My interest in Leigh comes straight out of my interest in [b:Gone With the Wind|18405|Gone With the Wind|Margaret Mitchell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166913011s/18405.jpg|3358283]. Of course, later on, I became a [a:Tennessee Williams|7751|Tennessee Williams|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1206504901p2/7751.jpg] fan, so there's that too. ( )

Sad, fascinating. For a brief improbable moment the greatest star in the world but really a second-ranker. How unlikely that a prim well-brought up English convent girl got cast as these larger-than-life American viragos. Her descent into mani-depressive madness is touchingly told, including her writing exquisitely polite letters of apology to the friends she had attacked and shocked when in her manic fits. She clearly had great beauty and star quality, always wanted to be the legit classical actor and didn't quite have the skills. Olivier was her great love, idol and competitor, whose shadow she could not escape. A hint of hagiography in the writing but she does still captivate. ( )

This is a reissue of the 1977 biography. Not sure why it was reissued. It was interesting enough; I knew next to nothing about Leigh and have only seen her in - surprise - Gone with the Wind. Clearly she was a serious actress, but was not taken seriously for a long time - the curse of a pretty face! Still she was mighty persistent.

Over and above that of course, was her struggle with bi-polarism. My mother led me to believe that Leigh was a garden variety drunk, but she was dead wrong about that. Alcohol was a part of her affliction, but by no means the root cause of her troubles. She had a terrible struggle for much of her life; even in the days before the bi-polarism took over her life she had the burden of a less than ideal childhood with which to cope. All in all it seems close to miraculous that she was able to continue acting while her disease raised pluperfect hell with her.

As for Edwards' treatment of Leigh, I can't help but feel that she stopped just short of penetrating the surface of Vivien Leigh. Some of the time there seemed to be a little too much dependence upon clothing description and the quoting of Vivien's effusive letters and notes to her many friends. Edwards seems to have missed the opportunity of making this a good biography and allows it to slide into so-so territory.

Still, Vivien Leigh comes across as a very interesting and compassionate woman and Laurence Olivier and Jack Merivale were saints. Want to see a few of her movies now. ( )

I love biographies of movie stars, and Vivien Leigh was an amazing presence on the screen (and, presumably, on stage). However, other reviewers have noted that this edition is a reprint with no updated materials or commentary.

AND the miscaptioning of the pictures drove me wild!

Nevertheless, the discussion of her illness, as dated as it was, was interesting to me on a personal basis as I have had experiences with someone going through very similar episodes before and after diagnosis. There's much better treatment these days and it's a shame Ms. Leigh was so ill for so long. ( )

Interest in reviewing Vivien Leigh: A Biography, as possibly for many, was a curiosity in knowing to what degree Vivien Leigh was Scarlett O'Hara, a question answered only by the reader's ability to discern the traits of these two women. Anne Edwards presents the life of a truly gifted young girl whose attributes and qualities changed little over the course of her life, with the possible exception of an ever-evolving inability to recognize when a significant strength can consequentially be an equally powerful vulnerability, which in part may have been attributed to her bipolar disorder.

Ms. Edwards primarily focuses on Ms. Leigh and Sir Laurence Olivier's all consuming love and the extent of their compulsion, in varying degrees, to be with each other. She has extensively detailed their relationship and their professional roles as renowned actors.

Although well written, the repetitious quality of their lives over time increasingly became of little interest to this reader. They were extremely talented actors but were not experienced by this writer as people of exceptional interest beyond their art, just merely driven. ( )