Logan Gonzago Mountstuart, writer, was born in 1906, and died of a heart attack on October 5, 1991, aged 85. For all the incident, for all the change he witnesses, Mountstuart never really feels like a credible witness either to history or emotion. "Any Human Heart is a bigger, more ambitious book than throw-away Boyd efforts like Stars and Bars and Armadillo, and while it's a bumpy performance at times, Mr. Boyd does such a nimble job of ventriloquism in the book's opening sections that we find ourselves forgetting that Mountstuart is a fictional character. Ridiculous sometimes yes, but it was also a classy and entertaining series and I actually think it did have heart. Mountstuart keeps the Essais by his bedside and his life, as it suggests, appears as simply a parade of shreds and patches of very different lives, dictated by luck and time and place: 'We keep a journal to entrap that collection of selves that forms us,' Boyd, as 'editor', suggests in his introduction, 'the individual human being. In 1998, William Boyd pulled off a famous little hoax. Take that away and you are left with a dull kind of parade. In a way, the author has set himself an impossible task. Logan Mountstuart is the microcosm of mankind: we all make choices that define us, but it is the people we love, and who love us, that make a life. And I think this series does a respectable job adapting it. He was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1906 to a British father and a Uruguayan mother, and raised in England. Available to STREAM. The ambition of this section, though, like Mountstuart's, remains unfulfilled as the life and the journal progresses. To help keep this site running: Willow and Thatch may receive a commission when you click on any of the links on our site and make a purchase after doing so. A quotation from Henry James furnishes the title of William Boyd's new novel: "Never say you know the last word about any human heart." 1,520 reviews. It comes from a similar impulse in Boyd as The New Confessions, a novel in which he also tried to gain the form and pressure of our times through one life, though if Rousseau was the loose inspiration there, here it is Montaigne who skulks in the margins. There's so much entertainment in this movie, it's hard to pick out any … © Willow and Thatch. Mountstuart is thus seduced from great work, we are led to believe, by nearly all of Connolly's roster of distractions: journalism, early success, domesticity, drink and, mostly, sex. 4 episodes. Sam Claflin (“My Cousin Rachel,” “The Pillars of the Earth”) is Logan as a fresh-faced Oxford student, enthused by the prospect of becoming a famous author in the early 20th century. The narrator concludes that all these people are him. The Mail on Sunday (UK) - Anthony Quinn Throughout the episodes, Jim Broadbent (“Young Victoria,” “Moulin Rouge”) narrates, and in the final episode he shines as the Logan with wrinkles and thinned white hair. Not very good' - and with adolescent notes to self: 'I shall kiss her this holiday or else become a monk.' He invented an all-American artist, one Nat Tate, a friend of Jackson Pollock who, in an alcoholic despair, jumped off the Staten Island ferry to his death, most of his potential unfulfilled. Logan Mountstuart is observant and witty, often noticing the peculiarities of his fellows, and “Any Human Heart” concentrates on the people and events that comprise his life. Boyd's book The New Confessions is a fictional autobiography of a character whose life spanned much of the twentieth century; Any Human Heart takes up, with a very different character, a similar fictional task. Television review: ‘Any Human Heart’ By Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times Television Critic Feb. 12, 2011 12 AM PT Review: Any Human Heart (PBS) “Any Human Heart” is an intimate entree into the consciousness of one man, set against the defining events of the 20th century. A series gets an Average Tomatometer when at least 50 percent of its seasons have a score. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. In his 2002 novel Any Human Heart: the Intimate Journals of Logan Mountstuart, William Boyd tells the long, absurdly eventful life-story of his protagonist across 512 pages. In Boyd’s language, they are: Number one, First Love, The Rebound/First Wife, The Love of Your Life, The Enemy, The Third Wife, The Old Flame, The Last Love. Click to expand the Mega Menu Click to Expand Search Input The three-part ANY HUMAN HEART is in some ways a portrait of the 20th century, taking us through wars, political tribulations and the loneliness of modern times. Any Human Heart is an old-fashioned, new-fangled tour de force which maintains its brio to the very end. Rated