Chaplin

The Tramp's Odyssey

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by Simon Louvish

Type: Biographies
Subject: Director > Charlie Chaplin
Keywords: Charlie Chaplin
Publishing date: 2009
> See the newer edition (2023)
Publisher: Thomas Dunne
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 432 pages
6 x 8 ¼ inches (15.5 x 21 cm)

ISBN

978-0-312-58169-5

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Book Presentation:
An Everyman who expressed the defiant spirit of freedom, Charlie Chaplin was first lauded and later reviled in the America that made him Hollywood’s richest man. He was a figure of multiple paradoxes. Simon Louvish's new book, following his five major biographies of comedy's classic stars, from W.C. Fields to Laurel and Hardy and Mae West, looks afresh at the "mask behind the man." Louvish charts the tale of the Tramp himself through his films, from the early Mack Sennett shorts through the major features (The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, The Great Dictator, et al.). He retrieves Chaplin as the iconic London street kid who carried the "surreal" antics of early British music hall triumphantly onto the Hollywood screen. Louvish also looks anew at Chaplin's and the Tramp's social and political ideas--the challenge to fascism, defiance of the McCarthyite witch hunts, eventual "exile," and last mature disguises as the serial killer Monsieur Verdoux and the dying English clown Calvero in Limelight. This bookis an epic journey, summing up the roots of comedy and its appeal to audiences everywhere, who reveled in the clown's raw energy, his ceaseless struggle against adversity, and his capacity to represent our own fears, foibles, dreams, inner demons and hopes.

About the Author:
SIMON LOUVISH was born in Glasglow in 1947 and grew up in Israel. Later he decamped to the London School of Film Technique, where he became involved in the production of a series of independent documentary films. He also published a memoir of his Israeli days as well as a series of novels set mainly in the Middle East. Since 1979, he has also been teaching film at the London Film School and writing for various newspapers and magazines. Louvis is the author of definitive biographies of great clowns of screen comedy, including Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Story of W. C. Fields, Monkey Business: The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers, and Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy. Further film biographies include Keystone: The Life and Clowns of Mack Sennet, Mae West: It Ain't No Sin, and Cecil B. DeMille: A Life in Art. For more information please visit his Web site: www.simonlouvish.com.

Press Reviews:
"The Tramp's Odyssey is sharp, fast, full of unexpected detail, and impressively succeeds in demystifying Chaplin while leaving the Tramp's mechanistic mystique largely intact."--New Statesman "A handsome and absorbing book....Louvish's tone is that of the dissecting surgeon overlaid with affection."--The Times "Louvish's skillful and stimulating descriptions of old films will rekindle a desire to watch them again or discover them anew. But the real excellence of this book is in deepening our understanding of how Chaplin nurtured his comic creation and how it, in turn, nurtured him."--Daily Express "This is not a volume for the casual film fan seeking laughs or gossip, but for the student of cinema who wishes to truly understand Chaplin's body of work. It is masterfully thorough."--Sunday Telegraph "This is more than just the mere story of an early film actor, it is an epic journey exploring the roots of the 20th century comedy and its broad global appeal."--TusconCitizen.com

See the publisher website: Thomas Dunne

Newer edition