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Title: Enchantress: Marthe Bibesco and Her World by Christine Sutherland, Seamus Heaney, Derek Walcott ISBN: 0374148147 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 1997 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $30.00

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Average Customer Rating: 4

Rating: 5
Summary: Account from descendant of the princess
Comment: In November, 1920, my grandfather was born, son of the cousin of Princess Marthe's husband, Prince Gheorghe Bibescu. I found 'Enchantress' an absolutely fascinating book, as Sutherland has managed to open a gateway of knowledge about my family history, much of the personal details peviousely inknown to me. I never truely realised the fame in literary circles that my grandfather's aunt held.
Princess Marthe Bibescu led a fascinating life. She experienced extreme wealth, power and fame, as well as that where she was forced to write to earn a living for her family, under the devastating regime of communism. Brought into a world of glittering jewels and fine titles by her fun loving princely husband, Marthe had to dismiss her natural humbleness, but failed, leading to a stormy marriage. Christine Sutherland's work should be commended. She has entered the minds of Romanian elite, and brings to us a look in af the lives of some of Europe's most influencial people. The details within the book are astounding, everything is described as if the author was standing with the princess, almost as a hand maiden every step of the way. Only she has the ability to provide us a gateway into a life of desperation, a life of privelage, and a life wasted with a quest to find eternal happiness. A truly dramtic life, both blessed and cursed, is uncovered within 300 pages of prose that intrigues the mind. After the first magical page, you would be mad to not see why the book is titled "Enchantress".
I'm not a critic. I'm just a relative of this extraordinary princess, who thuroughly enjoyed a compilation of humourous, dramatic, and tragic tales of a life of one of Europe's most substancial ladies. A book that will open the eyes and the mind.

Rating: 3
Summary: Fair in love and war, by dint of placement
Comment: Like Romania, her country of origin, Marthe Bibesco was beautiful, complex, and hard done by. A truly gifted intellectual, adored by aristocrat and adventurer alike, she also inspired loyalty with her courage in wartime. Yet as I read through this pleasant, well written biography I realized that perhaps the lion's share of Marthe's charm was her privilege and access. It isn't that her life isn't interesting, although she herself at this remove of time can only come through as a whisper of her full force. But take away the palaces and noble lovers and this tale loses a deal of its individual flavor. I'd have enjoyed more excerpts from her writings; perhaps it's time for those to be rediscovered, and she can be celebrated as writer not princess. They're both hard lives to lead, in a way, and at least the former role wouldn't smack of fairy-tale.

Rating: 4
Summary: In the World of Yesterday
Comment: The life story of this remarkable roumanian writer, Marthe Bibesco - a muse present at the theater of major events in 20th century Europe - unfolds a vivid picture of the aristocracy, the refined belle époque and the exquisitely cosmopolitan intelligentsia to which she belonged and in which she flourished. The reader will certainly relish the impeccable account of events, the love stories, the war stories, the society gossip of celebrities and the descriptions of social and political gatherings where history was shaped and, although he might come to love and admire this intelligent, courageous and successful woman, he will not get to know her as a writer who covered a vast range of subjects (and at times wrote under a different name for a different public) because very few quotes from her work are to be found in this biograpfy and excerpts from her diary and from her letters reveal more facts than feeling. It remains to be seen whether the nostalgia of the old or the curiosity of the young are sufficiently roused through Sutherland's book and whether Bibesco will be read and acclaimed again.