TV-MA. Any Human Heart William Boyd Hamish Hamilton £17.99, pp503. Family Film Roundup: American Girl Series. Logan is an ordinary man who often finds himself in extraordinary situations. The up-and-down life and times of a globetrotting author-adventurer, chronicled with exuberant wit and romantic gusto. Seasoned period drama actor, Matthew Macfadyen (“Pride and Prejudice,” “Little Dorrit”) is Logan as a middle-aged budding journalist who is disenchanted by a life of wealth and leisure. Thus, occasionally, plodding on through the decades, you have an unnerving sense of the century passing in real time. Though there are multiple emotional relationships in the life of Logan Mountstuart; widely differing careers, geographic switches from the UK to various European countries, and a particularly well-developed sojourn in Africa, every person, profession, and setting seems drawn directly from the writer's personal … Any Human Heart [DVD] This would have to be up there as one of my most favourite films. Despite his perceptiveness, Logan makes questionable decisions that damage his relationships, whether it be romantic affairs or overindulging in drink. Do we not all spend our lives trying, like Logan, to discover our ultimate purpose? Jim Broadbent – with his subtle facial expressions and dulcet voice – moves around a decrepit cottage in southern France. Boyd is one of the most gifted English novelists of the present day. He has tea at Garsington with Ottoline Morrell and Virginia Woolf, Evelyn Waugh makes a pass at him, he supplies an unlikely neologism to Joyce in a Parisian bar, shares a beer with Hemingway during the Spanish Civil War, is recruited to the intelligence services by Ian Fleming, and that's all before he fetches up in New York with O'Hara and Pollock and 'Nat Tate'. Even the immediacy and frankness of the century's greatest name-dropping diarists - Kenneth Tynan, Andy Warhol - derive much of their force from the knowledge that the encounters described actually happened. Your email address will not be published. The book was full of sly little anecdotes from these journals: 'Bumped into Tate again as I was leaving [the gallery] and complimented him on his work. Disclosure Statement: To keep this site running, Willow and Thatch may receive compensation through affiliate links. These … Like Boyd’s The New Confessions (1988), Any Human Heart is a panoramic picaresque. William Boyd's fictional name-dropper can't compare with the real thing in Any Human Heart. Any Human Heart is one of the finest books I have ever read – along with Compton Mackenzie's Sinister Street. Logan is married at this point in the series, but the pair begin an affair that flourishes into true love, and their relationship is the soul of the period drama. Logan’s life… is a template for the uniquely individual and idiosyncratic lives we all lead… we therefore grow very close to him.”. Logan’s memories of Freya are punctuated by blinding bright gleams of light, spotlighting her role as both a saving grace, and an impediment, in his life. We also explore the things that lovers of period dramas enjoy: historical fiction, vintage and contemporary treasures for the home and garden, linens, textiles, farmhouse and cottage style, places to visit in the UK, the best teas, handmade wares and so much more, because the world is filled with lovely. Poignancy, romance, sex, death and drama, everything you could wish for in a show is present here. Any Human Heart 4.28 avg rating — 16,694 ratings — published 2002 — 50 editions Want to Read saving… Read full review Knopf $26 (512p) ISBN 978-0-375-41493-0. Her work can be found in, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window), Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window). Any Human Heart is a deeply profound tale of one man’s life as he navigates through the precariousness of youth, the pains and pleasures of romantic relationships, and the difficulty of memory. Kailey Rhone makes use of her English degree working as a production editor in the world of academic publishing. His fascinating story is revealed through daily journal entries; his personal day-to-day writings relate his movements, thoughts and whereabouts. The joke was carried off with some style: there was an opening at a New York gallery, with critics weighing up the painter's contribution to abstract expressionism; the book came with suitably pretentious quotes from David Bowie and Gore Vidal attesting to Tate's genius; the Sunday Telegraph printed extracts; and, then, after about a week, the game was up, and everyone claimed, not quite convincingly, to have known all the time and to have just been playing along. The true journal intime understands this fact