Bette Davis
A Biography
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Bette Davis
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Narrated by:
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Grace Conlin
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By:
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Barbara Leaming
About this listen
She was the tempestuous, strong-willed woman who ignited the movie screen with her legendary performances in Of Human Bondage, Jezebel, and All About Eve. Off-camera, Bette Davis survived four disastrous marriages and earned a larger-than-life professional reputation as an actress to be reckoned with.
In this extraordinary biography, fans and film historians will discover a different, darker side of Bette Davis: a woman beset with scarring personal and professional doubts, who fought a lifelong battle with alcohol, and had an insatiable need to be loved, often at great emotional cost. Obsessive and compulsive, Davis was happy only when she was working, but did not always choose her projects wisely. A legend, a star, a remarkable woman, Bette Davis lived her life as if it were a coveted role she was desperately afraid she might not win.
©1992 Barbara Leaming (P)2000 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Critic reviews
“Leaming offers a portrait of Bette Davis that is both sympathetic to the actress and frank about her legendary bitchiness…The book is distinguished by its psychological understanding of the subject." (Publishers Weekly)
“Strong, honest, vivid biography…A rapid but rich full-dress portrait of a matchlessly magnetic actress whose chains of self-centeredness grew ever heavier as she aged… Excellent especially on Davis’ tics and mannerisms and how they undermined her ferocious energy and greater possibilities.” (Kirkus Reviews)
What listeners say about Bette Davis
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Nathan
- 21-11-22
Listen with caution
If you detest Bette Davis with every fibre of your being, this is, unquestionably, the biography for you. And I'm not even joking. To catalogue the extent of Barbara Leaming's venom for Bette would be an arduous task - that's the extremity of it. There's a momentum to the hatred because slurs become more frequent as her subject ages. In fact, it reached a point where I would be counting the number of sentences until the next barbed aside was uttered. A two digit number was never reached. This did add a splash of humour to a woefully humourless audiobook but, unintended mirth hasn't stopped me from classifying Leaming's work as a character assassination,
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Jason
- 28-12-12
excellent
Little fast however really good book. Would recommend this book if you like true Hollywood royalty.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- Paula
- 16-09-12
Narrated too quickly!
I'm afraid that this isn't a normal review as I haven't read the book!
I found that Grace Conlin spoke so very quickly that I could not enjoy listening to her. I tried slowing it down a bit but then it was too slow. I think listening to a book should be an absorbing and relaxing occupation but this was so fast I had to concentrate like mad and I gave up after about 10 minutes. Shame. Bette Davis was one of my favourite filmstars and I was really looking forward to listening.
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10 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Alex Dean
- 23-03-19
Dull
Flat writing with an author who struggles to hide her contempt for her subject. Not convinced by any of it as author unable to breath life into such a colourful character. Reader as flat as the lines she is reading and struggles to pronounce much of the text.
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1 person found this helpful