THE DIVINE SARAH: The Life of Sarah...

THE DIVINE SARAH: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt by Arthur Gold & Robert Fizdale (Vintage: $17; 353 pp.). Admired by Hugo, Proust, Sardou and Dumas pere et fils , Sarah Bernhardt was also damned as a vulgar profiteer and vilified by anti-Semites. In this exceptional biography, Robert Fizdale and the late Arthur Gold trace the career of the legendary actress (and the first true media star) from her humble origins in the Parisian demi-monde to her near-apotheosis in 1923 (more than 600,000 people lined the streets to watch her funeral cortege). The authors carefully separate legend from reality--no easy task, as Bernhardt cheerfully altered the story of her life whenever it suited her purpose--to present a dazzling portrait of one of the most extraordinary women of 19th Century and her coterie.