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ISLAM AND THE ARAB WORLD

Name: ISLAM AND THE ARAB WORLD
Author: Bernard Lewis
ISBN: 0394407113

FAITH, PEOPLE, CULTURE

edited by Bernard Lewis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1976

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This large-format book delivers a mass of illustrations (480: 160 in color, the others photos, drawings, and maps) which are mostly unfamiliar and a delight in themselves. The drawings and maps accompany the text; the color reproductions and photos are grouped at the end of each chapter, and form a unit with it. In his productive control of the text, editor Bernard Lewis of Princeton matches Pauline Baynes' management of the design. Scholars in Europe, Israel, and the US combine to give the reader a sense of the vitality and richness of the Islamic tradition via the story of at least "the central areas of Islamic greatness"—the book's best definition of its focus. (Cf. the title: almost nothing is said of Malaysia and Indonesia, despite their large Muslim populations, but notice is taken of Muslims in non-Arab Iran, Spain, and India.) There are descriptive and historical pieces on Islamic music, science, literature, warfare, and architecture. Gardens figure in the last as they do in "Cities and Citizens" by Oleg Graber of Harvard which relates the street patterns and layout of dwellings in the heyday of the Muslim bourgeoisie to social structure. In turn, Fritz Meier of Basel University understands religious devotion as well as its institutional consequences; his chapter on the Sufi tradition is both appealing and realistic. Most of the book treats of the long period of Muslim expansion in the past, but its always lurking preoccupation with the present surfaces in the two concluding chapters. The success of Muslim arms had been felt as a confirmation of the rightness of Islam, and the encroachment of Christian Europe upon Muslim lands presented a crisis of consciousness which remains to be resolved. In its ample and vigorous presentation of a subject many Americans want to know better, this is a book for students and general reference as much as for entertainment. Brief outline of Islamic history, chronology, select bibliography.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1976

ISBN: 0394407113

Page Count: 360

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: May 18, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1976

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
NOTES ON A CENTURY
by Bernard Lewis with Buntzie Ellis Churchill

- BOOK REVIEW
THE CRISIS OF ISLAM
by Bernard Lewis

- BOOK REVIEW
THE MULTIPLE IDENTITIES OF THE MIDDLE EAST
by Bernard Lewis

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.