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Rating: 
Summary: A glowingportrait of a woman who defined grace and dignity
Review: Abandoned by her father, Eugene O'Neill, Oona transformed this hurt into love and care for her much older husband, Charlie Chaplin. This book details her life, and gives us great insight into what family, fame,love and loyalty mean in this century. While not known for any traditional arts, such as acting or writing (though, it is clear from this biography that she may have been successful in either form), Oona's art was her life itself; her ability to deal with a father who rejected her, a sibling she looked up to but could not help, and a husband to whom she devoted herself to as he lived out his life in a time when the world was rapidly changing.The writing is clear and without pretension. Ms. Scovell realizes that Oona was a complex person and conveys that to the reader. Throughout the book, the nature of Oona O'Neill Chaplin is always apparent --- a tribute to a well-researched biography.
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Summary: In the shadows of this book as well...
Review: Being very interested in the life of cinematic genius Charlie Chaplin, and knowing what a difficult person he could be, I became interested in the one woman who stuck by him and adored him until his death, then mourned him for years after. However, this book was a disappointment and lacked a great deal of information about it's subject, Oona. Scovell also made too many assumptions, and forced her own opinion under the guise of psychology and lacked the objectivity which one expects in a well written biography.
The book opened with droning on and on about her family geneology, which bored me to tears, but I read on, expecting to soon read about Oona, which never happened. With the exception of brief information about Oona here and there, the book focused on Eugene O'Neil, and Chaplin himself (even worse, some of the "facts" written about Chaplin were false). Sadly, Oona was left out of her own biography.
This book was somewhat of a painful read and lacked professionalism from it's author.
Rating: 
Summary: Oona O'Neill - Enigma
Review: I have long been interested in this woman, first observed as a girlhood friend of Carol Marcus Matthau in her book. The name alone is intriguing, and the story behind is is just as fascinating. One feels a bit let down after reading this book to think of how abandoned she must have felt in her girlhood, and how saved she was to have found Charlie Chaplin. Never having developed herself as an individual, it was not surprising to read that her life virtually fell apart after her husband's death. The reality is that marriage to him was her life, and when he was finished, so was she. I got the impression she was happy enough to have it end that way, although it is sad all the same for the reader. A very interesting story.
Rating:
Summary: Oona O'Neill - Enigma
Review: I have long been interested in this woman, first observed as a girlhood friend of Carol Marcus Matthau in her book. The name alone is intriguing, and the story behind is is just as fascinating. One feels a bit let down after reading this book to think of how abandoned she must have felt in her girlhood, and how saved she was to have found Charlie Chaplin. Never having developed herself as an individual, it was not surprising to read that her life virtually fell apart after her husband's death. The reality is that marriage to him was her life, and when he was finished, so was she. I got the impression she was happy enough to have it end that way, although it is sad all the same for the reader. A very interesting story.
Rating:
Summary: a great love story
Review: I've been facinated with Oona Chaplin ever since I read Jerry Epstein's biography of Charlie Chaplin. It was clear that he was very much in love with her, and there's no question why. From Scovell's biography we come off with the impression that Oona O'Neill Chaplin was a smart, funny lovely woman who loved Charlie Chaplin with her whole heart. When he died, her heart broke and never could be mended. Scovell paints such a sympathetic portrait of her that we want to travel back in time and tell her. "It's going to be okay! You're going to get through this!" Unfortuatly, we can't-but thanks to Scovell's wonderful biography, we can see who hid in the shadows of her father and husband most of her life.
Rating: 
Summary: Oona?
Review: Oona O'Neill Chaplain was an occasional interest to me. Her name (which, I believe is pronounced Owna), her playwright father, Eugene; and her startling marriage to Charlie Chaplin, 38-years her senior made a curiously exotic package. Once that marriage took place, it seemed like she had fallen off the face of the earth occasionally emerging to be photographed with a flock of handsome children within a backdrop of the Swiss Alps. Ms. Scovell has great respect for her subject, fairly objective but a little too much the apologist for the reclusive Oona to come to life. The book holds few surprises. It is not a shock to learn Oona had a fairly unhappy childhood with a distant mother and a hard-drinking, volcanic tempered, totally selfish father. I was mildly astonished that Oona was a determined, stubborn, even slightly wild teenager who went to the best schools and was actually Debutante of the Year. Her father disowned her when she married, never to speak to her again though she tried as long as he lived to make amends. After her lively beginning, it is as if her life's goal had been reached by marrying Charlie, and she could now retreat into invisibility behind the enormous shield of Charlie's egoism. True, she had all those children but seems not so much a mother as a child producer. She enjoyed being pregnant, but didn't seem to take much interest after they arrived. There is a certain kind of woman, Ethel Kennedy comes to mind, that takes enormous pleasure in bringing children into the world as if this affirms their husband's masculinity. I think this was also the attraction for Oona Chaplin. When Charlie died at a great age, Oona had left over life to live. She drank heavily and was dead of pancreatic cancer fourteen years later. I suspect the drinking was a problem before Charlie died, as he was invalided for many years preceding his death. This surely must have been difficult for Oona who had gone from child bride to caretaker without a serene maturity in between. Ms. Scovell gets the most that she can out of the material available. Oona O'Neill Chaplin was what our computerized society would call a WYSIWIG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get). She drifted through life in the towering shadow of the fame and renown that only belonged to her father and husband.
