Rebecca West, a life

Library Journal

How did declasse little Cissie Fairfield turn herself into the formidable essayist and novelist Dame Rebecca West? Glendinning ( Elizabeth Bowen , Vita ) says it took ``a web of perceptions constantly modified.'' Drawing on manuscript sources and reminiscences, she sifts fact from the fictions West incorporated into her life. Information available in Gordon Ray's H.G. Wells and Rebecca West (1974), the prime source about their liaison, is here supplemented by interviews with their son, novelist Anthony West. The tragic relationship with Anthony and obsession with the nature of totalitarianism and treason that informed the last half of her long life are given special attention. For all general collections. Barbara J. Dunlap, City Coll. Lib., CUNY