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Famous Last Words
In the final days of the Second World War, Hugh Selwyn Mauberley scrawls his desperate account on the walls and ceilings of his ice-cold prison high in the Austrian Alps. Officers of the liberating army discover his frozen, disfigured corpse and his astonishing testament - the sordid truth that he alone possessed. Fascinated but horrified, they learn of a dazzling array of characters caught up in a scandal and political corruption.Famous Last Words is part-thriller, part-horror story; it is also a meditation on history and the human soul and it is Findley's fine achievement that he has combined these elements into a web that constantly surprises and astounds the reader.
416 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
42 people are currently reading
1860 people want to read
About the author
Timothy Findley
57 books354 followersTimothy Irving Frederick Findley was a Canadian novelist and playwright. He was also informally known by the nickname Tiff or Tiffy, an acronym of his initials.
One of three sons, Findley was born in Toronto, Ontario, to Allan Gilmour Findley, a stockbroker, and his wife, the former Margaret Maude Bull. His paternal grandfather was president of Massey-Harris, the farm-machinery company. He was raised in the upper class Rosedale district of the city, attending boarding school at St. Andrew's College (although leaving during grade 10 for health reasons). He pursued a career in the arts, studying dance and acting, and had significant success as an actor before turning to writing. He was part of the original Stratford Festival company in the 1950s, acting alongside Alec Guinness, and appeared in the first production of Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker at the Edinburgh Festival. He also played Peter Pupkin in Sunshine Sketches, the CBC Television adaptation of Stephen Leacock's Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town.
Though Findley had declared his homosexuality as a teenager, he married actress/photographer Janet Reid in 1959, but the union lasted only three months and was dissolved by divorce or annulment two years later. Eventually he became the domestic partner of writer Bill Whitehead, whom he met in 1962. Findley and Whitehead also collaborated on several documentary projects in the 1970s, including the television miniseries The National Dream and Dieppe 1942.
Through Wilder, Findley became a close friend of actress Ruth Gordon, whose work as a screenwriter and playwright inspired Findley to consider writing as well. After Findley published his first short story in the Tamarack Review, Gordon encouraged him to pursue writing more actively, and he eventually left acting in the 1960s.
Findley's first two novels, The Last of the Crazy People (1967) and The Butterfly Plague (1969), were originally published in Britain and the United States after having been rejected by Canadian publishers. Findley's third novel, The Wars, was published to great acclaim in 1977 and went on to win the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction. It was adapted for film in 1981.
Timothy Findley received a Governor General's Award, the Canadian Authors Association Award, an ACTRA Award, the Order of Ontario, the Ontario Trillium Award, and in 1985 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada. He was a founding member and chair of the Writers' Union of Canada, and a president of the Canadian chapter of PEN International.
His writing was typical of the Southern Ontario Gothic style — Findley, in fact, first invented its name — and was heavily influenced by Jungian psychology. Mental illness, gender and sexuality were frequent recurring themes in his work. His characters often carried dark personal secrets, and were often conflicted — sometimes to the point of psychosis — by these burdens.
He publicly mentioned his homosexuality, passingly and perhaps for the first time, on a broadcast of the programme The Shulman File in the 1970s, taking flabbergasted host Morton Shulman completely by surprise.
Findley and Whitehead resided at Stone Orchard, a farm near Cannington, Ontario, and in the south of France. In 1996, Findley was honoured by the French government, who declared him a Chevalier de l'Ordre des arts et des lettres.
Findley was also the author of several dramas for television and stage. Elizabeth Rex, his most successful play, premiered at the Stratford Festival of Canada to rave reviews and won a Governor General's award. His 1993 play The Stillborn Lover was adapted by Shaftesbury Films into the television film External Affairs, which aired on CBC Television in 1999. Shadows, first performed in 2001, was his last completed work. Findley was also an active mentor to a number of young Canadian writers, including Marnie Woodrow and Elizabeth Ruth.
One of three sons, Findley was born in Toronto, Ontario, to Allan Gilmour Findley, a stockbroker, and his wife, the former Margaret Maude Bull. His paternal grandfather was president of Massey-Harris, the farm-machinery company. He was raised in the upper class Rosedale district of the city, attending boarding school at St. Andrew's College (although leaving during grade 10 for health reasons). He pursued a career in the arts, studying dance and acting, and had significant success as an actor before turning to writing. He was part of the original Stratford Festival company in the 1950s, acting alongside Alec Guinness, and appeared in the first production of Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker at the Edinburgh Festival. He also played Peter Pupkin in Sunshine Sketches, the CBC Television adaptation of Stephen Leacock's Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town.
Though Findley had declared his homosexuality as a teenager, he married actress/photographer Janet Reid in 1959, but the union lasted only three months and was dissolved by divorce or annulment two years later. Eventually he became the domestic partner of writer Bill Whitehead, whom he met in 1962. Findley and Whitehead also collaborated on several documentary projects in the 1970s, including the television miniseries The National Dream and Dieppe 1942.
Through Wilder, Findley became a close friend of actress Ruth Gordon, whose work as a screenwriter and playwright inspired Findley to consider writing as well. After Findley published his first short story in the Tamarack Review, Gordon encouraged him to pursue writing more actively, and he eventually left acting in the 1960s.
Findley's first two novels, The Last of the Crazy People (1967) and The Butterfly Plague (1969), were originally published in Britain and the United States after having been rejected by Canadian publishers. Findley's third novel, The Wars, was published to great acclaim in 1977 and went on to win the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction. It was adapted for film in 1981.
Timothy Findley received a Governor General's Award, the Canadian Authors Association Award, an ACTRA Award, the Order of Ontario, the Ontario Trillium Award, and in 1985 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada. He was a founding member and chair of the Writers' Union of Canada, and a president of the Canadian chapter of PEN International.