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Summary: The Mystery That Wasn't
Review: Oona O'Neill Chaplain was an occasional interest to me. Her name (which, I believe is pronounced Owna), her playwright father, Eugene; and her startling marriage to Charlie Chaplin, 38-years her senior made a curiously exotic package. Once that marriage took place, it seemed like she had fallen off the face of the earth occasionally emerging to be photographed with a flock of handsome children within a backdrop of the Swiss Alps. Ms. Scovell has great respect for her subject, fairly objective but a little too much the apologist for the reclusive Oona to come to life. The book holds few surprises. It is not a shock to learn Oona had a fairly unhappy childhood with a distant mother and a hard-drinking, volcanic tempered, totally selfish father. I was mildly astonished that Oona was a determined, stubborn, even slightly wild teenager who went to the best schools and was actually Debutante of the Year. Her father disowned her when she married, never to speak to her again though she tried as long as he lived to make amends. After her lively beginning, it is as if her life's goal had been reached by marrying Charlie, and she could now retreat into invisibility behind the enormous shield of Charlie's egoism. True, she had all those children but seems not so much a mother as a child producer. She enjoyed being pregnant, but didn't seem to take much interest after they arrived. There is a certain kind of woman, Ethel Kennedy comes to mind, that takes enormous pleasure in bringing children into the world as if this affirms their husband's masculinity. I think this was also the attraction for Oona Chaplin. When Charlie died at a great age, Oona had left over life to live. She drank heavily and was dead of pancreatic cancer fourteen years later. I suspect the drinking was a problem before Charlie died, as he was invalided for many years preceding his death. This surely must have been difficult for Oona who had gone from child bride to caretaker without a serene maturity in between. Ms. Scovell gets the most that she can out of the material available. Oona O'Neill Chaplin was what our computerized society would call a WYSIWIG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get). She drifted through life in the towering shadow of the fame and renown that only belonged to her father and husband.
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Summary: The Tale Of A Poor Little Rich Girl
Review: Since Charlie Chaplin held such a spellbinding fascination for me, I decided to look up the life story of his last and most beloved wife, Lady Oona O'Neill Chaplin. After retracing the roots of her 19th-century ancestors, which included talented actors and gorgeous ladies, the story opens to the stormy courtship of Eugene O'Neill the renowned playwright and a beautiful young authoress who would one day become parents to the pretty little Oona. Unfortunately, O'Neill turned out to be such a mean-spirited old toad so deadbeat he made Prince Charles seem such a warm-hearted saint in comparsion. Thus his great arrogance eventually destroyed the lives of more than a few people involved, including his sons who had ended up on drugs and alcohol. Nevertheless, the innocent young princess relentlessly continued her persistent waif-like attempts to attract her father's attention, including her Miss America-like debut into a ritzy New York club and going into acting in Hollywood. Instead, she got the ultimate brush-off. But then - a great knight in a shining armor upon a white steed came along to scoop up the lost little Oona into his strong, capable arms. This gallant knight is none other than Charlie Chaplin himself! Despite the very fact he was reputed as a selfish, abusive old egotist who used to prey on pubescent little girls, he actually turned out to be the perfect answer to young Oona's desperate prayers as well as the vice versa. So happily, Chaplin's new child-bride settled down to a blissful domestic life of hosting parties and making babies. Unfortunately, this story just didn't stop at the "happily ever after" part. Instead, everything went into a spiralling nosedive from there. First, Charlie Chaplin was ruthlessly hounded for his past "wrongdoings" as well as being unfairly labelled a "communist" and then the whole family was kicked right out of America altogether. And then there was the painful, inevitable part of aging and dying on Chaplin's part, though Oona kept smiling graciously through the whole ordeal. Finally, though the old man truly loved his youthful wife, he kept an iron grip on her so powerful she was left lost and helpless once again at his death. A very sad but true-to-life fractured fairy tale all about the "Daddy's girl" who never was.
Rating:
Summary: Very interesting subject, really bad writing
Review: The subject matter is, needless to say, very interesting. But the book reads like it is written by someone whose entire literary education centered on cheap romance novels. The author doesn't seem to have any access to any of Oona's friends or family while researching this book. Almost all of her historical data seem to have been hearsay and 2nd hand. Remarkable and unfortunate on the author's part.
Rating:
Summary: Oona?
Review: This supposed biography of Oona O'Neill Chaplin spends much of its time discussing Eugene O'Neill and Charlie Chaplin. Certainly Oona lived in the shadow of Charlie, but she doesn't emerge as a person in this biography. The book is poorly written. Too much repetition of points made, some really silly sentences of superficial statement. And no depth. Nonetheless, it's an interesting read because of the people and the lives narrated.
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