Earthly paradise

Drawn from some forty books of her non-fiction, Earthly Paradise may be described as the autobiography of her myth. It is a vivid, year-by-year revelation of a long, eager, courageous life; it is an extraordinary personal history containing scandals, marriages, motherhood, two world wars, abounding friendships; and it is a narration of the manifold stresses of a profoundly ambivalent nature. Her chronicles are tempered with suffering, self-control, work, discipline, and, above all, joy of life. "Look!" she once advised a young writer, "look for a long time at what pleases you, and longer still at what pains you..."