His writing was typical of the Southern Ontario Gothic style — Findley, in fact, first invented its name — and was heavily influenced by Jungian psychology. Mental illness, gender and sexuality were frequent recurring themes in his work. His characters often carried dark personal secrets, and were often conflicted — sometimes to the point of psychosis — by these burdens.
He publicly mentioned his homosexuality, passingly and perhaps for the first time, on a broadcast of the programme The Shulman File in the 1970s, taking flabbergasted host Morton Shulman completely by surprise.
Findley and Whitehead resided at Stone Orchard, a farm near Cannington, Ontario, and in the south of France. In 1996, Findley was honoured by the French government, who declared him a Chevalier de l'Ordre des arts et des lettres.
Findley was also the author of several dramas for television and stage. Elizabeth Rex, his most successful play, premiered at the Stratford Festival of Canada to rave reviews and won a Governor General's award. His 1993 play The Stillborn Lover was adapted by Shaftesbury Films into the television film External Affairs, which aired on CBC Television in 1999. Shadows, first performed in 2001, was his last completed work. Findley was also an active mentor to a number of young Canadian writers, including Marnie Woodrow and Elizabeth Ruth.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 103 reviews
December 30, 2022
I like what the book says, but not how it is said.
The author is knowledgeable and “clever” in the writing of this book, but his style doesn’t fit me.
Famous Last Words is about fascism and treason. Hugh Selwyn Mauberley is the central character. Timothy Findley, the author, has taken this character from a poem of the same name, written by Ezra Pound. In Findley’s story, Pound is Mauberley’s mentor, Mauberley is an up and coming novelist who, like Pound, is a supporter of fascism. The story plays out during the Second World War. It starts and ends in the Austrian Alps with the arrival of the Americans. Mauberley has hidden himself in a chalet up in the mountains, fearing their arrival. Having only a pencil but no paper, he writes on the walls and ceilings of four rooms of that which has transpired. It is a memoir he writes. The events of his life have taken him back and forth across Europe (Spain, Italy, Portugal, Croatia, France, England) and also China, the U.S. and the Bahamas. When the Americans do arrive, Mauberley is dead! Who has killed him and why?! An American captain orders his lieutenant to read all that has been written and report back to him. Their views differ. The telling switches from the present, with the arrival of the Americans in March 1945, back to events in the past that explain what has happened, i. e. the memoir scribbled on the walls. The memoir is written in the first person narrative and is thus easy to spot.
Mauberley Is a fictional character and so is the fascist cabal imagined in the tale. The events play out in the real world peopled by real figures such as Ezra Pound, Hemingway, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Hitler, Ribbentrop, Hess, Churchill and others.
Here follow my personal criticisms:
Findley mixes fact and fiction in a way I do not like. He starts with true facts and then bends them into a fictional mystery and adventure tale.
The multitude of facts, fictional and factual, becomes confusing. To understand what is going on I needed to reread many sections--not because I enjoyed them but because this was necessary to understand what had occurred.
Fictional elements are farfetched and unbelievable. The scribbled memoir and the role played by the Duke and Duchess of Windsor are not credible, two mere examples of many.
The forward movement of the tale is jumpy, jerky. It drags and then it spurts ahead.
There is a jocular, flippant tone to the telling. We are meant to see the irony of events and to laugh. The mix of the funny and the horrific is not to my liking. There is way too much shallow “party and cocktail talk”.
The book is too long and drawn out.
I do not think Mauberley is convincingly portrayed as a fascist. Other than his originally being Pound’s protégé, his path toward fascism is not well conveyed. This is a grave fault!
I listened to Findley’s story translated into Swedish, this being what was available to me. The narrator, Tore Bengtsson, speaks clearly and emphatically. The words are easy to hear. His narration this time is better than those of his I have listened to previously. Four stars for the audio narration.
As stated at the start, I admire the author’s knowledge. He drops a huge quantity of true facts into the telling. I dislike how he then takes possible interpretations and hypotheses expands, bends and molds them into fiction to deliver a supposedly exciting and humorous tale. I did not laugh. I believe the author wants to convey a message. He is telling his readers to not forget the horrors of the Second World War. On this he has my agreement, and yet, I have not enjoyed the time spent with this book. Please do note that I have given another book by the author a whopping five stars!
***************************
*The Wars 5 stars
*Famous Last Words 1 star
Thank you, Dan Witte and Rosemarie, for recommending this Canadian author to me.
I would like to also try the author’s two books The Piano Man's Daughter and The Last of the Crazy People, the latter recommended by Sandy.
The author is knowledgeable and “clever” in the writing of this book, but his style doesn’t fit me.
Famous Last Words is about fascism and treason. Hugh Selwyn Mauberley is the central character. Timothy Findley, the author, has taken this character from a poem of the same name, written by Ezra Pound. In Findley’s story, Pound is Mauberley’s mentor, Mauberley is an up and coming novelist who, like Pound, is a supporter of fascism. The story plays out during the Second World War. It starts and ends in the Austrian Alps with the arrival of the Americans. Mauberley has hidden himself in a chalet up in the mountains, fearing their arrival. Having only a pencil but no paper, he writes on the walls and ceilings of four rooms of that which has transpired. It is a memoir he writes. The events of his life have taken him back and forth across Europe (Spain, Italy, Portugal, Croatia, France, England) and also China, the U.S. and the Bahamas. When the Americans do arrive, Mauberley is dead! Who has killed him and why?! An American captain orders his lieutenant to read all that has been written and report back to him. Their views differ. The telling switches from the present, with the arrival of the Americans in March 1945, back to events in the past that explain what has happened, i. e. the memoir scribbled on the walls. The memoir is written in the first person narrative and is thus easy to spot.
Mauberley Is a fictional character and so is the fascist cabal imagined in the tale. The events play out in the real world peopled by real figures such as Ezra Pound, Hemingway, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Hitler, Ribbentrop, Hess, Churchill and others.
