I've been reading memoirs, diaries and letters since a few decades, and that's indeed one of the recurring red threads. Whether or not a memoir is interesting is not always related whether person writing it is fascinating. Observational skills and writing ability trump that any time. (My most startling example of this was when I read Marlene Dietrich's memoirs. Which were incredibly dull. Which Marlene Dietrich really really wasn't. Nor does she come across thusly in anyone else's book, whether contemporary to her or written after the fact. And good lord, did she lead an interesting life and met interesting people. But the memoirs? Eh.
That is indeed shocking to me that they would be boring!
(But Richard Burton's aren't boring, from the excerpts you gave us! Though that also proves your point, because it's fascinating how he tells the stories and observes them more so than the actual facts of the stories, though those are also fascinating!)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: Macaulay - Miscellanea
I've been reading memoirs, diaries and letters since a few decades, and that's indeed one of the recurring red threads. Whether or not a memoir is interesting is not always related whether person writing it is fascinating. Observational skills and writing ability trump that any time. (My most startling example of this was when I read Marlene Dietrich's memoirs. Which were incredibly dull. Which Marlene Dietrich really really wasn't. Nor does she come across thusly in anyone else's book, whether contemporary to her or written after the fact. And good lord, did she lead an interesting life and met interesting people. But the memoirs? Eh.
Re: Macaulay - Miscellanea
(But Richard Burton's aren't boring, from the excerpts you gave us! Though that also proves your point, because it's fascinating how he tells the stories and observes them more so than the actual facts of the stories, though those are also fascinating!)