Chaplin鈥檚 heartfelt and hilarious autobiography tells the story of his childhood, the challenge of identifying and perfecting his talent, his subsequent film career and worldwide celebrity. In this, one of the very first celebrity memoirs, Chaplin displays all the charms, peculiarities and deeply-held beliefs that made him such an endearing and lasting character.
Re-issued as part of Melville House鈥檚 Neversink Library,听My Autobiography听offers dedicated Chaplin fans and casual admirers alike an astonishing glimpse into the the heart and the mind of Hollywood鈥檚 original genius maverick.
Take this unforgettable journey with the man George Bernard Shaw called 鈥渢he only genius to come out of the movie industry鈥� as he moves from his impoverished South London childhood to the heights of Hollywood wealth and fame; from the McCarthy-era investigations to his founding of United Artists to his 鈥渞everse migration鈥� back to Europe,听My Autobiography听is a reading experience not to be missed.
My Autobiography is a book by Charlie Chaplin, first published by Simon & Schuster in 1964.
Along with Chaplin: His Life and Art, it provided the source material for the 1992 feature film Chaplin. It provides a revealing look into the life of a 20th-century filmmaker and celebrity. The Chicago Tribune said the book was 鈥淭he best autobiography ever written by an actor. An astonishing work.鈥�
Funny, warm, and sad, like a Chaplin movie. One of the great humanists of all time. The great irony is that while he was being criticised for being behind the times for continuing to make silent films after everyone else had converted to sound, his anti-Nazi socialist views were simply too ahead of his time for America, the country that accused him of being a communist and eventually kicked him out after he had given them so much. The only minor criticisms of his autobiography are that he writes comparatively little about the making of some of his greatest films, and many of his cinematic contemporaries are only mentioned in passing, but then Chaplin himself says in the book that aside from Douglas Fairbanks he did not greatly socialise in actors circles, and this is after all the story of his life, not early Hollywood. Major plus points would be the great detail with which he describes his working class South London upbringing, a fascinating look at the evolution of narrative film, and an eye-opening first-person account of the birth of super-stardom. A fantastic rags to riches story.
Everyone knows of Charlie Chaplin, the pantomime actor and silent movie star, best known for his funny, na茂ve and lovable character Little Tramp, attired in black baggy pants, oversized shoes, a bowler hat with a little black mustache adorning his face. Actor, director and producer, he made many of the most popular films of his time. His life was a true rag to riches story. The poverty and workhouse existence of his childhood is told of, as well as the subsequent climb to fame and fortune, his wives, his friends and the deplorable events that occurred when America was drawn into the Second World War. His popularity tumbled. During the Red Scare, with the press out to skin him alive, he was incorrectly accused of being a communist and immorality charges tied to a paternity suit were thrown at him. We learn of his marriage to Oona O鈥橬eill, the daughter of the famed playwright Eugene O鈥橬eill, the birth of his children by Oona and their subsequent domicile in Switzerland.
What makes the book special and way above the ordinary is the depth with which you come to understand Charlie鈥檚 psyche. His thoughts, his feelings, his goals and values are made crystal clear. The book does not read as a list of dropped names, although his friends are among the famed. This is because he explains what makes each one unique for him. We see into his head and feel the thumping of his heart. Anger and exasperation is shown too. I came to trust him and believe wholeheartedly in that which he states. I do not think I am na茂ve one easily convinced.
We read of not only his life and his films but also how he views the art of acting, directing and producing films. He explains his views on art, music, writing and poetry, as well as those practicing these professions. Do the following people, interest you? Winston Churchill, Maynard Keyes, Gandhi, Gertrude Stein, Sir Phillip Sassoon, H.G. Wells, Bernard Shaw, Jean Cocteau. We are served up interesting, unusual tidbits about these individuals and many others. The variety of those spoken of is wide. So many fascinating people he came to know well!
Here follow some short quotes:
鈥淟ife is another word for conflict.鈥�
鈥淭he saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury.鈥�
鈥淭here must be a reason for all this beauty (existing in the world).鈥�
鈥淪implicity of approach is always best. Personally, I loathe tricky effects.鈥�
鈥淭o an artist, the complete freedom to do the unorthodox is most exciting.鈥�
鈥淓mpathy cannot be taught.鈥�
Steve John Shepherd narrates the audiobook. I kept thinking it was Charlie himself talking to me! Words are clearly enunciated, and it was easy to follow. The narration is performed exactly how a book such as this should be. Five stars for the audio narration.
