A brisk, entertaining, and richly detailed portrait of a unique woman and her era.
The life of a prodigious playwright is set in the context of roiling political dramas.
In 1670, with the London opening of her play The Forc’d Marriage, Aphra Behn (1640-1689) launched a career as one of the most prolific dramatists of Restoration England. In a revision of her biography of Behn published in 1996, Todd (A Man of Genius, 2016, etc.), editor of the seven-volume Complete Works of Aphra Behn, The Poetry of Aphra Behn, and the journal Aphra Behn Studies, offers an authoritative portrait of a defiant, wily, and enterprising woman. Todd acknowledges that much scholarship has been undertaken in the 20 years since her original biography, and she cites about two dozen of these studies in her bibliography; however, they seem to have affirmed, rather than altered, her shrewd, sweeping view of 17th-century England and the admiring portrait she ably fashioned in her earlier book. Tall, attractive, and witty, Behn was “gregarious, enjoying an evening of sociability,” and fond of drink. She was “sensual as much as sexual, interested in both men and women,” and likely preferred “flirtation and repartee” as a way of avoiding venereal disease and pregnancy. She was adventuresome as well, traveling to the British colony of Surinam, probably as a spy, in the early 1660s, returning as Mrs. Behn; scholars have been unable to identify the mysterious Mr. Behn. A comely widow, she was courted by the “moody and self-centered” Jack Hoyle, with whom she fell in love. “Behn would desire other men sexually,” Todd asserts, “but no one rivalled Jack Hoyle in her imaginative and emotional life.” Steeped as she is in Behn’s work, Todd gives close, perceptive readings of her oeuvre, including her abundant output of poetry; where relevant, she connects these works to the politics of the time: the clash of Catholicism and Protestantism, the rise of Tories and Whigs, and the fraught royal succession. Her “political principles were those of a ‘pseudo-aristocrat’ ” who “internalized” upper-class views and pretensions.
A brisk, entertaining, and richly detailed portrait of a unique woman and her era.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-909572-06-5
Page Count: 608
Publisher: Fentum Press
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
This autobiography might almost be said to supply the roots to Wright's famous novel, Native Son.
It is a grim record, disturbing, the story of how — in one boy's life — the seeds of hate and distrust and race riots were planted. Wright was born to poverty and hardship in the deep south; his father deserted his mother, and circumstances and illness drove the little family from place to place, from degradation to degradation. And always, there was the thread of fear and hate and suspicion and discrimination — of white set against black — of black set against Jew — of intolerance. Driven to deceit, to dishonesty, ambition thwarted, motives impugned, Wright struggled against the tide, put by a tiny sum to move on, finally got to Chicago, and there — still against odds — pulled himself up, acquired some education through reading, allied himself with the Communists — only to be thrust out for non-conformity — and wrote continually. The whole tragedy of a race seems dramatized in this record; it is virtually unrelieved by any vestige of human tenderness, or humor; there are no bright spots. And yet it rings true. It is an unfinished story of a problem that has still to be met.
Perhaps this will force home unpalatable facts of a submerged minority, a problem far from being faced.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1945
ISBN: 0061130249
Page Count: 450
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1945
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
