BRIGHT YOUNG PEOPLE: THE RISE AND FALL OF A GENERATION 1918-1940 DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK D. J. Taylor | 336 pages | 02 Oct 2008 | Vintage Publishing | 9780099474470 | English | London, United Kingdom Bright Young People They have brains but they focus more on throwing outrageou I'm not sure how I came across this book but the name sounded cool, 'Bright Young People'. In addition, the sourcing is not what I would call sufficient. No, it's not the story of Lauren and Heidi or Paris and Lindsey. The author constantly goes into tedious detail where it is not warranted. Somehow the marriage doesn't take. Hell I'd like to be a part of a group known as the Bright Young People, fun but also smart. Taylor finishes with the death throes of the BYP culture in the advent of World War Two, and completes the book with a rather hasty round-up of the final years of his central characters This leaves the reader confused in a morass of names and events with only the loosest grasp of who any of the Bright Young People really are. The parties and Treasure Hunts of the 's aren't covered any depth of detail. Part of this was due to the carnage wrought among aristocratic families, which gave an element of survivor guilt to the BYP's frivolity. They had no special talent or skills so how much can you write about them? The survivors lived Bright Young People: The Rise and Fall of a Generation 1918-1940 a world where the older generations were discredited and traditional social structures faced increasing economic pressures. A scathing remark from a character in Bury Her Deep that he was not a bright young person reminded me that I had this waiting to be read, so I cracked it open. In this book, sometimes moving and always entertaining, DJ Taylor examines one of England's first celebrity cultures, that of the "Bright Young People" of the s. Of Taylor's principal subjects, Elizabeth Ponsonby and Brian Howard an aspiring novelist both became alcoholics, and Brenda Dean Paul "It" girl of the day fell victim to heroin. Brand new: Lowest price The lowest-priced brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item in its original packaging where packaging is applicable. Other editions. The Ponsonbys were neither idle nor rich: Elizabeth's father was a senior Labour minister. As someone who has always described myself as an "old soul," I have a natural predisposition to understanding and appreciating the past. It would have benefited greatly from tighter editing to cut repetition and correct a tendency to wander. You sense the lack of direction, too young for the war and therefore lacking a certain cachet. No ratings or reviews yet No ratings or reviews yet. Taylorexpertlyconnects Bright Young People: The Rise and Fall of a Generation 1918-1940 shrill game-playing to memorable depictions of it in Waugh'sVile Bodies, Powell'sAfternoon Menand Henry Green'sParty Going, while never neglecting the actual achievements of their lesser peers e. The victims were an odd assortment of nobility and the well connected and for them the post World War I years were marked by party going and a failure to live up to This book is about two groups of people, successes and victims. By placing generational tensions and tenderness center- stage, Taylor gives his booka beating emotional heart. Letters from Lockdown. The "off" amount and percentage simply signifies the calculated difference between the seller-provided price for the item elsewhere and the seller's price on eBay. Taylor's collective history of their group. Taylor manages to dig beneath the glittering surface where for every success story Evelyn Bright Young People: The Rise and Fall of a Generation 1918- 1940 and Cecil Beaton both launched very successful careers via the opportunities the Bright Young People scene afforded them there were also tales of failure and tragedy. I picked up Robert Graves' The Long Weekend, a social history of which is a terrific, idiosyncratic read and then plunged into Bright Young People. There's a joke to be made here about being addicted to parties but I'm going to skip it. Even if you think you know a lot or enough about them; even if you''ve read the acerbic novels of the early Evelyn Waugh or plowed your way through Anthony Powell''s A Dance to the Music of Timethere''s bound to be material here you haven''t seen or heard of. A footnote to the BYP extravaganza is that Hollywood took to the idea like a fish to water and before long the outlandish endurance-partying and staged stunts of the idle rich became a regular theme. Taylor has a nice way with a one-liner 'The books Brian Howard never wrote would fill a decent-sized