{"product_id":"a-favourite-of-the-gods-and-a-compass-error-isbn-9781681370569","title":"A Favourite of the Gods and A Compass Error","description":"\u003ci\u003eA Favourite of the Gods \u003c\/i\u003eis the story of two generations of a single family, united by a strong matrilineal bond but divided by the customs of their differing nationalities. Anna Howland, the matriarch and American heiress, born in the 1870s to a prominent, liberal New England family marries an Italian prince and makes her home in Rome; her daughter Constanza, the favorite of the title, inherits her mother’s beauty, intelligence, and wealth, along with her father’s Catholicism, which she soon rejects.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e When disaster strikes, Anna and the prince fall back on the standards of behavior of their disparate cultures; Constanza, with her European upbringing, is free to plot her own course, and she does so with daring, making an unconventional life for herself in England and on the continent during and after the First World War.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Her own daughter Flavia is the heroine of \u003ci\u003eA Compass Error\u003c\/i\u003e, which begins where the first novel concludes. Flavia too is a brilliant young woman, though both more brash and more faltering than her mother, studying for her entrance exam to Oxford when she becomes involved with a mysterious woman whose arrival at a sensitive moment in Flavia’s adolescence will alter both her and her mother’s lives forever.\"In its diversity, its erudition, and above all, its moral and intellectual fastidiousness, Sybille Bedford’s work is remarkably similar to that of her friend Rebecca West... This \u003ci\u003eFavourite of the Gods\u003c\/i\u003e, blessed by them with so multifaceted a talent, deserves to become the favourite of every discerning novel-reader.\" —Francis King, \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Spectator\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Sybille Bedford’s \u003ci\u003eA Compass Error\u003c\/i\u003e is a moving and fascinating novel...a witty book, both in sentiment and idiom...full of civilised and satisfying ironies... There is a notable element of suspense which is cunningly sustained, both on a moral and a practical level, to the last page.” —Simon Raven, \u003ci\u003eThe Spectator\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Taken as a tour of a picture gallery hung with family portraits painted in elegant and commanding style, \u003ci\u003eA Favourite of the Gods\u003c\/i\u003e has its own unmistakable distinction.” —Virgilia Peterson, \u003ci\u003eNewsday\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Often compared to Henry James, [in \u003ci\u003eA Compass Error\u003c\/i\u003e] Mrs. Bedford moves through an expatriated, cultivated circle just before the war with an older, equally unattached, less knowing Maisie...one cannot overlook the assured presence of a graceful, worldly writer.” —\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Sybille Bedford has an original talent. Her portraits are razor sharp and individual and she views the world with wit, irony, and cool restraint. In [\u003ci\u003eA Favourite of the Gods\u003c\/i\u003e], she gives a panoramic view of life where each action plays its part in determining events to come.” —Grace P. Comans, \u003ci\u003eThe Hartford Courant \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Gracefully written and, in one portion, as filled with suspense as anything you are likely to find...\u003ci\u003eA Compass Error\u003c\/i\u003e gives much pleasure.” —Cecile Shapiro, \u003ci\u003eSaturday Review \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “A Jamesian world artfully re-shaped by an unconventional female writer.” —Emma Hagestadt, \u003ci\u003eThe Independent\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “[\u003ci\u003eA Compass Error\u003c\/i\u003e] demonstrates a firm control of form and a clarity of style.” —Stanley Reynolds, \u003ci\u003eNew Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “\u003ci\u003eA Compass Error\u003c\/i\u003e has major virtues. It has narrative strength, felicity of phrase and the ability to evoke, with the most exquisite economy, the way people used to live and behave.... An important, perhaps a major book.” —Meryle Secrest, \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eSybille Bedford \u003c\/b\u003e(1911–2006) was born Sybille von Schoenebeck in Charlottenburg, Germany, to an aristocratic German father and a partly Jewish, Hamburg-born mother. Raised variously in Germany, Italy, France, and England, she lived with her mother and Italian stepfather after her father’s death when she was seven, and was educated privately. Encouraged by Aldous Huxley, Bedford began writing fiction at the age of sixteen and went on to publish four novels, all influenced by her itinerant childhood among the European aristocracy: \u003ci\u003eA Legacy\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eJigsaw \u003c\/i\u003e(short-listed for the 1989 Booker Prize), and \u003ci\u003eA Favourite of the Gods\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eA Compass Error\u003c\/i\u003e. She married Walter Bedford in 1935 and lived briefly in America during World War II, before returning to England. She was a prolific travel writer, the author of a two volume biography of her friend Huxley, and a legal journalist, covering nearly one hundred trials. In 1981 she was awarded the Order of the British Empire.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eDaniel Mendelsohn \u003c\/b\u003ewas born in 1960 and studied classics at the University of Virginia and at Princeton. His essays and reviews appear regularly in \u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e. His books include \u003ci\u003eThe Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million\u003c\/i\u003e; a memoir, \u003ci\u003eThe Elusive Embrace\u003c\/i\u003e; and two collections of critical essays, including \u003ci\u003eWaiting for the Barbarians: Essays from the Classics to Pop Culture\u003c\/i\u003e, published by New York Review Books. He teaches literature at Bard College.","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300092498149,"sku":"NP9781681370569","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781681370569.jpg?v=1767720454","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/a-favourite-of-the-gods-and-a-compass-error-isbn-9781681370569","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}