It must be tempting, when dramatizing the life of an outstanding individual, to dwell excessively on its extreme aspects and even search for a presumed polarity within it. Prodigies inspire ambivalence, with a resulting impulse to exaggerate their neurosis and regard this as a necessary cost of their genius. However, this tendency has not prevented an overall appreciative attitude to highly gifted people, with a corresponding leniency towards their failings. We understand their need to neglect the ordinary precisely because we value their ability to lead us beyond it. We tend to be tolerant of their faults as spouses, parents and friends.

Such tolerance is made more complicated when the individual in