90 Books & arts The Economist December 4th 2021
the West Indies in defiance of bilateral
agreements. And then there was the
strange case of the Italian castratoopera
star, whom King Felipe V of Spainwhisked
from London and made his personaldivo
in Madrid. One journal summedupthe
sentiment in Britain: “What are thetaking
of a few Ships, and the cutting offtheEars
of the Masters of our Merchantmen,tothe
loss of our dear, dear Farinello?”
The war proved disastrous forBritain.It
assembled an armada and intendedtoin
vade the Spanish ports at Cartagena(now
in Colombia), and Santiago, Cuba.TheCar
tagena operation was a fiasco, bogged
down by tropical weather, mosquitoborne
disease and indecisive leadership. Bad
planning and squabbling commanders
meant that the Santiago campaign was
over before it could even begin. Spainsuf
fered defeats of its own, failingto take
Georgia in the North Americancolonies.
Led by James Oglethorpe, the Britishjoined
Native Americans and used ambushesto
repel the larger Spanish force.
Among the engagements at seawasan
action at Porto Bello, Panama, whichyield
ed one of Britain’s few victories.MrGaudi,
though, is less interested in thedetailed
narration of naval fracases thaninsketch
ing some of the vivid characters who
fought them. The British succeededatPor
to Bello largely because of AdmiralEdward
Vernon, “boisterous and bellicose”, who
became an instant national hero. (The
song “Rule, Britannia!” was writteninthe
afterglow of his achievement.) On the
Spanish side was the pugnaciousDonBlas,
famous after an earlier incidentinwhich,
when he was only 15, his leg was amputated
in the heat of battle.
Why does this forgotten war matter
now? For two reasons, suggestsMrGaudi.
First, a different result could havechanged
the fate of North America. Had theSpanish
invasion of Georgia succeeded,hespecu
lates, Spain and not Britain mighthavebe
come the dominant imperial forceonthe
continent. Second, the war nurturedthe
resentment of Britain that ultimatelyledto
the American revolution. The British
recruited 3,000 Americans to fightinthe
Cartagena campaign, but held themback
from the vanguard out of mistrustandfear
of desertion.
The most heroic moment in thewar
came at the end, and softened thestingof
Britain’s dismal showing. In aneffortto
attack Spanish possessions fromthewest,
Britain had sent a fleet across thePacificin1740. Of the 1,600 men who set out,only 188
survived. But the flagship, Centurion, en
gaged and captured one of the fabled“Ma
nila galleons” near the PhilippinesinJune
1743. The prize was said to besoloaded
with gold and gems that it took 32wagons
to unload it on the docks of London.That
was some consolation for the king.n
CinemaroyaltyTwo faces of a star
S
hewaseverythingonscreenandnot
muchoffit.Thatistheconclusiontobe
drawnfromRobertGottlieb’sbiographyof
GretaGarbo,thelegendaryfilmstarofthe
1920sand1930s.“Wassheevenanactress,
orwasshemerelya gloriouspresence?”he
asks. Readers’ assessments of her glory
maydependontheirviewofhowmuch
personalmorality matters.Amillionaire
many times over, onher death in 1990
Garbobequeatheda pittancetoherlivein
maid;shefailedtoincreaseherannualtip
to the doorman of her building in
Manhattanfor 37 years.
LuxuriouslyattiredasAnnaKarenina
orMataHari,Garboshoneforthecamera.
Sheswooned, shewept,she ravishingly
died, a vision of unknowable Swedish
beauty.Thecostumieratmgmremarked
thatnoone elseworegownswithsuch
ease.Hergreyblueeyeswereherbestfea
tureanddazzledeveninblackandwhite.
As ateenager shebeguiled thedirector
MauritzStiller,whohelpedmakeherfam
ous.“Thereissomethingquiteextraordi
nary about that girl,” he said. “I must
discoverwhatit is.”
MrGottlieb,a formereditoroftheNew
Yorkeranda distinguishedbookpublisher,
is a trenchant critic and not easily
impressed. He listened to surreptitious
recordingsofGarbo’sphonecalls“untilI
wassoboredI couldn’tbeartogoon”.YetGarbo herself makes him giddy. She re
minds him “that life is not only difficult
and painful but also worth living”. That is
high praise from the editor of Toni
Morrison’s novels and the biographer of
Balanchine, a choreographer of genius.
A paradox runs through this astute and
entertaining book. It is a portrait of a cele
brated actor whose films are mostly terri
ble. “Susan Lenox” is a “hodgepodge of
nonsense”, says Mr Gottlieb; “TwoFaced
Woman” is “a ghastly mess”. Only
“Camille” and “Ninotchka” receive enthu
siastic praise—but even Garbo’s best films
now come across as gauzy melodramas at
best, camp spectacles at worst. She is the
main reason to watch any of them.
Even in an account as engaging as this,
though, she appears vapid in her private
life. She lacked intellectual curiosity, the
author reports, and was not especially wit
ty. She collected Renoirs but kept them
wrapped in cheesecloth. Her friends and
lovers (reputedly of both sexes) were
tossed away like handkerchiefs. Mr
Gottlieb’s judgment is questionable in its
generosity: “Certainly she used people
ruthlessly, but people wantedto be used by
her.” After professing an interest in the un
she was given a private tour, during which
she opined on the colour of the carpets.
Tellingly, Mr Gottlieb compares Garbo
to two other movie stars: Marilyn Monroe
and Meryl Streep. Although he praises Gar
bo’s acting, today anyone watching her
embrace a bouquet of flowers in “A Woman
of Affairs” may think she was overdoing it.
She seems better paired with Monroe, re
membered most for her allure and mys
tique, than with Ms Streep, a masterful
thespian with chameleonic powers.
Garbo was an icon rather than an artist,
famous for who she was rather than what
she did. “Maybe she wasn’t reallyveryin
teresting,” Mr Gottlieb concludes ofhis
elusive subject. “Who could tell?”nGarbo. By Robert Gottlieb. Farrar, Straus
and Giroux; 448 pages; $40. To be released
in Britain in January; £32The eyes of the beholder