and doesn't try to posit any order or hierarchy, doesn't try to judge or analyze: I am all these different people-all these different people are me. She can be found rewatching “Downton Abbey” and sipping on another cup of Earl Grey when she’s not writing about the intersection of feminism and Jane Austen’s novels. It seems more likely that by far the greater threat to his success as a novelist lies in the stiff-upper-lip prose he displays in his journals. “Any Human Heart” promotes the inspiring idea that we will always be surprised by our capacity to love, and that often it is love that drives all our actions. Mountstuart has a walk-on part in literary history that becomes all too predictable. Set beginning in the Interwar era, the star-studded PBS Masterpiece Classic moves through each decade of the 1900s that follows; Logan’s memory of his life is crystalized by the women he shared it with. Any Human Heart is a big novel by William Boyd. Film Review by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat "Every human being is a collection of selves... we never stay just one person," says Logan Mountstuart, a novelist, war correspondent, father, spy, prisoner of war, art dealer, and hedonist. He invented an all-American artist, … William Boyd's novel Any Human Heart is his disjointed autobiography, a massive tome chronicling "my personal rollercoaster"--or rather, "not so much a rollercoaster", but a yo-yo, "a jerking spinning toy in the hands … This feels like wishful thinking. Any Human Heart is a fictional autobiography, an innovative and seldom encountered genre. Failure, too, has its pleasures. Season 1 Review: Any Human Heart is a kind of "Forrest Gump" for the literate: an intimate, picaresque chronicling of the life of a fictional British writer who intersects with notable events, ideas and personages of the 20th century in ways both amusing and catastrophic. ANY HUMAN HEARRT Series 1 Episode 4 – This week’s final instalment of ANY HUMAN HEART sees an elderly Logan Mountstuart enter his autumn years as … Reviewer:-- Cirt 19:05, 3 November 2010 (UTC) I will review this article. About Tomatometer. “Any Human Heart’’ — the title is taken from a Henry James quote — has a gorgeous, almost hallucinogenic pace, as the narrative moves seamlessly in and out of episodes in Logan’s life. An obvious contender for the next round of literary prizes, it would be considered a worthy and genuinely popular winner of any one of them. Days begin full of hope and poetry and mostly end in masturbation: 'Pleasured myself with delectable visions of Lucy.'. Logan composes his first novel, “The Girl Factory,” and forms a friendship with Hemingway. Required fields are marked *. Kailey Rhone makes use of her English degree working as a production editor in the world of academic publishing. In 1998, William Boyd pulled off a famous little hoax. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Any Human Heart is a kind of "Forrest Gump" for the literate: an intimate, picaresque chronicling of the life of a fictional British writer who intersects with notable events, ideas and personages of the 20th century in ways both amusing and catastrophic. Boyd wrote a little book about Tate, full of grainy archive photos apparently of the artist with his cronies, the critic Clement Greenberg and the poet Frank O'Hara. Several French newspapers favourably reviewed Any Human Heart, published in France in 2002 as "A livre ouvert: Les carnets intimes de Logan Mountstuart. View All Any Human Heart News . Logan’s journey intersects with notable twentieth century figures and historical events. Willow and Thatch loves period dramas from the Georgian/Regency, Victorian and Edwardian eras, and beyond. He’s collecting his old journals and sorting them into organized piles, as if they are pieces of a puzzle revealing the meaning of his life. Any Human Heart An offbeat three-part "Masterpiece" production that's interesting, but never wholly satisfying. ', The problem is that the individual created here never quite becomes vital in any of his lives. William Boyd wrote the screenplay for the six-hour television series, after his 2002 novel “Any Human Heart: The Intimate Journals of Logan Mountstuart.” Below, Kailey Rhone looks deeper into “Any Human Heart.”, “Every human being is a collection of selves… Logan Mountstuart has three distinct faces in director Michael Samuel’s four-part adaptation. The television series explores the minutiae of human emotion, as if trying to solve the reasons why we do the things we do, and why we feel the things we feel. Mountstuart's adventures, notably a run in with Edward and Mrs Simpson, a period in solitary confinement in a Swiss jail and a preposterous interlude with the Baader-Meinhof gang, are all detailed in uniform pipe-and-slippers sentences; very few of his experiences - not murder or incarceration or sexual obsession or extreme poverty - ever really disturb the pleasant equilibrium of this prose. Boyd created a flawed character that readers, and viewers, can relate to: “We live Logan’s life with him – unknowingly, hopefully, cautiously. