Ideal Beauty: The Life and Times of Greta Garbo

Banner (emerita, history, Univ. of Southern California; Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox) offers a scholarly, rather than strictly fan-oriented reconsideration of Greta Garbo (1905–1990) as a template for analyzing tropes about 20th-century women. This Fulbright-financed work, based on archival research in Sweden, Germany, France, and the U.S., provides background on a hitherto inscrutable icon’s childhood, sexuality, illnesses, and personal beliefs and how they influenced her persona. As points of clarification, Garbo was bisexual; endured the infirmities of insomnia, bipolarity, bronchitis, and anorexia during her Hollywood career, compounded later by arthritis, diabetes, and kidney failure; and was inclined toward Catholicism. Wanting only to be left alone by reporters, Garbo, who was perceived to be mysterious, enjoyed selective gatherings and maintained deep friendships. Banner furnishes frankly worded details about Garbo’s professional and personal activities, along with plot summaries and cinema chatter.