The best sources - court records from Allen v. The book offers little new information to anyone who’s paid attention over the last decade.

Her lack of access frees her to launch wave after wave of charges supported by fragmentary quotations cribbed from such venerable sources as Mirabella, the New York Post or Internet chat rooms. “Having spent their professional lives trying to attract attention, they suddenly wish to be left alone,” she carps.īut instead of trying to account for Allen’s Garbo-esque tendencies, Meade lets them fuel this vituperative rant. To Meade, Allen is typical of Homo Celebritus, a modern species possessing one central, maddening contradiction. She spent seven years researching and writing the Parker book. How do they stack up with other historical cases such as the anti-Semitism of composer Richard Wagner or the racism of film pioneer D.W. Meade’s Eleanor of Aquitaine (1977) was praised by critic Robert Kirsch of The Los Angeles Times for her almost uncanny empathy for her subject, which he said made it appear as if she can view the world through Eleanor’s eyes. Rather, the author provides a laundry list of foibles and neuroses, many from second-hand sources.Ī more rewarding approach would have involved contextualizing Allen’s personal transgressions. By focusing on the events of the early 1990s involving Allen, Mia Farrow and his step-daughter and now wife Soon-Yi, Meade struggles to make the case that Allen doesn’t deserve all the money and acclaim - that misogyny, stunted adolescence and crude manipulation should not be obscured by the comic’s kvetching charms.īut Meade’s attack fizzles, due to the lack of serious consideration about an artist’s moral compass. Aquitaine, in the south, named 'land of waters' by the Romans, was a rich land, filled with orchards and vineyards life was good for those in power. In northern Europe, and England, women had little social standing. The sense of disappointment and disapproval in Allen the man compared with Allen the entertainer makes “The Unruly Life of Woody Allen” an exasperating read. Eleanor grew up in the Dukedom of Aquitaine at a time when most of France was ruled by England.

Marion meade eleanor of aquitaine