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. Before the infamous abdication, Logan also confers with the Prince of Wales, played by Tom Hollander (“Gosford Park,” “Taboo”) and the scandalous Wallis Simpson, played by Gillian Anderson (“Bleak House,” “Crooked House”). Logan’s highs and lows, the people he loves and hates, his moments of shame and personal tragedy, his acts of kindness and his sins of omission are ones we share with him. If you enjoyed this post, wander over to The Period Films List. We write reviews about the best historical and British costume dramas, share news about what's coming to your favorite streaming services, and through our articles and The Willow and Thatch Period Films List, offer recommendations of what to watch. William Boyd's latest novel, ANY HUMAN HEART, focuses on the life of Logan Mountstuart --- a writer, friend, lover and world traveler. The television series explores the minutiae of human emotion, as if trying to solve the reasons why we do the things we do, and why we feel the things we feel. We will only promote items and companies that are lovely. The question at the very uneven core of "Masterpiece's" "Any Human Heart" is whether the quality of one's life is the result of the choices we make along the way, or pure happenstance. The novel has recently been seen as a PBS mini-series. The beauty of Any Human Heart is that embitterment never sees its own victories. The book is a beautifully written and compelling one. In the end, Logan’s life is not darkened indelibly by its ever-varying complications, but is—as William Boyd writes—“informed, invigorated, changed and redeemed by the fact the he has loved—and has been loved in return.”. by William Boyd ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 10, 2003. By the end, you are not really convinced that he has made much of a fist at any of the three. Below, Kailey Rhone looks deeper into “Any Human Heart.”, “Every human being is a collection of selves…. It details in nine chronologically arranged (and footnoted) journals their eponymous author’s experiences in South America (where he’s … It ranges across the world - the novelist is born in Uruguay, raised in Birmingham and lives subsequently in London, New York, the Bahamas, Switzerland, Africa and the South of France - and takes in the century. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review. The book is a fictitious autobiography (if that is not a misnomer), narrating the life story of Logan Mountstuart – from his upbringing in Uruguay, through his time at Oxford and on to his extraordinary adventures across the world. Any Human HeartWilliam BoydHamish Hamilton £17.99, pp503. There were paintings, too, a series inspired by Hart Crane's poem 'The Bridge', pictures which Boyd claimed to have discovered the year before. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Later Pablo shat copiously in the middle of the room, so Larry Rivers told me...' - that kind of thing. The belle-lettriste is, of course, a friend of Cyril Connolly's, and one model for him might be Logan Pearsall Smith, dedicatee of Enemies of Promise. I asked if he had anything else for sale and he said - most oddly - that I would have to ask his father. Write your own review of Any Human Heart by William Boyd, read other people's reviews and browse a book excerpt from Any Human Heart. He battles with what he wants versus what he needs in his life, and he is often unable to discern the difference. William Boyd wrote the screenplay for the six-hour television series, after his 2002 novel “Any Human Heart: The Intimate Journals of Logan Mountstuart.”. ANY HUMAN HEART: The Intimate Journals of Logan Mountstuart William Boyd, Author. Read full review A man recalls and narrates the events of a recurring dream he has had: a little boy sits fishing in a boat on the river Uraguay. L'express called Boyd a "magician", [16] while Le Nouvel Observateur called it "very good Boyd. -- Cirt 19:05, 3 November 2010 (UTC) Successful good article nomination it is a delightful book filled with action with big characters and colorful scenes on several continents. This review is transcluded from Talk:Any Human Heart/GA1. He is married three times, and despairs of his writing as he throws most of his creative energy into a series of ill-fated affairs (in middle age, he typically