SWAN’S WAY

Name: SWAN’S WAY
Author: Henri Raczymow
ISBN: 0-8101-1925-0

by Henri Raczymow & translated by Robert Bononno ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 2002

A thoughtful and unusual work, and a potentially dangerous one—in that it just might seduce one into neglecting other...

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The factual origins of an unforgettable fictional character are the subject of this engrossing semi-scholarly “meditation” by a veteran French novelist, biographer, and literary scholar.

The work Raczymow (Writing the Book of Esther, not reviewed, etc.) thus explores is Proust’s multivolume 20th-century masterpiece In Search of Lost Time. And the character is that of Charles Swann, socialite and dilettante, lover of notorious demimondaine Odette de Crécy, and—this the source of his only conditional acceptance by the polite society through which Swann warily moves—a Jew. It has long been recognized that Proust based the figure of Swann on a real person named Charles Haas, whose personal history paralleled Swann’s at numerous crucial points. Raczymow therefore sets about “identifying the thread of fortuitous complicity between Proustian fiction and reality,” interviewing fellow literary researchers, combing through the Paris city archives, speculating on possible links between Haas and such notables as painter Edgar Degas, thespian Sarah Bernhardt (who wrote Haas several fulsome letters), and persecuted (Jewish) French army officer Alfred Dreyfus. Raczymow also considers contemporary Proustian avatars like actors Alain Delon (who played the malevolent Baron Charlus in Volker Schlondorff’s 1984 film Swann in Love) and Jeremy Irons (whose performance as Swann in that film all but persuades Raczymow that Haas may have been an Englishman). Beneath the lucubrations, the reader grasps Raczymow’s reluctant inferences that “To Proust, by definition, everything that is Jewish is debased”; that Haas/Swann incarnated for Proust the vanity of a life devoted to the imperatives of society; and that the “anonymity” into which Haas has seemingly sunk signifies the far reach of anti-Semitism—in literature as in life.

A thoughtful and unusual work, and a potentially dangerous one—in that it just might seduce one into neglecting other responsibilities and plunging once again into Proust’s intricate, seductive, and disturbing fictional world.

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2002

ISBN: 0-8101-1925-0

Page Count: 160

Publisher: Northwestern Univ.

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2002

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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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.