This classic autobiography is Interesting, fascinating and thoroughly convincing! I really, really enjoyed it! Don't miss this book!
I've always admired Charlie Chaplin and enjoyed his movies and it was a real pleasure to read the memoir about his incredibly rich and varied life. It is a blend of the confessional, reflective and occasionally reserved, which is probably quite typical of autobiographies. It is a little unbalanced in terms of the phases of his life and the style alters noticeably depending on the part of his life story he's discussing. He is quite revealing of his emotions and affections in his early destitution in London and his affection for his mother and brother is apparent. He describes his craft very well and his transition from the stage to the screen and his meteoric rise to fame. The latter parts of the book often describe encounters with the rich and famous, often at dinner parties. Towards the end this gets a little rushed. For instance, he meets Picasso, Sartre, Kruschev, Nehru and Churchill in the space of a few pages with little acknowledgement that this degree of accessibility to artists, writers and politicians may have been an unique privilege. His language is sometimes florid but I liked that and it may well have been that some of the phrases he used were much more common at the time. It does reveal a keen appreciation for literature and the arts and it seemed to me the eloquence of the autodidact. It's certainly a book I will return to in the future and it is my hope that one day I will write something which touches a little on his life and the people he knew and loved.
Charlie Chaplin's autobiography is a blatantly honest and beautifully written account of the most famous man in the world in the early 1900s. His ease with writing and the book's fantastic flow offer amazing juxtaposition with his account of the life of a pauper in 19th century London. You simply do not expect such eloquence from someone who was partially raised in a work-house and confessed he was mainly self-taught. The stories of his youth were brilliantly told. They were moving, funny and always honest. Chaplin paints a very clear picture of his childhood and transports the reader with ease. He even remembers how he felt at each point in time, and never sugarcoated his feelings about his family, particularly his mentally ill mother. Chaplin spends quite a few chapters exploring his childhood and when the story eventually covers his rise to fame the narrative feels rushed, which is essentially how i must have felt for him. All of a sudden Chaplin became a new person in a brand new world of his own creating, but he rises to to challenge fantastically, and the rest is history. Chaplin does not shy away from talking about his sex life and his many failed marriages. It was refreshing to read that Chaplin never made excuses for his failed relationships. The failures mainly boiled down to him being a workaholic, and not really loving his wives that much in the first place. Chaplin does not deny this. The whole feeling I got from the narrative was Charlie saying "yes I was a dick back then. Apologies to all involved, but that's just me. I'm not a bad person, I acted like a twat for a long time." This honesty just made me love him even more.
I am a lifelong fan of Chaplin and this autobiography just made me love him more. He was a brilliant, funny and intelligent man. He writes his life story as if writing a novel and refuses to lie to his readers.
I love it when books are more than a good read.This one is a fantastic journey where Charlie Chaplin takes you by the hand and drags you through his life from 1889 London to the 20's and 30's in America all the way to 1977 when he died in Switzerland. And this is no ordinary life...it's history revealing itself in front of your eyes, it's better than any history book on that era, better that any art album or gossip magazine because it's all these at the same time and you find yourself right there in the middle of everything.
Voglio essere critico, perch茅 la delusione 猫 stata progressiva. La lettura scorre via senza fatica. In prosa discorsiva, lineare. Le descrizioni d'ambiente, soprattutto all'inizio, sono molto interessanti. Illustrano un mondo che 猫 difficile per noi raffigurare, perch茅 lontano, poco rappresentato (diciamo "tra Dickens e la IGM"): i sobborghi poveri di Londra all'inizio del '900; l'abitudine a una precariet脿 esistenziale epidemica; poi, Los Angeles degli anni 10, ancora circondata da una natura vergine; il vero pionierismo del cinema ("forma espressiva" tutta da inventare, di cui concepire una poetica. Non ancora un'arte); la nascita del divismo, e dell'opulenza, negli USA. Con sguardo disincantato, 猫 interessante ragionare sulle implicazioni di un salto cos矛... iperbolico, tra una marcia povert脿 da reietti e le pi霉 sfavillanti luci di una ribalta ricchissima, famosissima e osannatissima (per meriti indubbi, sia chiaro).
