Gore Vidal used to gripe that every morning a tourist boat would pass below his cliff-hugging villa on the turquoise waters of the Gulf of Salerno—a vertiginous one thousand feet below, to be exact. He could hear the tour guide announce his name with her microphone, pointing out the house to sightseers, but to his chagrin, he couldn’t decipher what they were saying about him. There are many ways the guide could have described the maestro hibernating inside La Rondinaia, his chalk-white abode in Ravello: fiction writer, celebrity intellectual, acid-tongued wit, pro-promiscuity gay icon, occasional talk show brawler, Hollywood screenwriter, collector of bold-faced friends.
No doubt Vidal would have preferred to be remembered as the most astute diagnostician of the illnesses plaguing the American Empire (or the United States of Amnesia, as he liked to call his homeland). Since his death in 2012, I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard friends wish that the patrician sage were alive to shed light on the wild turns of the past decade. It’s as if our own ears are straining across an unspannable void for one last audience with Vidal. Instead we have only the material that writers leave in their wake: the bulk of their literary work.
But there is another way to chart this literary lion’s peripatetic rise. Like Edith Wharton and Ernest Hemingway, Vidal used his private homes as extensions of his outsize personality. They weren’t simply domestic sanctuaries but carefully engineered showrooms for myth-building and social maneuvering. “He used his home like a stage set,” says filmmaker and writer Matt Tyrnauer, Vidal’s literary executor. “And he could use it to either entertain or intimidate.”
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Denne historien er fra Summer 2022-utgaven av Town & Country US.
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Jersey, JE ΤΙΜΕ
Nearly 50 years ago a museum opened in Paris.
THE HUNGER GAMES
Two former bons amis grew up in the same expensive suburb and cut their teeth together in the Paris nightclub scene. Then they launched competing restaurant empires, and the gloves came off. Now one of them is facing a suspended prison sentence and a huge fine. Welcome to the city's most delicious grudge match.
HIDDEN in Plain Sight
T&C was invited into the private archives and secret workshops of Paris, to glimpse the treasures that have made this city famous for its style and craftsmanship. It's a reputation worth fighting for.
GUARDIAN of Objects
Laura Kugel is the go-to art dealer for the world's most discerning clients, but her family's Paris wonderland is open to all. Come inside, won't you?
Ecole! Elysée! SCANDALE!
The path to the French White House requires a political education at one of the country's elite universities. As controversy swirls around Sciences Po-class treason, #MeToo à la française, creeping le wokisme-will its grip on power finally slip?
Are There Still Mysteries in Paris?
Surely not, in the world's most visited city! And yet: Why is the Louvre called the Louvre? Why do the upper stories of its 17th-century buildings tilt in? Why do even familiar streets feel so enticing, unknown? One thing is clear: So many of us return because the City of Light is really one of mesmerizing shadows.
High SEAS
How seductive is a cruise on an ultraluxury ship (yes, that's a category) like the new Regent Seven Seas Grandeur? So much so that a 132-day sailing sold out in three hours. It was time to investigate.
The Cruise Cure
One definition of bliss at sea is padding down a ship's hallway from your suite to the spa in a robe and slippers. Here's what awaits.
Only a Day to Spare?
These hotel spas-mini-me's of destination, health retreats punch way above their weight. So, if you're in the neighborhood...
So, Where Do You Ride in Paris?
A fancy equestrian's guide to the best of Gallic galloping.