Here follow my personal criticisms:
Findley mixes fact and fiction in a way I do not like. He starts with true facts and then bends them into a fictional mystery and adventure tale.
The multitude of facts, fictional and factual, becomes confusing. To understand what is going on I needed to reread many sections--not because I enjoyed them but because this was necessary to understand what had occurred.
Fictional elements are farfetched and unbelievable. The scribbled memoir and the role played by the Duke and Duchess of Windsor are not credible, two mere examples of many.
The forward movement of the tale is jumpy, jerky. It drags and then it spurts ahead.
There is a jocular, flippant tone to the telling. We are meant to see the irony of events and to laugh. The mix of the funny and the horrific is not to my liking. There is way too much shallow “party and cocktail talk”.
The book is too long and drawn out.
I do not think Mauberley is convincingly portrayed as a fascist. Other than his originally being Pound’s protégé, his path toward fascism is not well conveyed. This is a grave fault!
I listened to Findley’s story translated into Swedish, this being what was available to me. The narrator, Tore Bengtsson, speaks clearly and emphatically. The words are easy to hear. His narration this time is better than those of his I have listened to previously. Four stars for the audio narration.
As stated at the start, I admire the author’s knowledge. He drops a huge quantity of true facts into the telling. I dislike how he then takes possible interpretations and hypotheses expands, bends and molds them into fiction to deliver a supposedly exciting and humorous tale. I did not laugh. I believe the author wants to convey a message. He is telling his readers to not forget the horrors of the Second World War. On this he has my agreement, and yet, I have not enjoyed the time spent with this book. Please do note that I have given another book by the author a whopping five stars!
***************************
*The Wars 5 stars
*Famous Last Words 1 star
Thank you, Dan Witte and Rosemarie, for recommending this Canadian author to me.
I would like to also try the author’s two books The Piano Man's Daughter and The Last of the Crazy People, the latter recommended by Sandy.
August 11, 2011
My favorite book of all time, by my favorite author of all time. Timothy Findley's works are amazing...you can tell he was an actor also because that kind of a theatrical sense comes through in his writing.
Loved this book, so if you get a chance to read it, you should.
Loved this book, so if you get a chance to read it, you should.
July 26, 2018
This is a wild ride; part thriller, part meditation on Europe in the 1930s and into the war. Findley uses an imagined narrator to mingle with the likes of Hemingway, Ezra Pound and (most importantly) the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Hugh Mauberley (the narrator) bumps into Wallis during her China days, and thereafter is present for most of her big life moments: the cruise of the Nahlin, the wedding and the sojourn in the Bahamas. Findley's Wallis is part of an Illuminati-type group headed by von Ribbentrop and Hess, among others. The idea that either of those two nitwits could successfully manage a covert ops while in the midst of Hitler's inner circle is ludicrous. It is a tribute to Findley's writing skill that he manages to make it credible. Sort of. Add Wallis and a truly addled Duke of Windsor to the mix? Sure, why not?Although I am not exactly sure why Findley uses Mrs. Simpson and her third husband for plot purposes. Wallis' chief personality characteristic was her way with a wisecrack, and while the Duke was sort of a fascist, it wasn't as though he was going to put himself out for anyone, let alone the Third Reich. As we now know, the Duke spent most of his energies trying to get Wallis an HRH and gardening. But at the time he wrote Famous Last Words, Findley lacked access to all sorts of material that has been published since; the sad letters to Ernest Simpson after her marriage to the Duke in which Wallis seems to regret leaving him, which pale next to the truly awful missives exchanged between the Duke and Duchess in the run up to their nuptials and occasionally thereafter. There is nothing other than babytalk and vindictiveness. No intelligence. These were the two dimbulbs Hitler planned to install upon the throne once England fell to his troops?
But Findley keeps the plot moving right along by employing the most outre literary inventions (wait until the bomb attack on a Government House fete, with Wallis striding through the panicked, burning mob a la Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman, all to rescue the Duke). Findley manages to work in the Harry Oakes murder before all realize that no, King Edward and Queen Wallis probably aren't going to work out. There is a nice swipe at Queen Mary along the way, for those who care.
Mauberley winds up in a Shining-style deserted hotel in the Alps at the end of the war, wanted by everyone. By the time the Americans find him, he is frozen solid and seriously disfigured by a brutal stabbing through the eye. He has also covered room after room with his memoirs, etching them into the walls with what must be some kind of pencil. One American officer is repulsed by Mauberley and another is inspired because he was such a good writer (it is to Findley's credit that the Mauberly voice is so good that we never doubt he was). The two Americans duel over the value of the memoirs. I can't remember which one wins, but it really doesn't matter.
I liked the book, although I feel vaguely guilty about that. Still, if this period is your dish, give it a try. Not recommended for people interested in the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, since neither of them was really much like Findley depicts them. If you accept the characters as inventions for plot purposes it's easier to take.
But Findley keeps the plot moving right along by employing the most outre literary inventions (wait until the bomb attack on a Government House fete, with Wallis striding through the panicked, burning mob a la Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman, all to rescue the Duke). Findley manages to work in the Harry Oakes murder before all realize that no, King Edward and Queen Wallis probably aren't going to work out. There is a nice swipe at Queen Mary along the way, for those who care.
Mauberley winds up in a Shining-style deserted hotel in the Alps at the end of the war, wanted by everyone. By the time the Americans find him, he is frozen solid and seriously disfigured by a brutal stabbing through the eye. He has also covered room after room with his memoirs, etching them into the walls with what must be some kind of pencil. One American officer is repulsed by Mauberley and another is inspired because he was such a good writer (it is to Findley's credit that the Mauberly voice is so good that we never doubt he was). The two Americans duel over the value of the memoirs. I can't remember which one wins, but it really doesn't matter.
