{"product_id":"a-favourite-of-the-gods-and-a-compass-error-paperback-1","title":"A Favourite of the Gods and a Compass Error - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eSybille Bedford\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eDaniel Mendelsohn\u003c\/b\u003e (Preface by)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\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. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\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.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\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. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\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.\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 512\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.1 x 8 x 5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e July 11, 2017\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47495365034205,"sku":"9781681370569","price":22.74,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0811\/9867\/8237\/files\/FMCtv5avMg9781681370569_257add37-2b57-4ac9-8183-0d0450597698.webp?v=1771972179","url":"https:\/\/handfulofbooks.com\/products\/a-favourite-of-the-gods-and-a-compass-error-paperback-1","provider":"Handful of Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}