[ilds] Shaving

[Bruce Redwine]

I have not found this reference in the Durrell-Miller letters, although I have vague recollections of such a comment.  Assuming Durrell did say this somewhere, privately no doubt, the more interesting question is why he would have complained at all.  A bit of social history is in order.  My understanding is that European women were not in the habit of shaving their underarms and legs until American "standards" of feminine beauty spread worldwide, probably through Hollywood and its films.  For European standards, see the opening to Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960), where young Italian beauties in bathing costumes wave at Marcello and expose hairy underarms.  Presumably this was the European norm, as well as the Levantine, which was, at the time, rather shocking to American women (a fact I recall vividly).  Alexandrian women in the late twenties did not shave such areas, as a photo in Michael Haag's Vintage Alexandria:  Photographs of the City, 1860-1960 (Cairo 2008) shows (see below).  So, isn't this also part of the feminine culture of The Alexandria Quartet?  Now why was Durrell shocked, if he was in fact shocked, at what he should have registered as normative behavior and not in the least bit unusual?  Any thoughts?


Bruce








On Apr 2, 2011, at 3:32 PM, James Gifford wrote:

> Hello all,
> 
> Can anyone help out Leonard Worman (see below)?
> 
> Best,
> James
> 
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: 	Durrell
> Date: 	Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:01:06 -0400
> From: 	Brigitte Worman <worman10 at comcast.net>
> To: 	<dkaczv at latech.edu>
> 
> 
> I have been an avid reader of LD since publication of Justine. I am
> writing you in the hope you can identify a paragraph from a Durrell
> writing, or a letter (Miller)or a biography)where LD complains about the 
> women in Paris, having unshaven armpits & needing deodorants.I have
> spent untold hours looking for this item (for important personal
> reasons)& certainly hope you can cite this reference for me. Thank you
> very much. Sincerely, Leonard Worman.
> 

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