The Economist - USA (20212-12-04)

86 Books & arts The Economist December 4th 2021

the  West  Indies  in  defiance  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 offtheEars

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  fiasco, 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 different 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  fightinthe

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  aneffortto

attack Spanish possessions fromthewest,

Britain had sent a fleet across thePacificin

1740. Of the 1,600 men who set out,only 188
survived.  But  the  flagship,  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

Cinemaroyalty

Two faces of a star

S

hewaseverythingonscreenandnot

muchoffit.Thatistheconclusiontobe

drawnfromRobertGottlieb’sbiographyof

GretaGarbo,thelegendaryfilmstarofthe

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”.Yet

Garbo  herself  makes  him  giddy.  She  re­

minds  him  “that  life  is  not  only  difficult

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  films  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 films

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 flowers in “A Woman

of Affairs” 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?”n

Garbo. By Robert Gottlieb. Farrar, Straus

and Giroux; 448 pages; $40. To be released

in Britain in January; £32

The eyes of the beholder