I liked the book, although I feel vaguely guilty about that. Still, if this period is your dish, give it a try. Not recommended for people interested in the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, since neither of them was really much like Findley depicts them. If you accept the characters as inventions for plot purposes it's easier to take.
July 5, 2022
Like Doctorow's Ragtime or Coover's The Public Burning, Famous Last Words is a "historiographic metafiction," which is to say a fiction in which intertextual and historical characters are found on the same diegetic plane (the term is from Linda Hutcheon's A Poetics of Postmodernism). In this instance, Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, a character from a poem by Ezra Pound, interacts with such historic persons as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Charles Lindbergh and Hitler.
Acquired 1996
Footnotes, Montreal, Quebec
Acquired 1996
Footnotes, Montreal, Quebec
March 30, 2020
The famous last words of the title are the dying confession of writer Hugh Mauberley, scrawled onto the walls of the Austrian hotel where he died in mysterious circumstances near the conclusion of World War II.
They contain the story of an extraordinary fascist conspiracy involving Hitler, the exiled Duke and Duchess of Windsor (Wallace and Simpson) and Charles Lindberg. Are they true, or are they a complete fabrication?
Competing investigating soldiers Quinn and Freyberg try to uncover the mystery. Quinn is a fan of Mauberley's writing, while Freyberg is obsessed with bringing those responsible for Nazi war atrocities to justice.
This is a cracking alternative history novel and something more besides. The characters of Wallace and Simpson in particular are fascinatingly drawn, the dynamics in their relationship given an uncomfortable airing.
The balance of the opposing investigations, the deftness of the subtle manipulations of sympathies were impressively done. It helps if you know something about the life and work of poet Ezra Pound, awful man that he was.
I have also read a few of Findley's other novels and they were all vastly different and equally as good.
They contain the story of an extraordinary fascist conspiracy involving Hitler, the exiled Duke and Duchess of Windsor (Wallace and Simpson) and Charles Lindberg. Are they true, or are they a complete fabrication?
Competing investigating soldiers Quinn and Freyberg try to uncover the mystery. Quinn is a fan of Mauberley's writing, while Freyberg is obsessed with bringing those responsible for Nazi war atrocities to justice.
This is a cracking alternative history novel and something more besides. The characters of Wallace and Simpson in particular are fascinatingly drawn, the dynamics in their relationship given an uncomfortable airing.
The balance of the opposing investigations, the deftness of the subtle manipulations of sympathies were impressively done. It helps if you know something about the life and work of poet Ezra Pound, awful man that he was.
I have also read a few of Findley's other novels and they were all vastly different and equally as good.
March 7, 2013
A thrilling WWII spy drama blended with a poetic meditation on the guilt of those who supported or enabled fascism. Written with Findley's usual skill with language and ith pacing. A masterpiece by one of the great North-American writers of the second half of the 20thc. Why is he so unknown outside of Canada? I have no idea, but thanks to Bianca and Julie for getting him in my sights.
July 10, 2023
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor. What a strange pair from history. Adored and despised. Misunderstood and, seemingly, drunk all of the time.
Timothy Findley's Famous Last Words follows the post-abdication adventures/idle parlour visits of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. Findley, curiously, tells his tale through a fictional writer and fascist sympathizer, Hugh Mauberley. If you're like me (and not a history major), you'll find yourself pausing here and there to look up facts as you read this book. The great majority of the story is historically accurate, while Hugh Mauberley is a character from an Ezra Pound poem.
The writing is excellent - I liked how Findley managed to craft a spy story without any mention of spies or spying. The ambiguous position that the Duke and Duchess were in fascinates the reader as much as where Mauberley's loyalties lay. D & D loved Britain but did not live there and felt betrayed by her. Edward was a hero to romantics and a selfish coward to the dutiful. D & D were of value to both the Allies and the Axis powers. For a time, they were more welcome in Germany than in England.
There is also a keen message here about writing the truth - about the integrity of journalism. This is something that used to exist.
Timothy Findley's Famous Last Words follows the post-abdication adventures/idle parlour visits of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. Findley, curiously, tells his tale through a fictional writer and fascist sympathizer, Hugh Mauberley. If you're like me (and not a history major), you'll find yourself pausing here and there to look up facts as you read this book. The great majority of the story is historically accurate, while Hugh Mauberley is a character from an Ezra Pound poem.
The writing is excellent - I liked how Findley managed to craft a spy story without any mention of spies or spying. The ambiguous position that the Duke and Duchess were in fascinates the reader as much as where Mauberley's loyalties lay. D & D loved Britain but did not live there and felt betrayed by her. Edward was a hero to romantics and a selfish coward to the dutiful. D & D were of value to both the Allies and the Axis powers. For a time, they were more welcome in Germany than in England.
There is also a keen message here about writing the truth - about the integrity of journalism. This is something that used to exist.
July 13, 2008
I found this book on a trip to Canada and couldn't put it down. I sat for over an hour on the floor of a bookstore in Vancouver totally engrossed in Findley's story about the memoirs of an American fascist.
March 25, 2025
I only finished this farrago of nonsense because of how much I loved Timothy Findley's 'The Wars' otherwise I would have tossed it aside after fifty pages. This absurd, but not absurdist, over-the-top conspiracy fantasy, which seeks to create an alternate history of WWII and the years preceding it as masterminded by a cabal of powerful figures such as Rudolph Hess and Joachim von Ribbentrop plotting to put the Duke and Duchess of Windsor on a throne, any throne! Even in 1980 when this was published could anyone seriously consider Hess and Ribbentrop as serious players in history? 'The Illuminatus! Trilogy' by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson deserves more to be taken seriously as an 'alternate' history blue print then this grand guignol which doesn't gain any stature by now, in 2025, being described as 'meta-fiction' as some GR reviewers have.
