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Book
ReviewComplexities
of a Beautiful Woman and a Beautiful CarThe Bugatti queen. Miranda Seymour, 2004. London:
Simon and Schuster; ISBN 0743231465, 301 pp. £15.99, cloth
SAGE Publications, Inc.2006DOI: 10.1177/09675507060140010503
Anna Lyon
University of Southampton
Bugatti
cars (probably the most beautiful ever made) driven by an exotic dancer in
pre-war Paris make an exciting and glamorous combination. Miranda Stewart's
biography of Hélène Delangle (known as Hellé Nice), a postmaster's daughter
from a small village in France, who supported herself, first by dancing and
later by racing Bugattis, captures some of this excitement. In Paris in the
1920s, an easy way for an attractive girl to make a living was as a cabaret
dancer. This was the era of Isadora Duncan, and Josephine Baker. Delangle
used what talents she had, especially her looks, to make a living. In 1929,
Delangle entered, and won, the Grand Prix of the third Journée Feminine at
Montlhéry, and in December that year she drove a Bugatti type 35c, supplied
by Ettore Bugatti himself in speed trials, also at Montlhéry. After 1926,
the engine size for Grand Prix cars was reduced to 1.5 litres and some manufacturers
(notably Alfa Romeo and Sunbeam) ceased to enter their cars. Bugatti and Delage
still participated, but attention was focused on a variety of different races,
which were also open to privateers, who owned and drove their own cars. Women
competed in these events, racing alongside their male colleagues on an equal
footing. Delangle relied on friends and lovers to sponsor her and help maintain
her cars, and there is no doubt that she must have had both stamina and skill
to drive as she did. Seymour handles the period of Delangle's racing career
effectively; the pace is fast and the descriptions of the races convey the
speed and excitement well. However, there is little background information
with which to contextualize her achievements. Other women drivers are mentioned,
but there is no sense of whether they were considered unusual or outstanding
in any way, or of how they were viewed by society at that time. A contemporary
newspaper article, cited by Hargreaves (1994), described Violette Morris,
who raced with Delangle, as having muscles and nerves of iron, and concluded,
`she is one of the finest-built women on the face of the earth', thus emphasizing
the importance of appearance and femininity for women in sport. Stewart details
Delangle's use of her appearance: `Perfect photographic opportunities presented
themselves, as they always did when Hélène was around' (p. 158), but she does
not take this further, which is a pity. The handling of her early life and
dancing career is less successful. Reading the notes, it appears that there
is little factual information
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about
this period and most of the detail is inferred or fictitious. Descriptions
of Delangle watching a motor race that we have no real reason to believe she
ever saw (Chapter 3, pp. 12–19) and of her walking through Paris (pp.
40–41) do not add to our understanding of her character, but do create
confusion. There is little differentiation between fact and inference, and
the reader is left not knowing what to believe. In the `Author's Note', Seymour
states that `having been immersed in Hélène's story for several years, I am
probably better qualified than most to make such assumptions' and that, hopefully,
it is clear where `fact dissolves into speculation'. Regrettably, this is
not always so. Seymour's objectivity towards her subject is also questionable.
Ettore Bugatti would not invite her to stay at his house; her sister, apparently,
would not allow her name to be added to the family gravestone; Louis Chiron
(the racing driver) denounced her as a collaborator; and other women racers,
allegedly, loathed her. These incidents are recorded but, again, not examined
in any depth. The book is worth persevering with, however. Seymour summarizes
the war experiences of Hélène Delangle with skill and sensitivity. Again there
are few facts, but she resists the temptation of embroidery and fantasy, and
allows the reader to appreciate why little is know about this time. The same
sensitivity is applied to Delangle's old age and decline. Probably the most
important aspect of Stewart's biography is that it serves to resurrect a forgotten
life. Many women drove racing cars between the wars, but their contribution
to the sport has been almost obliterated with the passing of time. Motor racing
has always been a sport dominated by men and in any history of the sport there
is little, if any, mention of the courageous women who also raced. A few names
are known, such as Gwenda Stewart, who raced Morgans, and Elizabeth Junek,
a Bugatti driver, but the inspiration of their ground-breaking achievements
has largely been lost to future generations of women. In the `Afterword' (p.
262), Seymour states: `A heroine who rose from obscurity ... deserves to be
honoured and recalled as she was once described, as a champion of the world.'
This is a flawed, but entertaining book that, for me, raised more questions
than it answered.
REFERENCE
Hargreaves, J.
1994: Sporting females. London:
Routledge.