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Anthony Blunt: His Lives
by Miranda Carter
Product Group: Book
ISBN: B0000BYPNK
Hardcover: 592 pages
SKU: 51002
Condition: As New
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
This brilliant psychological examination of the infamous Cambridge art-historian-turned-spy reveals the multiple masks worn by the Cold War’s most notorious traitor. From young member of the Bloomsbury circle to left-wing intellectual, from closeted homosexual ascending to the Establishment to object of public denunciation by Margaret Thatcher, the arc of Blunt’s life is at once a deeply nuanced account of fifty years in the British power elite and an astonishing history of one of the century’s greatest deceits.
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Customer Reviews
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The Lives within Lives of Anthony Blunt.
Rating  (5)
Date: 2005-03-17
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Miranda Carter has written a splendid book about Anthony Blunt, appropriately subtitled, "his lives." Reading about the Cambridge Fellow, Soldier, Double Agent, Art-Historian, Director of the Cortauld Institute, Surveyor of the King's/Queens Pictures, etc., etc., is like peeling an onion, or perhaps--more appropriately--opening a Russian Matrioshka doll. As one probes into a deeper layer one discovers yet another persona, and although one might begin to understand Blunt's motives, one never really gets to know who he really was, thanks to his ability to compartmentalize his multifarious activities and interests.
Although I began the book with considerable prejudice, since Anthony Blunt seems to have prospered while his fellow Cambridge spies were living comparatively miserable lives in Moscow, Ms. Carter's sensitive portrayal of this man, whose aloofness stemmed from a fundamental insecurity, changed my mind. She shows us a man who was unwavering in his ideals and loyal to his friends (He waited until 1964--after Guy Burgess had died and Philby and Maclean were 'safe' in Moscow-- to admit his complicity.). She also portrays a tormented man, whose ability to lose himself in his art-history scholarship preserved his sanity and probably saved his life. Publicly disgraced in 1979, stripped of his knighthood and other honors (after a promise of immunity), deserted by all except a few loyal friends, he died soon after. Miranda Carter depicts him as a man who was courageous but tragically flawed.
This book is meticulously researched, so much so that an average enthusiast of espionage literature may find himself adrift among the dozens of friends, acquaintances and enemies whom Anthony Blunt knew, not only Guy Burgess, Kim Philby and the other Cambridge spy protagonists, but also literary figures, including Julian Bell, Louis MacNeice, W.H. Auden; and other characters--who have come in for their own share of speculation--Victor Rothschild, Michael Straight and Goronwy Rees. Precisely because of the plethora of names, the book presents a fascinating glimpse into a fifty-year history of Great Britain from the 1920's onward. And while probably only the most passionate art historians will read every word about Nicholas Poussin and Baroque Rome, the persistent reader will be rewarded by a colorful and witty glimpse into the outrageous life and times of Guy Burgess (Inexplicably no one has written a biography of the wayward spy, but if they do, it should probably be called "My Noisy War"!).
For those afficionados who cannot get enough of the Cambridge Spies (Judging from the numbers of books still being published about them, half a century later, such readers are numerous.), this book is highly recommended!
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Utterly Fascinating
Rating (5)
Date: 2004-02-09
9 out of 10 customers found this reveiw helpful
Anthony Blunt was a child of the British Establishment, born to a middle class family with Church of England and royal connections. He received a fine education at Marlborough and Cambridge and became one of the most acclaimed art historians and teachers in Britain in the twentieth century. At the same time, he was a spy for the Soviets. The story of how Blunt became a communist, worked against his country while supposedly serving it in MI5 during World War II, then became a courtier for two monarchs and the highly regarded head of the Courtald Institute, which he made into one of the finest art schools in the country, is fascinating. Blunt was a man of many contradictions. At the same time he stood at the side of the Royal Family as the Surveyor of their art collection he was leading a secret gay life notorious for its seaminess. While he appeared to be a pillar of the Establishment he gave secret information to the Soviets and became the long sought after Fourth Man who was in league with Burgess, Maclean, and Philby before they defected to Russia. When he was unmasked in the 1960s the British government did its own contradictory little dance around him, granting him immunity while pumping him for information. Miranda Carter is sympathetic to Blunt and emphasizes his positives, like his fine teaching abilities and helpfulness to many of his students, but without whitewashing his treasonous activities. She helps us understand the pressure Blunt was under for many years and the fear of being unmasked that dominated him until he was finally publically denounced in 1979. Above all, she does a fine job of depicting the man's numerous contradictions. Highly recommended.
