Research Catalog

Title

Rat week : an essay on the abdication / by Osbert Sitwell ; with an introduction by John Pearson.

Author

Sitwell, Osbert, 1892-1969

Publication

London : Joseph, 1986, c1984.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

79 p.; 22 cm.

Summary

"Sir Osbert Sitwell knew that his essay on the Abdication of King Edward VIII could not be published until long after he was dead, and clearly relished writing for an audience that he would never meet. At the time it was written illness had compelled him to withdraw almost completely from public life and, as a result, he had discarded what he called a 'blank, bland mask' to hide his real feelings. He spoke his mind, and the essay reveals the overmastering anger which he felt on the occasion. Part of his anger stemmed from his devoted friendship with the Duchess of York and her husband, the future King George VI, and his affectionate respect for Queen Mary; part from his sense of betrayal of all that Edward VIII might have stood for, before and after his accession. The immediate result was the cruelly apposite poem 'Rat Week,' which is published in full for the first time as part of this essay. John Pearson, the author of 'Facades,' a composite biography of the Sitwells, writes in his introduction that the whole essay has something of the quality of impromptu private conversation. Partial and prejudiced as he was, Osbert Sitwell remains an important and unique witness of the whole bizarre Royal drama."--Front flap of book jacket.

Subjects

• 1936
• History
• Great Britain > Windsor, Edward, Duke of > Abdication - Personal observations
• Great Britain > History > Edward VIII, 1936
• Windsor, Edward, Duke of, 1894-1972 > Abdication, 1936

Genre/Form

History

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

ISBN

0718118596

LCCN

gb^87015206^

OCLC

• 14147652
• SCSB-10621216

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library