Only because Timothy Findley is a fine writer and has written in 'The Wars' a novel which is one of my absolute favorites I am even bothering to review this novel. By elevating the Windsors to a central and proactive historical role he ends up giving those two tawdry figures a grandeur they don't deserve. Their contacts with the Nazis after the fall of France to arrange for the retrieval of their personal possessions says more about their moral vacuity then any invented proactive participation in treasonous conspiracies. Their ugliness was that of small, petty, selfish people, they are not movers and shakers, nor are they like Speer (see 'Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth' by Gitta Sereny) in their moral turpitude. They are like Louis Darquier de Pellepoix (and if, as it is likely, you have no idea who that revolting individual was you need to read 'Bad Faith: A Forgotten History of Family, Fatherland and Vichy France' by Carmen Callil).
But the greatest failure of this novel is the central character, the American writer Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, because although he is supposed to have become a happy collaborator with Fascism and Nazism at no point does Mr. Findley make his attachment believable. What Mr. Findley needed to create was a figure that would make us understand his choices, the choices of writers like Robert Brasillach and Louis-Ferdinand Celine. He doesn't, he can't, because Mr. Findley is unable to go into those dark corners of the human soul which attracted Braisillach and Celine.
This is a bad novel in so many ways but Findley's writing is compulsively, beautifully readable and it is only because of that I award it two stars. Although I bought the novel it is going straight into the donation to the charity shop pile. If every fiber in my nature was not set against destroying any book I would consign to the rubbish bin. But it won't stop me seeking out Timothy Findley's other novels and if, in the end, it is only 'The Wars' that I admire then Mr. Findley will remain for me a great writer.
Only because Timothy Findley is a fine writer and has written in 'The Wars' a novel which is one of my absolute favorites I am even bothering to review this novel. By elevating the Windsors to a central and proactive historical role he ends up giving those two tawdry figures a grandeur they don't deserve. Their contacts with the Nazis after the fall of France to arrange for the retrieval of their personal possessions says more about their moral vacuity then any invented proactive participation in treasonous conspiracies. Their ugliness was that of small, petty, selfish people, they are not movers and shakers, nor are they like Speer (see 'Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth' by Gitta Sereny) in their moral turpitude. They are like Louis Darquier de Pellepoix (and if, as it is likely, you have no idea who that revolting individual was you need to read 'Bad Faith: A Forgotten History of Family, Fatherland and Vichy France' by Carmen Callil).
But the greatest failure of this novel is the central character, the American writer Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, because although he is supposed to have become a happy collaborator with Fascism and Nazism at no point does Mr. Findley make his attachment believable. What Mr. Findley needed to create was a figure that would make us understand his choices, the choices of writers like Robert Brasillach and Louis-Ferdinand Celine. He doesn't, he can't, because Mr. Findley is unable to go into those dark corners of the human soul which attracted Braisillach and Celine.
This is a bad novel in so many ways but Findley's writing is compulsively, beautifully readable and it is only because of that I award it two stars. Although I bought the novel it is going straight into the donation to the charity shop pile. If every fiber in my nature was not set against destroying any book I would consign to the rubbish bin. But it won't stop me seeking out Timothy Findley's other novels and if, in the end, it is only 'The Wars' that I admire then Mr. Findley will remain for me a great writer.
October 24, 2018
Superb.
March 30, 2009
Timothy Findley (Tiff to his friends, of whom 2 were also mine) gave a talk about this book at our local library well before its release. The Duchess of Windsor was still alive, so this book couldn't be published. He mentioned how he listened to the news every night, waiting to hear about her demise. So I was eager to read it once it was available, and was impressed by the amount of research he must have done to portray these real people and events.
January 20, 2023
very scary and powerful- too much so at times.
all of the things I’d rather not see in the world, front and centre.
all of the things I’d rather not see in the world, front and centre.
March 20, 2014
Timothy Findley’s Famous Last Words was not, as I first thought it to be when saw it from among the other books in the second-hand bookstore, about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
The novel opens with Hugh Selwyn Mauberley‘s childhood experience of witnessing his own father’s dive to the earth from a hotel roof in Boston. His name is name appropriated from a 1920 collection of poems by Ezra Pound. As the plot unfolds, we are taken to Mauberley’s own final resting place in a hotel room high in the Austrian Alps during the last months of the war. Discovered by soldiers of the Allied armies along with his body – the victim of a chilling murder – are his last words. Etched on the walls is his gripping tale of the intrigues and dangerous schemes involving top Nazi officials, their sympathizers in the British nobility, and other unwitting pawns. But unlike the typical World War II book, the events in Famous Last Words are depicted by someone who sided with Hitler and Mussolini. The protagonist Hugh Selwyn Mauberley is described as a writer who though “once considered to be among the giants of twentieth-century American letters”, spent “an inordinate amount of time with the dissolute aristocracy of faded England and with the morally bankrupt crew that mans the elite but sinking lifeboat of a Fascist-dominated Europe.”
Mauberley’s death under orders of the shadowy cabal he once collaborated with underscores the great tragedy of our times.
From Famous Last Words
The novel opens with Hugh Selwyn Mauberley‘s childhood experience of witnessing his own father’s dive to the earth from a hotel roof in Boston. His name is name appropriated from a 1920 collection of poems by Ezra Pound. As the plot unfolds, we are taken to Mauberley’s own final resting place in a hotel room high in the Austrian Alps during the last months of the war. Discovered by soldiers of the Allied armies along with his body – the victim of a chilling murder – are his last words. Etched on the walls is his gripping tale of the intrigues and dangerous schemes involving top Nazi officials, their sympathizers in the British nobility, and other unwitting pawns. But unlike the typical World War II book, the events in Famous Last Words are depicted by someone who sided with Hitler and Mussolini. The protagonist Hugh Selwyn Mauberley is described as a writer who though “once considered to be among the giants of twentieth-century American letters”, spent “an inordinate amount of time with the dissolute aristocracy of faded England and with the morally bankrupt crew that mans the elite but sinking lifeboat of a Fascist-dominated Europe.”
