbacks) and the bestselling The Wilder Shores of Love among many others. At the time of her death she was writing her autobiography, the sequel to her acclaimed Journey Into the Mind’s Eye. An inspiration to generations of writers, readers and travellers, Lesley Blanch was, in the words of Philip Mansel, "not a school, a trend, or a fashion, but a true original."

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. viii
Introduction	p. 13
Woronince, Russia	p. 25
Sestra Sefronia's Shrine, Bulgaria	p. 37
Rue Fortunee, France	p. 51
'Paradise Merton', England	p. 56
Kourdane, Algeria	p. 70
Beja, Portugal	p. 93
Sultan Murad's Room, Turkey	p. 98
Nohant, France	p. 122
Blagodatsk, Siberia	p. 135
Triebschen, Switzerland	p. 149
Balcic, Rumania	p. 153
Bibi Hanum's Medressa, Samarcand	p. 165
Rue Chantereine, France	p. 175
The Winter Palace, Russia	p. 178
Index	p. 189
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