Aline Countess of Romanones Message Board
Angela posts on 4/23/2011 12:56:57 AM
Okay! This is some good discussion we have going on. If we can just get past the mud flinging, we can actually have some meaningful thoughts to ponder. MarkM, in my opinion, the Countesses books are way different than Frey's bogus memoir. First of all, Aline had to disguise people and change places and events to protect people. She says right in the preface of each book why she wrote them the way she did. It makes perfect sense to me, and to be honest, I would question the integrity of a person who would be so revealing in detail as to cause harm to the characters in the book. As I understand it, Mr. Huddleston is married to a daughter of Edmundo Lasalle, or the spy Tophat in Aline's books. Correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Huddleston. Mark, Tophat is the dashing sidekick that introduces newcomer Aline to Spain's high society.
Triall1c posts on 4/22/2011 8:05:48 PM
Today I took out my copy of The Story of Pascualete also known as An American in Spain and The Earth Rests Lightly. I remembered the chapter, Holy Week in Trujillo and wanted to re-read. It gave me such a good feeling! I hope the Countess is there now, doing and experiencing the same wonderful traditions that she has always enjoyed.
MarkM posts on 4/22/2011 5:35:54 PM
Robert, I know in Frey's case, Random House offered to refund the money of any reader who bought A Million Little Pieces before the truth came to light, and of course he was dropped from book deals, and in some of the other cases you cite, I read that the publishers demanded that the authors and their agents return all monies to them, but I am wondering, was there ever a case where a memoir which later proved false led to fraud charges being filed? Another question, in cases where these memoirs turned out to be untrue, were there any cases where unflattering portrayals of third parties in the memoirs resulted in libel or defamation of character suits? I figured you might have researched the last answer since you seem to have a particular interest in Romanone's portrayal of Edmundo Lasalle (though I can't say I remember this person or what she wrote about him).
Roseanne H posts on 4/22/2011 3:41:40 PM
Angela, I agree with you that Elinor Donahue strongly resembles the Countess and can easily play her in the present day. I am still trying to figure out who could play the younger Aline Griffith. The Countess had once mentioned Katie Holmes to me, which would be a great choice. I hope someone makes a movie soon. By the way, I do not use certain punctuations in my posts, because they appear as meaningless characters on this message board, like MarkM and Huddleston. Sorry, I could not resist that one.
Roseanne H posts on 4/22/2011 12:43:30 PM
It is so pathetic that MarkM cannot seem to get a grip, to use his words, as he continues to twist the comments of others to boost his low self esteem. He criticizes people incessantly, even those who have tried to politely reason with him, and then he quotes the bible. How hypocritical and sad. He writes that he wishes to QUOTE stimulate a little intelligent discussion here END QUOTE, insinuating that the previous discussions are not intelligent, and that he QUOTE will ignore all the attempts to shout over me or bully me out END QUOTE, when it is he who has bullied people, as I stated in my post of April 14. It is quite apparent that MarkM has joined this board to wreak troll havoc, and when we object to the name calling and insults, he ignores his offenses by suggesting that we QUOTE get back to more interesting discussion topics END QUOTE. Robert Huddleston, who, as I have noted before, has the same modus operandi as MarkM, refers to our comments as a QUOTE childish cat fight END QUOTE. I think that Huddleston and MarkM should start a message board of their own.
MarkM posts on 4/22/2011 11:42:38 AM
Thanks Robert, appreciate it. Oh, and Anita, thanks for the suggestion of Enigma, I did see it in the theatre when it came out, but your mentioning it here reminds me that it's worth another viewing.
Robert Huddleston posts on 4/22/2011 11:02:29 AM
Mark: Here are three excellent books dealing with the issue.
FICTIONS IN AUTOBIOGRAPHY: STUDIES IN THE ART OF SELF-INVENTION by John Eakin
MEMOIR: A HISTORY by Ben Yagoda
And my fovorite EMPIRE OF ILLUSION: THE END OF LITERACY AND THE TRIUMPH OF SPECTACLE by Chris Hedges
Good luck,
MarkM posts on 4/22/2011 9:29:43 AM
Well, Anita, your explanation doesn't quite make sense in light of the context, but whatever. Back to more interesting discussion topics, what are your thoughts on what I talked about before, with Frey, and the issue of public and publishing world expectations about the fidelity of memoirs to fact, versus attitudes expressed here about it being okay that Romanones embellished since the core of her stories is true?
Anita posts on 4/21/2011 10:56:33 PM
To Mark M.: Please read that post correctly,as I said, "Avanti" which only means in Italian:Move forward. I DID NOT tell you to go away.
Therefore, let's move forward, discuss books, and enjoy it. If you did not see the movie "Enigma" you might enjoy it. I did.
MarkM posts on 4/21/2011 7:29:43 PM
Thanks, Robert, I'm going to try to do my part, stimulate a little intelligent discussion here, and ignore all the attempts to shout over me or bully me out. True at First Light is another great example, better than mine, actually, I wish I had thought of it. Hadn't heard of the Three Cups of Tea case, I'll have to look that up. Your project sounds very interesting, definitely something I would read.
Click Here for Messages:
1 - 10
11 - 20
21 - 30
31 - 40
41 - 50
51 - 60
61 - 70
71 - 80
81 - 90
91 - 100
101 - 110
111 - 120
121 - 130
131 - 140
141 - 150
151 - 160
161 - 170
171 - 180
181 - 190
191 - 200
Note: the views expressed here are only those of the posters.
