R. J. B. Bosworth is senior research fellow in history, Jesus College, Oxford.
“RJB Bosworth draws on rarely consulted papers that Petacci kept of
their nine-year relationship. One of the finest historians of
modern Italy, Bosworth has written both a love story, full of
passion and jealousy, and a vivid portrait of Italy under a man who
dreamt of recreating the Roman empire . . . Claretta is an
extremely enjoyable read.”—Caroline Moorehead, Financial Times
A TIMES BEST HISTORY BOOK FOR 2017.
“A worthy companion to Bosworth’s previous biography of Mussolini,
this study is more Borgia than bunga bunga, an illuminating history
of a folie a deux which could have been sub-titled ‘Fifty Shades of
Fascism’.”—Robert Carver, The Tablet
“Bosworth’s book is successful in revealing the compromises,
corruption, and squalor at the heart of the fascist regime.” —Paul
Baxa, European History Quarterly
“A brilliant insight into Mussolini’s relationship with his most
persistent and devoted lover.”—David Laven, author of Venice and
Venetia under the Habsburgs
‘Picking his way between myths, half-truths and downright lies
Richard Bosworth has brilliantly documented the realities of the
sordid and sometimes turbulent relationship between Benito
Mussolini and Clara Petacci.’ - John Pollard, University of
Cambridge, author of The Papacy in the Age of Totalitarianism,
1914-1958
'By taking us deep into this private world, this important book
illuminates the inner workings of the fascist regime and gives
a better insight into Mussolini than any other political biography
ever could.' – Stephen Gundle, author of Mussolini's
Dream Factory: Film Stardom in Fascist Italy
'In his magisterial biography of Mussolini, Richard Bosworth showed
how the Fascist dictator ruled by interview. Between meetings, he
rang his lover, Claretta Petacci, often every half an hour, a
display of devotion and distraction in equal measure. Claretta's
life with the dictator is an extraordinary tale and Bosworth is the
perfect historical narrator for it. A must.' - Nicholas Stargardt,
author of The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945
“What makes R.J.B Bosworth’s new book so captivating is not just
the picture he paints of their affair, based on diaries, letters
and police reports, but also the light he throws on the corrupt,
greedy, scheming world of the Fascist leadership… Bosworth, the
author of some twenty books on the Mussolini years, is one of the
finest historians of modern Italy, and his deep knowledge and
understanding, as well as his formidable research, inform every
page of this enjoyable biography.”—Caroline Moorhead, Literary
Review, 10th February 2017.
*Literary Review*
“Readers are fortunate that the Australian-born historian is the
first English-language specialist to make extensive use of this
material… He writes with erudition, perceptiveness and humour about
Claretta and Mussolini — she called him Ben, and he called her
Clara —and about the light cast by their affair on the dictator’s
personality, his style of rule and Italian social conditions during
his 1922-43 spell as national leader.”—Tony Barber, Financial
Times
*Financial Times*
“That fateful first encounter and the passionate, but doomed affair
that followed between Claretta and her ‘Ben’ is detailed in a
riveting new biography of Petacci by historian Richard
Bosworth.”—Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail
*Daily Mail*
“Most of the world – as Richard Bosworth points out at the start of
this scrupulously forensic examination of a woman for whom his own
sympathy is discreetly scant – has forgotten about Claretta
Petacci… Xenophobic, anti-Semitic, ruthless, amoral and idle, she
is fortunate to have fallen into the hands of a calm, kind and
fair-minded biographer, one who balances Petacci’s vices against
the fact that her life ended with humiliation, hardship and a
shameful death.”—Miranda Seymour, Daily Telegraph
*Daily Telegraph*
“Bosworth ably demonstrates how histories of amorous adventurism
can be used to explore central themes of modern political history
to great effect.”—Neil Gregor, THES
*THES*
“Claretta: Mussolini’s Last Lover is a book that casts a new light
on Mussolini as a failed leader. For readers interested in World
War II and the path upon which its leaders trod, this is
informative and interesting.”—New York Journal of Books
*New York Journal of Books*
“Gripping and scholarly”—Bee Wilson, London Review of Books, 16
March 2017.
*London Review of Books*
“RJB Bosworth draws on rarely consulted papers that Petacci kept of
their nine-year relationship. One of the finest historians of
modern Italy, Bosworth has written both a love story, full of
passion and jealousy, and a vivid portrait of Italy under a man who
dreamt of recreating the Roman empire . . . Claretta is an
extremely enjoyable read.”—Caroline Moorehead, Financial Times
*Financial Times*
“A worthy companion to Bosworth’s previous biography of Mussolini,
this study is more Borgia than bunga bunga, an illuminating history
of a folie a deux which could have been sub-titled ‘Fifty Shades of
Fascism’.”—Robert Carver, The Tablet
*The Tablet*
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
