To me, Hermione Lee can do no wrong. I've loved her biographies of Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Bowen, and Willa Cather. I asked her, during the Harvard Bookstore event where she was showing this book, whether it was hard for her to write about a living male writer, and her answer was very illuminating. If I remember correctly, she didn't think much of the gender question, but the fact that he was still alive made her nervous. I think the gender question is one that only academics would be concerned with..

Hermione Lee, Tom Stoppard A Life, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Knopf,
23 Feb 2021.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof in exchange for an honest review.

Tom Stoppard A Life is an immense book – in concept, execution, and size. In case the last detail is daunting, Hermione Lee has used every bit of content, each word, the descriptions and observations with meticulous intent and elegance. Stoppard’s childhood, leaving behind the Nazi threat, escape to Singapore and early life in India, then to England which became a beloved haven and home; his family relationships, friendships and marriages; conservative politics, so often at odds with friends, partners and this reviewer; the peripatetic life following production of his plays; his plethora of other writing; and – so much joy here – descriptions of so many of the plays, the backgrounds, the rewriting, the highs and the lows.

The early part of Tom Stoppard’s life, as Tomik Straussler, child of Jewish Czechoslovakian refugees in Singapore, refers to his first memories, including knowing that his father must have been with the family on a beach he recalls, but has been lost to memory. His “Czech-ness” was less forgotten than unrealised, producing various responses throughout his life. So, too, did the forces that affected Europe and his ancestors, providing a fascinating start to this biography, introducing the family members and ties to a past that, by the time Stoppard meets the remaining members of his family have been lost. Throughout the biography there is a sense of loss which has been sensitively wrought through introducing this early historical perspective. The life of a successful writer, playwright, scriptwriter for Hollywood successes is more exciting; and the life of a loving son and father, of a husband and friend is more interesting. However, this early section of the book, for me, was particularly moving with its almost lyrical language weaving a story beside the fraught events impacting Stoppard’s ancestors and his own early life.

Stoppard’s beginnings as a journalist, borrowing money, loved wholeheartedly by his mother and unwillingly accepted by his stepfather are perceptively described in the early chapters. The enthralling world of burgeoning success is full of remarkable detail. So much time is given to discussing Stoppard’s manner of working, both with the initial script, then finding the most suitable actors, and working with them as the play came to fruition. Most generous is discussion of the plays. This was particularly illuminating, and a valuable resource for anyone who wants to try to understand, to become part of, or even to become fully immersed in Stoppard’s world on the stage.

Although the plays would be accepted as the focus of the biography, Lee gives far more. All Stoppard’s work is carefully considered, so the whole of his stupendous achievements in prose, poetry, theatre, and film are laid out to be relished. Stoppard’s personal life is an important part of the biography but does not take over – the biography not only describes his personal life as existing happily, and sometimes not, alongside his working life, but shows how full both were.

This is a thrilling biography, not only because of the stature of its subject, but because of the engaging writing, attention to detail, and perceptiveness of Hemione Lee. Long it may be, but boring never. I thoroughly enjoyed this engrossing and enlightening read.

Lee is one of the greatest living biographers, and that's obvious on every page here - everything is adroitly researched and impeccably written. Fans of Lee's previous biographies will find the same keen, inviting narrative tone throughout. If there's a problem, it's with her relationship to her subject: Stoppard authorized this biography and granted Lee access to many of the sources she uses. It's tough not to link this with the fact that Stoppard comes across on virtually every page as virtually perfect in virtually every way. Even if it's all true, it gets a bit wearying to read about all that perfection for hundreds of pages.

Hermione Lee's biography of Tom Stoppard is, predictably, well-researched and thorough. I found her analyses of the key Stoppard plays to be the most interesting aspect of this doorstop volume. In other areas, recapping various episodes of the author's life, her style becomes more "conversational," with blow-by-blow accounts of his upbringing, marriages, etc. Part of this tone evolves, I suspect, from Stoppard being alive & this being his "authorized" biography. It results in an abundance of details and very small facts, much like most literary biographies these days, that aren't compelling to the average reader. So, a mixed review for this effort.

New biography of Tom Stoppard, prolific playwright of ideas
An advance look at 'Tom Stoppard: A Life' by Hermione Lee, the British writer's chosen biographer, to be published in the U.S. February 23.

