When Thomas Mann laid eyes on the seraphic Wladyslaw Moes, a young aristocratic Pole vacationing in Venice, it was as though...
An offbeat, engaging footnote to a standard-bearer of “gay literature, of what might whimsically be defined as ‘homotextuality.’ ”
When Thomas Mann laid eyes on the seraphic Wladyslaw Moes, a young aristocratic Pole vacationing in Venice, it was as though this vision of youth—“this sailor-suited ephebe,” writes novelist Adair (Love and Death on Long Island, not reviewed, etc.)—delivered intact the entire narrative of Death in Venice to Mann. In this thumbnail biography, readers learn the fate of the inspiration for Tadzio, twined with an impressive amount of cogitation, for so short a study, on the novel’s (and the film’s and the opera’s) dynamism—realism and symbolism, psychology and mythology, classicism and raunchiness—while taking fair measure of the story’s iconic resonance. Adair swerves comfortably between the life of Moes, who suffered all the wretchedness expected for being an aristocrat in post-WWII Poland, yet remained a dandy until the end of his days, and the novella he provoked, that “catastrophic loss of dignity suffered by a great and mature artist infatuated by a very much younger object of his lust.”Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-7867-1247-3
Page Count: 112
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2003
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
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
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