Poi, per貌, ci si annoia sempre pi霉 a sfogliare un mero catalogo di incontri illustri che sembra non avere mai fine, n茅 limite: dai primi ammirati uomini di spettacolo (Valentino, Caruso, Fairbanks, Wells), alle personalit脿 della cultura e del pensiero (Einstein, Mann, Rachmaninof, Horovitz), ai magnati della finanza mondiale (...), ai politici influenti o capi di stato (Churchill, Roosevelt), alle pi霉 eminenti vette politico-etico-religiose (il Principe di Galles, Gandhi). Ben presto ci si accorge di avere a che fare con un elenco sconfinato di... credenziali, il cui interesse specifico non consiste tanto nell'approfondire, con curiosit脿 umanistica e culturale, i motivi della grandezza, ma in quello ben pi霉 prosaico di apparentarvisi. Un classico medagliere da "parvenu". Si ragiona un po', a quel punto, e si scopre che non una parola 猫 spesa per chi, al pari con lui, ha contribuito alla grandezza della creativit脿 espressiva del cinema (non sono neanche nominati Buster Keaton, Laurel e Hardy, Langdon); n茅 si va mai oltre alla descrizione superficiale, in qualche caso vagamente pettegola, di quegli incontri e di quelle personalit脿. Ci si avvede della consumata nonchalance con cui viene sfoggiata a ogni passo la nota-spese di una ricchezza sempre pi霉 spropositata. Si nota - dopo avere sorvolato, in attesa di un qualche sentimento - che i tanti rapporti con le donne di cui si parla sono tutti improntati all'acquisto di un' 丑别诲辞苍猫 leziosa, passeggera, poco paziente e autoreferenziale; da collezionista. E che quelli taciuti sono la maggioranza. Si nota l'assenza totale di un racconto emotivo della propria paternit脿; della solitudine monumentale; di una probabile anaffettivit脿, e si capisce, infine, che tutto, davvero tutto, 猫 misurato al metro silenzioso e arido del potere della notoriet脿, e del denaro. Ci貌 stride con la profonda umanit脿 che il personaggio Charlot ha introdotto nella narrazione filmica, e che tanto lo rese famoso e apprezzato. Ma, anche qui, una veloce rilettura della genesi dei suoi film non esclude il calcolo, pi霉 che l'intento estetico. La vaga delusione umana rende a quel punto insipido il libro. Un po' poco, come frutto di un incommensurabile sorriso del Destino. Sia chiaro che, come sempre, questa 猫 una semplice opinione. E come tale va presa.
This was a hard review to write because the cons add up as much to the pros. I'll start with the cons: Charlot perpetually waxes romantic about his royal friends (The Prince of Wales, The Marquis of Vienna, etc.), laden with so much elbow rubbing with blue bloods in an attempt to dispel his working class Little Tramp image. He never once acknowledges his comedic peers in cinema at any point; you won't find anything about Harold Lloyd, Charley Chase, Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, etc. The only mention Laurel & Hardy get is that he played soccer with Stan Laurel. Big deal.
The pros are that he reports on the organic beginnings of the cinema, of which he was a pioneer. He was also an innovator in comedy, which at the time was nothing more than pie fights and mindless car chases. He also very deftly reports on the eventual birth of that great monster we call Los Angeles. It's very funny to read his stories on Beverly Hills in the beginning of the 20th Century. These precious accounts make what was otherwise an incredibly selfish autobiography readable.
in effetti mi 猫 piaciuta tantissimo, ma proprio tantissimo, questa autobiografia. Perch猫 Chaplin oltre a essere un genio della cinematografia (ne ha proprio inventato dei pezzi), sa anche scrivere, anzi, pi霉 che scrivere, sa pensare. Ha questo stile cos矛 "pacificante" nel narrare le sue avventure da far innamorare. Odia i conformismi e se ne sottrae appena pu貌, glissa sul suo genio (fare film 猫 divertente ma 猫 anche una gran fatica), sottolinea la sua missione (fare film comici che facessero ridere), si imbarazza della sua popolarit脿 (oltre alle folle adoranti ha praticamente incontrato e/o frequentato TUTTA l'intellighentsia, gli artisti, i politici, gli scienziati, etc. del '900 - butta l矛 con nonchalance un Gandhi, un Einstein, un Picasso, uno Steinbeck, cos矛 solo per citare i primi 4 che mi vengono in mente). L'ho fatto durare il pi霉 possibile .... e adesso vado a leggere la biografia scritta da Robinson, cos矛, per un riscontro.... PS: Charlot/Chaplin l'ho sempre considerato di famiglia per un motivo bizzarro. Mio nonno da giovane era identico spiccicato preciso a Charlot, baffetti, occhi neri, tutto; e da vecchio era sputato Chaplin, capelli bianchi, sorriso bonario, piega della bocca sempre sorridente. E usava pure la zanetta*!
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