Mauberley’s death under orders of the shadowy cabal he once collaborated with underscores the great tragedy of our times.
From Famous Last Words
January 20, 2021
something about this book resonated - something about Mauberley - Western european, stateless, a follower, waiting in the wings - and of course its Prufrock’s the "attendant lord"..... I loved the first half of this book, I was enthralled by the period - the end of WW2, Mauberley on the run, with Ezra Pound at his heels, coming back to the frozen Grand Elysium Hotel in Austria, where he had once mixed with royalty and celebrity, but is now thrown onto the mercy of Kachelmayer the concierge.
After that I'm afraid I became impatient - I wanted the romance to continue, and instead we fell into a thriller... never mind, its taken me back to Prufrock.
After that I'm afraid I became impatient - I wanted the romance to continue, and instead we fell into a thriller... never mind, its taken me back to Prufrock.
July 22, 2014
Amazing novel... Extremely well researched and therefore a very convincing (fictional) story. I read it a few months after I had seen the film The King's Speech, which made the book an even more interesting read.
March 10, 2023
2.5 rounded down. First, this is not a criticism but an observation: this book is so quintessentially Canadian. The the tone is so matter-of-fact when it comes to both horror and humour that it makes both that much more impactful. There was a lot to like about this book. Mainly, I so appreciate Findlay’s talent for turn of phrase. There were sentences and paragraphs that were simply beautiful. The downsides were, however, too many. For one, I am not fond of how he writes dialogue; oftentimes it was not believable. Second, the plot becomes very confusing both due to uneven/jerky pacing, abrupt movement between timelines, and cryptic statements that apparently were supposed to be important and meaningful but I could not for the life of me understand. The latter is especially annoying as a marker of an author who is trying too hard to appear intellectual and only succeeds in alienating the reader from the story. Finally, the major flaw was in the main character. I did not understand him at all. Although this entirely story was predicated on him being a Fascist, how that came about is not explained at all aside from a brief mention early on that he wrote some sort of a complimentary article about Mussolini. A complete lack of insight into who he was, his motivations, his goals, etc is especially ironic in that this entire book was essentially mean to be his story told in first person. I also could not really understand Quinn and his sympathy for the main character, which formed an important sub-plot.
February 1, 2023
great book, one of my favourites. Would recommend.
February 22, 2022
Great (WWII) story: secrets and lies, spies, double agents, and a narrator (or two?) you can’t trust but want to. Timothy Findley is so good at plot and pace, and in this one, blending fact and fiction. Couldn’t stop myself from googling people and events — so while I’m not happy that I delayed reading it (on my tbr for 15 years), I am sort of glad I read it with my phone on standby to fact check Mr. Findley and fully appreciate his cleverness.
June 26, 2013
Just finished the book and letting it sink in. Filled with allusions, this novel was definitely a challenge for me as I can't easily wrap my mind around its metaphoric language!
Although, the copy I have read is packed with the annotations from my English teacher which really helped understand what the narrator, Mauberley (and on occasion, Quinn) are drawing parallels to. So far I can decipher:
- Freyburg's Star Trek: 9's Linnearity
- Masks in theatre & Stankisolvsky
- Power, leveler and blocking - status
- Nietzsche's defiant existentialism vs Satre's Nausea
- Greenblott & self fashioning masface(?)
- Icarus
- Nihilism the spasm(?) of exist
Anyways I shall be off to google the above, and will return to refine my review of this extraordinary real piece of Literature.
PERSONAL HIGHLIGHTS:
"Came down a great long fall, that man . . . " (p.357) [Annotation: Icarus again]
"'Someone ought to be doing something,' he said. "Standing up for values, decency, the law...'" (p.357) [A: GH]
"'Do you weave?' I said.
'Yes I do,' said the voice. 'But every night I unravel it.'" (p.358)
"... I could probably make myself 'desirable' enough if I knew how to play the predator." (p. 359)
"The promised hour was drawing to a close. Hugh Selwyn Mauberley - poet, novelist, critic, polemicist and winner of prizes, including both the Pulitzer and the Conccordia - sat amongst the whores and lighted a cigarette." (p.359)
"Should I write that he sat 'amongst the other whores'?" (p.359)
"Now, I thought, lifting the lid, I am playing d'Artagnan. And the Queen of France depends on my finesse." (p.369)
"I don't know where I am. But I do know where I want to be. I've always known that. Always. And this ship, this ship that's come. This promise... This is my one last chance. Me, you see, I can catch up with...' She stared in the direction of her husband's rooms. She touched her hair and smoothed her skirt. 'Of course,' she said, 'I am the strongest. I have to make him follow. Don't I? He has to follow me. And I never - never, never understood that before. David has me to catch. And we have to help him..." (p.373)
"'It will always be said,' she said, 'until the end of time, that the king gave up his throne for me. But you and I are the only ones who know or will ever know that I gave up my throne for him." (p.373)
"And I thought of Beatrice in Much Ado: 'do you love me?' 'Yes.' 'Kill Claudio...' And I thought of Lucrezia Borgia, Agrippina, Messalina . . ." (p.373)
"'I need a death,' I said." (p. 375) [The final 'act']
"It was done. My fall was over. All the way down." (p. 375)
"One arm was caught underneath his body and the other was flung between his legs in that gesture so often made by boys in their sleep against the atavistic fear that Lilith will come in the dark with her scissors..." (p. 379)
(p.382) [A: Falling]
"Only a myth. Or a dream." (p. 382)
"That night, he lay on his cot and stared at Mauberley's stars. All he could think of was: they are there. And they will not go out. Like other stars." (p.391) [A: But they are cold and distant: only our minds are inspired by their heat.]
". . . Quinn went upstairs one last time to look at Mauberley's epilogue." (p. 395) [A: The(?) enforce & the subtext. The sub/mission" of Myth.]