By Charles Green -January 27, 2021

Hermione Lee’s biography of Tom Stoppard is a comprehensive look at the life and work of one of the English language’s most accomplished playwrights. Lee, a prolific biographer of 20th century writers, including Virginia Woolf, follows Stoppard from his birth in Bata, Czechoslovakia in 1937 to the early closing of his most recent play, Leopoldstadt, in March 2020 due to the coronavirus. Stoppard has continually said how “lucky” he has been in his life, and this book seems to bear it out. Born Tomas Straussler, he and his family fled first to Singapore, then India when the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia. His father died trying to join them, but his mother would later marry Ken Stoppard and move her two sons to England. After working as a journalist in Bristol and London, including reviewing theater and film, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead launched him into fame. The play’s premiere at the National Theatre, after a middling run in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, was almost an accident, as their upcoming season was up in the air. Thanks to one great review, it became enormously popular, with audiences finding it “entrancingly cool, modern and desirable.”
Lee closely examines Stoppard’s work, considering his reputation as a “playwright of ideas”. He “often says that he starts from the idea rather than from the plot or the characters”. There is certainly some truth to this, as she reveals, for instance, that the first scene of Hapgood is a representation of “the two-slit experiment” in physics, or that “the shape of Arcadia mirrored the structure of fractal geometry”. Lee gives helpful explanations of quantum physics and chaos theory, as well as the history of these ideas. She also looks at his fascination with language games, having a troupe perform Hamlet, for instance, in the made-up language of “Dogg”. In Cahoot’s Macbeth, language becomes a way to resist an oppressive regime, through a performer speaking his role in Shakespeare’s play in “Dogg” and teaching the language to the other actors, as well as the audience.
Many of his plays, like After Magritte, begin with a scene that seems to make no sense, before revealing the logical explanation behind it. They surprise the audience, making them work to understand what is going on at first. Indeed, throughout this book, Stoppard explains, in interviews and rehearsals, his reluctance of “over-explaining” in his plays, wanting the audience to do some of the work while watching it.
While his intellectual side is certainly evident, Lee discusses the incredible human feeling in Stoppard’s work. For example, while the idea behind The Real Thing is certainly complex (the first scene being from the play of the writer introduced in the next scene,) its honest look at “love and marriage and friendship” feels powerful. Lee writes of the “personal effect” the play had on many people, citing a fan who wrote that couples might use the play’s lines to say “There-that-that’s what I mean. That’s what I was trying to say.” Stoppard admits that during this time, he was “shedding his protective skin”, expressing more emotion and being more vulnerable.
Although his plays are not strictly autobiographical, Lee shows how elements of his life found themselves in his work. Rock ‘n’ Roll was partly inspired by his wondering what his life might have been like if he had returned to Czechoslovakia after World War II and had to live under a Communist regime. His friendship with dissident writer and president Vaclav Havel, as well as Havel’s support of the Czech rock group Plastic People of the Universe, “only interested in music” but imprisoned for it, was also a major influence. Rosencrantz partly emerged from his memory of Peter O’Toole in Hamlet.
Lee also explores Stoppard’s screenwriting career. He has worked on many different films, perhaps the most surprising being for Cats, done because he loved the T.S. Eliot poems the musical is based on and enjoyed the “puzzle problem” of finding a plot into which he could put the songs; sadly, his version was not made. While he might be best known for Shakespeare in Love, it was not his idea or his title. Some of the films he has worked on uncredited include Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (dialogue between Indy and his father) and Hook.
Stoppard feels an extraordinary love for his adopted country, defending its institutions. He was a supporter of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, having lunch with her and Reagan. His friend Antonia Fraser comments that he was one of their most “right-wing” friends. Sometimes his conservative views caused disagreements between him and his other artist friends, as when he allowed productions of his plays in apartheid South Africa. Lee carefully explores his thinking, showing that he was interested in the freedoms offered in England, offered, especially that of the press, that were not available in many other places. In later years, he would take a more liberal view, perhaps, as Lee suggests, under the influence of his partner Sinead Cusack. Whereas in Night and Day, he argued that some hack journalism might be the price to pay for the press’ freedoms, more recently he has raised concern over the change in British media culture that led to the notorious eavesdropping scandals.
The book’s look at Stoppard’s personal life shows him to be honorable and loyal, even during difficult situations, such as his first wife Jose’s mental health struggles. While he grew up in a family that was not open with their feelings (his brother told him about their mother’s pregnancy with their half-sister), he formed lasting friendships and relationships. Even his exes have nothing but love for him. It is possible that this is because Stoppard is still alive and he chose Lee as his biographer, but he seems to inspire love. With an easy style, Tom Stoppard tells the compelling story of a talented, beloved writer.

Tom Stoppard: A Life by Hermione Lee
Knopf. 896 pages, $35.49. Publication date: February 23, 2021.