Next book

PATRIOTIC GORE

STUDIES IN THE LITERATURE OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

In this long and challenging book Edmund Wilson presents a critical analysis of the works of some 30 men and women, novelists, generals, poets; politicans, diarists, who saw the Civil War at first hand and who wrote of what they saw. "The period of the Civil War", Wilson says in his introduction, "was not one in which belles lettres flourished, but it did produce a remarkable literature .... of speeches, pamphlets, private letters and diaries, personal memoirs and journalistic reports." From this literature, beginning with Harriet Beecher Stowe and ending with Justice Holmes, he has culled fascinating examples, with them presenting excellent pocket biographies of their authors. Great men — and lesser ones — are seen through their own works and the eyes of men who knew them: Lincoln and Lee; Sherman and Mosby; the Confederate Richard Taylor, to whom Stonewall Jackson was hero; Grant, an amazing man, whose memoirs "may well rank as the most remarkable work of its kind since the Commentaries of Julius Caesar" — and many others. Women are represented by a fine chapter on Harriet Beecher Stowe, and by excerpts from the diaries of the mulatto teacher, Charlotte Forten; and three Confederate ladies, staunch Secessionists who loathed slavery: Kate Stone, Sarah Morgan, and the incomparable Mrs. Mary Chesnut. No book for hurried reading, this brilliant study will appeal to discerning readers both North and South; it belongs in public and university libraries, and in all comprehensive collections of American literary criticism.

Pub Date: April 26, 1962

ISBN: 0393312569

Page Count: 852

Publisher: Oxford Univ.

Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1962

Categories:
Next book

THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE

50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...

Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.

Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").

Pub Date: May 15, 1972

ISBN: 0205632645

Page Count: 105

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972

Categories:
Next book

NUTCRACKER

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:
Close Quickview