A group of essays that have more than ordinary appeal, and should reach a wider market than the ordinary volume of the kind. Wilson brings together a strange combination of figures with an understanding and sympathy that reveals them in their full stature:- Paul Elmer More, Pushkin, Housman, Flaubert, Henry James, John Jay Chapman, Samuel Butler, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. His essay on More and his day with him at Princeton is a gem. His interpretation of Pushkin's verse and his own translation of The Bronse Horseman makes of Pushkin a great soul, and not a more name. His keen analysis of Shaw's shifting about on different stages simplifies our comprehension of this 80-year old paradox, Wilson writes with artistic ease and has the faculty of creating living figures out of writers who have passed into limbo for the average person, but whom he makes still live.
Pub Date: March 17, 1938
ISBN: 0374513228
Page Count: 286
Publisher: Harcourt, Brace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1938
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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