"In the end the sighting is rejected, becoming something only dimly thought on: dreadful but unreal." (p. 395)
". . . a shape that passes slowly through a dream. Waking, all we remember is the awesome presence, while a shadow lying dormant in the twilight whispers from the other side of reason: I am here. I wait." (p. 396) [A: Nightmare / Changeling / of dream]
[A: The despairing madness of myth (and history) / its inevitable recurrencesand degeneration. / Caunettion(?) Masks]
Although, the copy I have read is packed with the annotations from my English teacher which really helped understand what the narrator, Mauberley (and on occasion, Quinn) are drawing parallels to. So far I can decipher:
- Freyburg's Star Trek: 9's Linnearity
- Masks in theatre & Stankisolvsky
- Power, leveler and blocking - status
- Nietzsche's defiant existentialism vs Satre's Nausea
- Greenblott & self fashioning masface(?)
- Icarus
- Nihilism the spasm(?) of exist
Anyways I shall be off to google the above, and will return to refine my review of this extraordinary real piece of Literature.
PERSONAL HIGHLIGHTS:
"Came down a great long fall, that man . . . " (p.357) [Annotation: Icarus again]
"'Someone ought to be doing something,' he said. "Standing up for values, decency, the law...'" (p.357) [A: GH]
"'Do you weave?' I said.
'Yes I do,' said the voice. 'But every night I unravel it.'" (p.358)
"... I could probably make myself 'desirable' enough if I knew how to play the predator." (p. 359)
"The promised hour was drawing to a close. Hugh Selwyn Mauberley - poet, novelist, critic, polemicist and winner of prizes, including both the Pulitzer and the Conccordia - sat amongst the whores and lighted a cigarette." (p.359)
"Should I write that he sat 'amongst the other whores'?" (p.359)
"Now, I thought, lifting the lid, I am playing d'Artagnan. And the Queen of France depends on my finesse." (p.369)
"I don't know where I am. But I do know where I want to be. I've always known that. Always. And this ship, this ship that's come. This promise... This is my one last chance. Me, you see, I can catch up with...' She stared in the direction of her husband's rooms. She touched her hair and smoothed her skirt. 'Of course,' she said, 'I am the strongest. I have to make him follow. Don't I? He has to follow me. And I never - never, never understood that before. David has me to catch. And we have to help him..." (p.373)
"'It will always be said,' she said, 'until the end of time, that the king gave up his throne for me. But you and I are the only ones who know or will ever know that I gave up my throne for him." (p.373)
"And I thought of Beatrice in Much Ado: 'do you love me?' 'Yes.' 'Kill Claudio...' And I thought of Lucrezia Borgia, Agrippina, Messalina . . ." (p.373)
"'I need a death,' I said." (p. 375) [The final 'act']
"It was done. My fall was over. All the way down." (p. 375)
"One arm was caught underneath his body and the other was flung between his legs in that gesture so often made by boys in their sleep against the atavistic fear that Lilith will come in the dark with her scissors..." (p. 379)
(p.382) [A: Falling]
"Only a myth. Or a dream." (p. 382)
"That night, he lay on his cot and stared at Mauberley's stars. All he could think of was: they are there. And they will not go out. Like other stars." (p.391) [A: But they are cold and distant: only our minds are inspired by their heat.]
". . . Quinn went upstairs one last time to look at Mauberley's epilogue." (p. 395) [A: The(?) enforce & the subtext. The sub/mission" of Myth.]
"In the end the sighting is rejected, becoming something only dimly thought on: dreadful but unreal." (p. 395)
". . . a shape that passes slowly through a dream. Waking, all we remember is the awesome presence, while a shadow lying dormant in the twilight whispers from the other side of reason: I am here. I wait." (p. 396) [A: Nightmare / Changeling / of dream]
[A: The despairing madness of myth (and history) / its inevitable recurrences
January 16, 2019
Reads like a thriller! Read this for the second time (first time was in Canadian Lit class in university). As good as I'd remembered it was.
November 30, 2016
I gather book recommendations in a fairly indiscriminate fashion, from friends, family, acquaintances, strangers I’m introduced to at weddings, other books, libraries, social media, blogs, newspapers, etc. I’ve been doing so for many years. As a consequence, there are books on my To Read list that trigger no memory of why I ever intended to read them, let alone who recommended them to me. ‘Famous Last Words’ is one such mystery. I think it’s been on the list (in its various forms) for at least eight years. Then a few weeks ago I happened upon a copy in a charity shop. It is an odd novel, technically a conspiracy thriller told in a peculiar form of flashback. It begins in the closing weeks of the Second World War, as Allied soldiers reach a prestigious hotel to find the corpse of Hugh Selwyn Mauberly. He is known as a Fascist sympathiser and has left a detailed confession written across the walls of three hotel rooms. This tells the tale of a conspiracy involving the former King Edward VIII and his wife, von Ribbentrop, and Charles Lindbergh.
Given this flashback structure, the sense of tension in the novel is erratic. Various moments and events are extremely tense but, ultimately, the reader knows from the start what will happen to Mauberly. Moreover, the stakes regarding the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (who are central to the conspiracy) never seem hugely high in retrospect. Nonetheless, there is a well-developed air of paranoia about the whole thing. Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, is by far the most interesting character seen through Mauberly’s eyes. Mauberly himself does not come off well and his motivations are somewhat baffling. Similarly, the soldiers who find Mauberly’s testament display an interesting variety of perspectives, but Quinn, the other main narrator, remains enigmatic. I found his sympathy for Mauberly hard to understand.
‘Famous Last Words’ reminded me at times of The Magus (the paranoia, confusion, and sense of events being manipulated by those much more powerful) and Earthly Powers (the heavy atmosphere of dread and various elements of Mauberly's characterisation). Both are, I think, better structured and more powerful novels, though. (Especially Earthly Powers, which is sublime.) ‘Famous Last Words’ has a neat conceit and some very memorable imagery. However it cannot sustain tension when the reader already knows too much of the ending. Also, Mauberly’s motivations are not clear enough, nor the reader deep enough in his mind, to make him a truly compelling narrator. An unusual novel, though, and there is plenty to enjoy about it.
