Sybille Bedford English writer, member of the Royal Society of Literature, vice-president of the English PEN Club. Date of Birth: 16.03.1911 Country: Great Britain

1. Biography of Sybille Bedford
2. Early Life and Family
3. Time in Sanary-sur-Mer
4. Writing and Personal Interests

Biography of Sybille Bedford

Sybille Bedford was an English writer, a member of the Royal Literary Society, and the vice-president of the English PEN Club. She gained fame for the power and beauty of her writing style, the precision of her observations, and the richness of her associative text. Among her fans were renowned stylists such as Evelyn Waugh, whose review of her novel "A Legacy" in the 1970s sparked new interest in her works and led to their reissue.

Early Life and Family

Sybille Bedford was born into the family of a bankrupt German aristocrat, Baron Maximilian Josef von Schoenebeck, and Elizabeth Bernar. Elizabeth, much younger than her husband, quickly grew tired of family life and left her husband and daughter. The Baron remained living with his daughter in the castle, but due to financial difficulties, they only used a few rooms. Sybille's only amusement as a young girl was playing cards in the evenings, while her days were dedicated to household chores, such as taking care of the chickens and the garden.

In 1920, when Sybille was 9 years old, her mother unexpectedly demanded to see her. During this time, Baron von Schoenebeck fell ill and died. Thus, Sybille was left in the care of her mother. At the age of 9, she couldn't read or write and only spoke German. Elizabeth decided to fill the gaps in her daughter's education and sent her to London, where she hired a couple as tutors whom she had met by chance at a hotel. However, these tutors were unable to provide Sybille with the necessary education. Nevertheless, she learned to listen in English, which became her second native language. Her third language, which she mastered perfectly, was French.

Time in Sanary-sur-Mer

In the early 1920s, as a young woman, Sybille found herself in the fishing village of Sanary-sur-Mer, near Toulon. Here, she was surrounded by an intellectual society consisting of writers, critics, and artists who had emigrated from Nazi Germany. Among them were Thomas and Heinrich Mann, the Zweig brothers, and Bertolt Brecht.

In 1927, the English writer Aldous Huxley visited Sanary-sur-Mer. It was he who supported 16-year-old Sybille's desire to become a writer. Later, in 1935, he arranged a fictitious marriage for her with Walter Bedford, a friend of the Huxley family and a homosexual. This marriage helped Sybille leave for the United States during World War II and later return to England. It was after her return to England that Sybille Bedford truly began to consider herself an English writer. She compared her situation to that of Joseph Conrad and Vladimir Nabokov, as she had achieved a high level of stylistic mastery in a foreign language.

Writing and Personal Interests

Sybille Bedford's writing career was not conventional. Up to sixteen years could pass between her novels. She admitted to having "too much laziness" or the "joy of life," which equated literature with her other interests, such as friendship, engaging conversations, good food, and wine. In the latter two areas, she was considered one of the best connoisseurs in Europe and wrote extensively about them for magazines. Sybille referred to herself as a "woman of letters" and was often called the "woman of the century." Her entire life could be seen as one long work, where real events flowed onto the pages of her books. In a sense, Bedford's books were always memoirs of life, and her personal habits had such deep roots that each of them could be the subject of a separate book.

"Visitors to a Summer" (1953) was Sybille Bedford's first book. It was written after her journey to Mexico, which she undertook before leaving America for Europe. The book was published when the author was already in her forties. While it vividly conveyed her impressions, thoughts, and observations, it deliberately concealed any personal information about herself. Essentially, "Visitors to a Summer" is a travelogue. It is filled with beautiful descriptions of Mexican landscapes, scenes, literary quotes, historical references, and also contains a small novel about a bankrupt aristocrat living amidst a world that is ready to disappear. In the same way, Bedford describes Mexico as a convergence of multiple nationalities, a place "removed" from world events. Mexico is a country that combines the incompatible, a luxurious yet inhospitable place for most people, a country that can only be loved.