ejaculates thinking of Balzac's line: 'There goes another novel...'). After graduation, he travels to Paris where he meets Ernest Hemingway, played by Julian Ovenden (“Downton Abbey,” “The Crown”) who, at the time, was part of the “Lost Generation,” a group of America writers and poets that immigrated to Europe. The man ponders whether he is the boy in the boat or the observers who stand blurred in the distance, watching from afar on the riverbank. He even becomes a spy under the employ of Ian Fleming, played by “Outlander” actor Tobias Menzies. She can be found rewatching “Downton Abbey” and sipping on another cup of Earl Grey when she’s not writing about the intersection of feminism and Jane Austen’s novels. Early on in the book, in one of his annual personal statements of account, he makes it his stated goal 'to work, to write, to live'. At the outset of his career as a journalist, Logan meets Freya, a stunning BBC correspondent played by Hayley Atwell (“The Duchess,” “Howards End”). The hero of the book is Logan Gonzago Mountstuart. It is as if by inhabiting this other writer, Boyd, lacking his usual easy charm, has sometimes forgotten that he still has to write. More By and About This … If so, that's quite sad, because this series was excellent. The most enjoyable of the programs is the British-made three-part PBS Masterpiece series "Any Human Heart." “Any Human Heart” promotes the inspiring idea that we will always be surprised by our capacity to love, and that often it is love that drives all our actions. Any Human Heart (2010) PBS stars Jim Broadbent, Matthew Macfadyen, Hayley Atwell, Sam Claflin, Ed Stoppard, James Musgrave, Samuel West, Freddie Fox, Julian Ovenden, Holliday Grainger, Charity Wakefield, Emerald Fennell, Gillian Anderson, Tom Hollander, Gerry George, Kim Cattrall and Tobias Menzies. Some of this might have been played for laughs, but Boyd seems curiously at pains here to have his readers take Mountstuart as seriously as Mountstuart takes himself. Macfadyen and Atwell glow as two characters enamored with each other. In his little monograph on Tate, Boyd suggested that he had been alerted to the artist's work through the writing of 'the British writer and critic Logan Mountstuart, 1906-1991... biographer, belle-lettriste, editor, failed novelist', whose journals he suggested he was editing. Also see the list of PBS Masterpiece Period Dramas on Prime, and Why Macfadyen is my Darcy. Michael Samuel’s visual creation is not only beautiful to watch, but it also feels deeply personal; a gentle plea for the audience’s own self-contemplation. An outstanding TV drama, superbly made and never less than engaging. He is Logan Mountstuart. The character played by Matthew MacFadyen and Jim Broadbent would be a character that lived in any family during the 20th century. we never stay just one person.” – Logan Mountstuart. In the twilight of his life, Logan is surrounded by the ghosts of his past. Logan Mountstuart is the microcosm of mankind: we all make choices that define us, but it is the people we love, and who love us, that make a life. Nov 21, 2010 | Full Review… Later in their mid-thirties the pair reunites in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War as Logan writes about the Spanish anarchists at the Aragon front. I read somewhere that Any Human Heart had poor viewing figures. Her work can be found in Persuasions. Boyd starts brightly and ambitiously enough; the journal of the 17-year-old Mountstuart, at his boarding school, is nicely layered with the pretensions of a particular precocious kind of student - 'Wrote a Spenserian ode on loss of faith. “Any Human Heart” is an intimate entree into the consciousness of one man, set against the defining events of the 20th century. Once Boyd is locked into his tyrannical chronology - 'Monday 11 March 1929', and so on - he seems a little mesmerised by it. His indecision speaks to the main point of the series: what do we know of the human heart and what it needs and wants? It is not clear whether it was conceived originally as an extension of the spoof, or already had a life of its own, but the result is a distinctly odd book: a late-arriving lead balloon to the nicely timed punchline of Nat Tate. It now turns out, however, that this particular part of Boyd's story at least was 'true': Any Human Heart, a novel, purports to be the compendious collected diaries of the fictional Mountstuart, and comes complete with little introductions by the author, footnotes and an index. The narrative is made up of half-a-dozen diaries, which are devoted to different periods of Mountstuart's life of ambition and failure: schooldays, war years, dotage and so on.
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