shelf'and is excellent on the evolution of BYP argot. Return to Book Page. Dec 10, Ari rated it liked it Shelves: read-in Stock photo. He dismisses the majority of the main characters as silly, empty headed and affe I am not totally sure why D. Only these few had any lasting power. While boys struggled with their sense of inadequacy, upper-class girls had problems of their own. Aaron MahnkeDelilah S. But Wilfred Owen's bitter perception that young men had died to fulfil the aims of the old was not forgotten. He looks down on the phenomenon of the BYP's and thus spends very little time concentrating on the rise of the BYP - but relishes the fall. I thoroughly enjoyed this moving and informative account of the s British band of pleasure-seeking bohemians and blue blooded socialites that comprised the "Bright Young People". It's impressive, how the author managed to take such an inherently exciting topic and make it dull as dishwater. Why am I doing all the work? But, if you aren't already an aficionado of the Bright Young Things, I don't think this would be a good introduction. The Bright Young People burned bright and fast, falling into ruin and disipation. Average rating 3. Bright Young People: The Rise and Fall of a Generation 1918-1940 Beaton, Elizabeth Ponsonby, the Jungman sisters, Patrick Balfour, Diana and Nancy Mitford, Bri I thoroughly enjoyed this moving and informative account of the s British band of pleasure-seeking bohemians and blue blooded socialites that comprised the "Bright Young People". Bright Young People: The Rise and Fall of a Generation 1918-1940 The subjects are upper class twenty-somethings in the s London. My latest conquest in the last department is a book called Bright Young People: The Lost Generation of London's Jazz Age, which is a thorough recreation and examination of the life and times of the budding British elite in the roaring '20s. Many of them worked, since the war had loosened things up for them. J Taylor disapproved of them. No ratings or reviews yet No ratings or reviews yet. While their parents might have thought of them as the scourge of the country with their depravity, the public couldn't get enough of reading about the antics of these young partygoers. DJ Taylor writes in a methodical and structured manner, utilising the resources of memoirs and diaries from the central BYP characters, and also from their parents and other relatives, to give an immediacy to the critical commentary on this turbulent social period. Drawing on the writings and reminiscences of the Bright Young People themselves, D. An outlook, a ge, Taylor, for years a journalist, is fascinated by--and authoritative on--the lucrative relationship forged between the shrewdest of the Bright Young People and the glamour-hunting press. The bruising impact between a traditional aristocracy and modernity was not as universally destructive as Taylor's choice of exemplary lives suggests. The whole scene had me entranced. And while it is funny to think about what a reality show with Elizabeth Ponsonby or Evelyn Waugh would have been like, in the end would the show be any more captivating then any current reality TV? There is some interesting information here, but it is lost in a morass of insignificant detail. About D. Dec 10, Ari rated it liked it Shelves: read- in Against the hapless Brenda Dean Paul, we might set the blue-blooded, indefatigably pleasure-seeking Olivia Wyndham, similarly addicted to heroin and cocaine, who fell in love with a black actress, pulled herself together, and spent the rest of a longish, apparently happy life in Harlem. For instance, the pathetic but rather dazzling, I must say, based on a photo published in the book morphine addict Brenda Dean Paul comes in for some heavy-handed snarky Lindsay Lohan treatment. He dismisses the majority of the main characters as silly, empty headed and affe I am not totally sure why D. Readers also enjoyed. I know it's hard to condense Bright Young People: The Rise and Fall of a Generation 1918-1940 book's narrative down so that you engage your reader as well as give Bright Young People: The Rise and Fall of a Generation 1918-1940 enough detail without spoiling the book, heck I do it with every book review I write. Their dealings with the media foreshadowed our modern celebrity culture and even today,we can detect their influence in our cultural life. The book gets a little bit repetitive because the costume parties, slangy quips, and rebellion against parents were a bit repetit This was a very well-written, well-organized, enjoyable and subtle history of a select set of wealthy and elite and would-be wealthy and elite English youth in the s.