Given this flashback structure, the sense of tension in the novel is erratic. Various moments and events are extremely tense but, ultimately, the reader knows from the start what will happen to Mauberly. Moreover, the stakes regarding the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (who are central to the conspiracy) never seem hugely high in retrospect. Nonetheless, there is a well-developed air of paranoia about the whole thing. Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, is by far the most interesting character seen through Mauberly’s eyes. Mauberly himself does not come off well and his motivations are somewhat baffling. Similarly, the soldiers who find Mauberly’s testament display an interesting variety of perspectives, but Quinn, the other main narrator, remains enigmatic. I found his sympathy for Mauberly hard to understand.
‘Famous Last Words’ reminded me at times of The Magus (the paranoia, confusion, and sense of events being manipulated by those much more powerful) and Earthly Powers (the heavy atmosphere of dread and various elements of Mauberly's characterisation). Both are, I think, better structured and more powerful novels, though. (Especially Earthly Powers, which is sublime.) ‘Famous Last Words’ has a neat conceit and some very memorable imagery. However it cannot sustain tension when the reader already knows too much of the ending. Also, Mauberly’s motivations are not clear enough, nor the reader deep enough in his mind, to make him a truly compelling narrator. An unusual novel, though, and there is plenty to enjoy about it.
February 18, 2008
This is a CLEVER book...and I don't say that in a bad way. However, it was almost too clever for me, the twists and turns, using the subject of a (real) poem written by a (real) poet as the main character...I found myself referring back to the Ezra Pound poem, trying to guess what Mauberly (widely thought to be autobiographical) was REALLY all about.
Findley's trick of employing real people in (maybe) fictional situations was at times too confusing. Or maybe I simply need to go back to Modern World History 101.
It is definitely worth a read, totally enveloping. And I found myself Googling some of the characters, which is always the mark of a good book for me...I want to learn more!
Findley's trick of employing real people in (maybe) fictional situations was at times too confusing. Or maybe I simply need to go back to Modern World History 101.
It is definitely worth a read, totally enveloping. And I found myself Googling some of the characters, which is always the mark of a good book for me...I want to learn more!
January 6, 2011
I tried to read this. I was actually forced to read it for school, but i am currently failing the class because I couldn't get through it no matter how hard I tried to concentrate. "Just get it over with," I would tell my self. I pushed and pushed my mind, but to no avail. This book was incredibly boring to me and i couldn't bring myself to finish. It was overly detailed and uninteresting, so I gave up trying to read it. Maybe it got better...
On the other hand, does anybody have any opinions or thoughts to share on the imagery patterns of glass and mirrors? I personally found it very interesting. Specific examples would be on pages 11, 13, 18, 19, 25, 35, 40, 60, 133, 141, 162, 191, 198, 214, 227, 233, 237, 241, 246, 250, 251, 280 and 346. Check them out and tell me what you think!
On the other hand, does anybody have any opinions or thoughts to share on the imagery patterns of glass and mirrors? I personally found it very interesting. Specific examples would be on pages 11, 13, 18, 19, 25, 35, 40, 60, 133, 141, 162, 191, 198, 214, 227, 233, 237, 241, 246, 250, 251, 280 and 346. Check them out and tell me what you think!
October 22, 2010
Hugh Mauberley is cool fake dude & mad respect for fictionalized historical figures but cool parts in book stand out like weird mayan pyramids in middle of boring jungle, you run into these passages that make you go 'oh shit' and then a couple pages later you're back with the boring ppl you dont really like / kinda forgettable prose
ezra pound throwing goatmeat balls at cat to get him off roof was cool, crazy hess is cool, guy flying plain around bahamas + writing MENE MENE TEKEEL UPHARSIN in the sky before dumping gas on a town and lighting it up was real cool
ezra pound throwing goatmeat balls at cat to get him off roof was cool, crazy hess is cool, guy flying plain around bahamas + writing MENE MENE TEKEEL UPHARSIN in the sky before dumping gas on a town and lighting it up was real cool
December 19, 2011
this remains one of my all time favourite books..read it three times. Set in Spain and Italy during the war an English captive writes a novel on the walls of his room in an abandoned estate while waiting for the Americans to arrive. The prisoner is a member of the European elite who are playing chess with facist politics while posing for England..amongst them the Duke and Dutchess of Windsor.
The antics of this high society border on surreal and add to the mystery of what really happened.
The antics of this high society border on surreal and add to the mystery of what really happened.
March 14, 2020
I struggled to understand what it was Mauberley was getting out of all of this. Why was he involved in fascism? Why was he hanging out with these people? What about it appealed to him? Maybe the answer is obvious. Or maybe with his father's suicide, he became averse to weakness. Anyway, an intricate book at its most interesting when the duke and duchess are onscreen. My favourite line was on page 114 - "A bee buzzed - drowning in the pond." Findley was a master at varied sentence structures.
August 19, 2009
This is my favourite Timothy Findley novel. I was engrossed in the story, the interweaving of the historical figures (Ezra Pound, Hitler, The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, WWII), and the era. Shanghai at its height of glory is one of the highlights. All brought to a devastating conclusion. I have lent this to my mother and never got it back... I think she has claimed it for her own.
February 18, 2010
Mauberley is real here, and so is Ezra. Ezra is a real grumpy shit. There are so many other historical figures that it will make you dizzy - fascists, dukes and duchesses, hotelliers, poets and queens - but what a story.
March 6, 2011
I read this when I was a kid. I had no clue what it was about. I still don't.
August 9, 2011
Really loved this book. Not an easy read, really dense, full of stuff. Would make a good book club.
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