Play Audiobook Sample
A Passion for Life: The Biography of Elizabeth Taylor Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(3.02) - 120 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
Born in England to socially ambitious parents, Elizabeth Taylor was catapulted into child stardom and molded by MGM into the great violet-eyed beauty of postwar America. Along the way, without training or counsel, she became an award-winning actress, dazzling audiences everywhere with spectacular performances.
Spoto explores the gripping story of her brutalizing six-month marriage to compulsive gambler and hotel heir Nicky Hilton, her romances with top Hollywood directors, and her marriage to the ailing Michael Wilding. Four years later, she would be swept off her feet by showman Mike Todd into an alternately violent and loving marriage that would end with Todd’s death in a plane crash, leaving Taylor a twice-divorced widow with three children at the age of twenty-six. And here are Taylor’s years with Eddie Fisher, Republican Senator John Warner, and Richard Burton, with whom she would share a hedonistic, brash lifestyle that would virtually define the 1960s’ jet set.
Download and start listening now!
"This book is what introduced me to Liz and I have loved her ever since. She is a beautiful soul and she is my inspiration because of this novel! Worth the read, for sure. It could change your life!"
— Caitlin (5 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
-
“Donald Spoto’s measured, articulate biography...does justice to her histrionic gifts and concocts convincing links between her screen personae and her catastrophic private life.”
— New York Times Book Review -
“Spoto’s portrait of the star has a certain poignance.”
— People -
“Spoto’s exhaustive account of Taylor’s wildly glamorous and troubled life may be the guiltiest pleasure...A Passion for Life unabashedly restores Taylor to the role that has always suited her best: Hollywood legend with the violet eyes to die for.”
— Entertainment Weekly -
“At once scathing and sympathetic…Spoto provides acute commentary on Taylor’s films as well as a filmography in a revelatory portrait of a self-styled femme fatale beset by self-destructive impulses and feelings of emptiness.”
— Publishers Weekly
A Passion for Life Listener Reviews
-
" I love this book! I've read it 3 times! "
— Emily, 10/26/2013 -
" So far I am really liking it, the writer makes me feel as if I am watching a show, like E true hollywood story. "
— Jackie, 10/18/2012 -
" Didn't even finish it which happens very rarely! "
— Ulla, 12/23/2011 -
" The author attempts to psychoanalyze her too much. I don't care why the author thinks she did what she did. I want to know what she did and come to my own conclusions. "
— Judith, 7/19/2011 -
" This author always writes a good book, no exception reading about the great Elizabeth Taylor. "
— +, 1/2/2010 -
" This was a well-written and intimate view of the famous actress, Elizabeth Taylor. this biography opened my eyes and gave me a new insight tinto Ms. Taylor's life and struggles. One thing I will say about this is that it is an incredible life! "
— Jaime, 8/31/2009 -
" Interesting, occasionally quite insightful biography on Taylor. Somehow disappointing to me for a Spoto book, though. "
— Nel, 7/23/2009 -
" Interesting, occasionally quite insightful biography on Taylor. Somehow disappointing to me for a Spoto book, though. "
— Nel, 12/2/2008 -
" The author attempts to psychoanalyze her too much. I don't care why the author thinks she did what she did. I want to know what she did and come to my own conclusions. "
— Judith, 6/24/2008 -
" I love this book! I've read it 3 times! "
— Emily, 9/27/2007
About Donald Spoto
Donald Spoto is the author of more than twenty books, including bestselling biographies of Alfred Hitchcock, Tennessee Williams, Laurence Olivier, Marlene Dietrich, Ingrid Bergman, and Audrey Hepburn. He lives with his husband, Danish artist and school administrator Ole Flemming Larsen, near Copenhagen, Denmark.
About C. M. Hébert
C. M. Hébert is an Earphones Award winner and Audie Award nominee. She is the recording studio director for the Talking Books Program at the Library of Congress’ National Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with her husband, daughter, cat, and assorted fish.