Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century
by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger
I’d already read two books that featured the immortal love affair of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and as most who have learned their story, I couldn’t get enough. I picked up the lengthy hardcover Furious Love and was thoroughly entertained from start to finish. The authors received an authorization from Elizabeth, and she in fact shared letters and information with them to help make the account as authentic as possible. As a result, readers are treated to many personal diary entries and intimate letters. It might not be any of our business, but the Liz-n-Dick legend was so incredibly public, it doesn’t feel as invasive as if the book was about another couple.
Although I learned a great deal about Richard Burton’s youth in Wales, the book (nor has any about other alcoholics that I’ve come across) doesn’t really get to the bottom of why he drank so much. Towards the end of his life, it is absolutely explained (he suffered from a terrible guilt and need to punish himself) but not in the beginning. With such incredible talent, charisma, intelligence, drive, and good looks, he truly threw his life away. It’s incredibly tragic. The final chapters that chronicle his demise and death are shocking and even invite conspiracy, as he did not actually die from cirrhosis of the liver. As will be the case in any biography you read where the subject dies in a terrible way, the last chapters will be sad and upsetting, so if you’d rather not learn all the details, you’ll probably know when to stop reading.
Lavish, larger than life, and spoiled, Elizabeth Taylor spent her whole life learning how to get and stay in the spotlight, so it’s no wonder that her irresistible affair with Richard Burton would be as public as it was private. They had very little privacy and would often travel to Mexico or Africa for a vacation just so they could walk the streets without getting mobbed. With immense detail, interviews and quotes from witnesses, and Richard’s own writings, readers get a front-row seat of their thirteen-year love affair. But with all the emotional upheaval, theatrics for the sake of the newspapers, and grandiosity, was it all for show? Did the two enjoy being the most talked about couple in the world, or did they really and truly love each other? After reading this book, there is no doubt of the intense, furious love between them, and that even when they were fighting or apart, the love was so strong, it was only a matter of time before they’d make up again. It’s no wonder Elizabeth was quoted as saying she hoped she’d never fall in love so deeply again. I’ll leave you with this one beautiful passage from Richard’s diary. It’s one of the most loving tributes, and it makes me wish he hadn’t been so self-destructive and could have spent more years with his true love.
“She asked if I would stop loving her if she had to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. I told her that I didn’t care if her legs, bum, and bosoms fell off, and her teeth turned yellow and she went bald. I love that woman so much that sometimes I cannot believe my luck. She has given me so much. […] She is a wildly exciting love-mistress, she is shy and witty, she is nobody’s fool, she is a brilliant actress, she is beautiful beyond the dreams of pornography, she can be arrogant and willful, she is clement and loving . . . she tolerates my impossibilities and my drunkenness, and she is an ache in the stomach when I am away from her, and she loves me! . . . And I’ll love her till I die.”
Be sure to check out Hot Toasty Rag's page dedicated to Richard Burton's movies here!
Be sure to check out Hot Toasty Rag's page dedicated to Elizabeth Taylor's movies here!
Although I learned a great deal about Richard Burton’s youth in Wales, the book (nor has any about other alcoholics that I’ve come across) doesn’t really get to the bottom of why he drank so much. Towards the end of his life, it is absolutely explained (he suffered from a terrible guilt and need to punish himself) but not in the beginning. With such incredible talent, charisma, intelligence, drive, and good looks, he truly threw his life away. It’s incredibly tragic. The final chapters that chronicle his demise and death are shocking and even invite conspiracy, as he did not actually die from cirrhosis of the liver. As will be the case in any biography you read where the subject dies in a terrible way, the last chapters will be sad and upsetting, so if you’d rather not learn all the details, you’ll probably know when to stop reading.
Lavish, larger than life, and spoiled, Elizabeth Taylor spent her whole life learning how to get and stay in the spotlight, so it’s no wonder that her irresistible affair with Richard Burton would be as public as it was private. They had very little privacy and would often travel to Mexico or Africa for a vacation just so they could walk the streets without getting mobbed. With immense detail, interviews and quotes from witnesses, and Richard’s own writings, readers get a front-row seat of their thirteen-year love affair. But with all the emotional upheaval, theatrics for the sake of the newspapers, and grandiosity, was it all for show? Did the two enjoy being the most talked about couple in the world, or did they really and truly love each other? After reading this book, there is no doubt of the intense, furious love between them, and that even when they were fighting or apart, the love was so strong, it was only a matter of time before they’d make up again. It’s no wonder Elizabeth was quoted as saying she hoped she’d never fall in love so deeply again. I’ll leave you with this one beautiful passage from Richard’s diary. It’s one of the most loving tributes, and it makes me wish he hadn’t been so self-destructive and could have spent more years with his true love.
“She asked if I would stop loving her if she had to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. I told her that I didn’t care if her legs, bum, and bosoms fell off, and her teeth turned yellow and she went bald. I love that woman so much that sometimes I cannot believe my luck. She has given me so much. […] She is a wildly exciting love-mistress, she is shy and witty, she is nobody’s fool, she is a brilliant actress, she is beautiful beyond the dreams of pornography, she can be arrogant and willful, she is clement and loving . . . she tolerates my impossibilities and my drunkenness, and she is an ache in the stomach when I am away from her, and she loves me! . . . And I’ll love her till I die.”
Be sure to check out Hot Toasty Rag's page dedicated to Richard Burton's movies here!
Be sure to check out Hot Toasty Rag's page dedicated to Elizabeth Taylor's movies here!