num_pages: 500
description: The definitive story of Hollywood's most famous couple.He was a tough-guy Welshman softened by the affections of a breathtakingly beautiful woman; she was a modern-day Cleopatra madly in love with her own Mark Antony. For nearly a quarter of a century Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were Hollywood royalty and their fiery romanceoften called the marriage of the centurywas the most notorious publicized and celebrated love affair of its day.For the first time Vanity Fair contributing editor Sam Kashner and acclaimed biographer Nancy Schoenberger tell the complete story of this larger-than-life couple showing how their romance and two marriages commanded the attention of the world. Also for the first time in exclusive access given to the authors Elizabeth Taylor herself gives never-revealed details and firsthand accounts of her life with Burton.Drawing upon brand-new information and interviewsand on Burton's private passionate and heartbreaking letters to TaylorFurious Love sheds new light on the movies the sex the scandal the fame the brawls the booze the bitter separations and of course the fabled jewels. It offers an intimate glimpse into Elizabeth and Richard's privileged world and their elite circle of friends among them Princess Grace Montgomery Clift the Duke and Duchess of Windsor Peter O'Toole Michael Caine Marlon Brando Rex Harrison Mike Nichols Laurence Olivier Robert Kennedy Tennessee Williams Nol Coward John Huston Ava Gardner the Rothschilds Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis. It provides an entertaining eye-opening look at their films their wildly lucrative reign in Europe and in Hollywoodand the price they paid for their extravagant lives.Shocking and unsparing in its honesty Furious Love explores the very public marriage of Liz and Dick as well as the private struggles of Elizabeth and Richard including Le Scandale their affair on the set of the notorious epic Cleopatra that earned them condemnation from the Vatican; Burton's hardscrabble youth in Wales; the crippling alcoholism that nearly destroyed his career and contributed to his early death; the medical issues that plagued both him and Elizabeth; and the failed aspirations and shame that haunted him throughout their relationship. As Kashner and Schoenberger illuminate the events and choices that shaped this illustrious couple's story they demonstrate how the legendary pair presaged America's changing attitudes toward sex marriage morality and celebrity. Yet ultimately as the authors show Elizabeth and Richard shared something priceless beyond the drama: enduring love.Addictive and entertaining Furious Love is more than a celebrity biography; it's an honest yet sympathetic portrait of a man a woman and a passion that shocked and mesmerized the world.
language: English
title: Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century
publisher: HarperCollins