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Why did the author knock author John Costello?
Rating  (2)
Date: 2004-01-26
3 out of 12 customers found this reveiw helpful
Carter wins on giving us numerous minutia about Blount's life and his odd selection of friends. But her book was not of great interest to a reader who was aware of Blount's peculiar nature and interest in art. It is difficult to understand how Blount or his friends, seemed completly oblivious of politics as Carter has laid out. Unless she is making the case that Blount was the perfect mole - at all times on guard against exposure. But I don't think she is trying to make that case.Carter gives us a blur of names, quotes, and a failure to find mention of expected comments in corresspondence such as the passing of Blount's father. It may be Carter's intention to show Blount's world as an extremely focused life which was hardly influenced by outside events; such as the end of World War One and the rise of Communism. I suspect Carter is trying to explain Blount as a Good Boy Who Does Bad Things.
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The eternally forgiving English establishment
Rating  (1)
Date: 2003-04-11
0 out of 13 customers found this reveiw helpful
What is the purpose of this account of the life of Anthony Blunt, the great traitor?
This biography is a long emollient salve applied to Blunt's traitorous and murderous life. Its strengths are all associated with its depiction of the milieu in which he moved so effortlessly, the upper class institutions of England which he betrayed.
The author, a product of St. Paul and Oxford, is an excellent writer and an indefatigable researcher. Her style is mellow and balanced--her analysis subtlely and consistently biased in favour of Mr. Blunt. The only time her mellifluous prose veers into ascerbity is when referring to Mr. Blunt's detractors, including Brown, Deacon, and the various former KGB operatives who have written memoirs. Their opinions, Ms. Carter assures us, are unreliable, badly researched, poorly judged, and so on.
But not to worry--Ms. Carter does have the facts, and, she assures us, the proper perspective on Blunt's actions. Despite her many portentuous references to KGB archives, most of her research is based upon secondary sources, a great deal of which is journalism, and on interviews with people to whom she gained access no doubt because of her social background and elite education.
And these sections of the book are indeed fascinating: Ms. Carter refers authoritatively to climates of opinion in the English upper classes that allegedly prevailed during periods before she was born. Her account sometimes reads like it was written by a contemporary of Anthony Blunt's, one with a remarkably benevolent attitude towards the traitor. This authenticity of tone is a testament to Ms. Carter's long years of research and her supple and even-tempered prose. It is also a testament, however inadvertant, to the tolerant, clubby upper class climate which allowed a traitor like Blunt to flourish for so long.
On the surface, the purpose of this book is to present a balanced judgment on the life and deeds of Anthony Blunt. Its rhetoric is indeed a model of moderate, even-tempered balance. But that is not the character of the book, nor is a balanced account its true purpose. What this book actually represents is an example of what it sets out to document--the extraordinarily forgiving attitude of the English upper classes to the Cambridge spies who betrayed their country.
It can only be hoped that its appealing surfaces will not persuade the public to accept this Blunt biography as anything other than an all-too-refined case of special pleading on behalf of a cunning, unrepentent, and all-too-refined traitor to his country.
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Definitively well researched and written bio
Rating (5)
Date: 2003-04-04
7 out of 8 customers found this reveiw helpful
Miranda Carter has been justly acclaimed for producing a biography on Anthony Blunt that cuts through all the weird and assorted myths that have attached to him over the years since the revelations of his spying were made public. This book is richly rewarding as it connects the many lives of this very private public figure. Blunt is a complex personality and it took thorough research and the skill of a good writer to fully appreciate and capture these many and varied layers. The examination into the world of academia and art history was particularly well done and held the interest of this reader. I picked up this book because of the spying details but, to my surprise, found myself as riveted by all the other aspects of this man's live. This book, unlike all the others written about the Cambridge spies, does not come with an axe to grind and it is all the stronger for that abscence. Highly recommended.
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