bookshelf

FAREWELL IN SPLENDOR

Name: FAREWELL IN SPLENDOR
Author: Jerrold M. Packard
ISBN: 0-525-93730-7

THE PASSING OF QUEEN VICTORIA AND HER AGE

by Jerrold M. Packard ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 9, 1995

bookshelf

This account of Queen Victoria's last two weeks of life is narrated in a candid, practical voice of which the common-sense queen would heartily have approved. Victoria's death pushed her subjects irrevocably out of the stuffy drawing rooms of the-way-it's-always-been and into the bewildering 20th century. As woman, monarch, mother, and symbol, her colossal international stature meant that no one knew quite what to do when she suddenly ceased to exist. Historian Packard (Neither Friend Nor Foe, 1992) begins his story on January 14, 1901, the first day in anyone's memory that Victoria stayed in bed at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, and he concludes on February 4, 1901, when she was laid to rest in the mausoleum at Windsor, where her beloved Albert's remains had waited 40 years for her company. Packard fills the gaps in the action with broad strokes of color, managing to present the distinct personalities, quirks, failings, and agendas of Victoria's vast brood of international and intermarried royals. The deathwatch family gathering, from vapid Bertie, soon to be King Edward VII, to bombastic grandson William, Germany's kaiser, is an extraordinary picture of befuddled power. But once the royal family is standing hushed by the royal bed, Packard loses the narrative momentum with which he whirled so smoothly through the characters and politics of the day. The reader begins to identify with the majority of Victoria's subjects, for whom, writes Packard, ``the watching and waiting were monotonous in the extreme.'' Packard describes every diplomatic and aesthetic decision involved in Victoria's unprecedented funeral ceremonies. As historical information it's worth recording, but it slows the action to a crawl and shortchanges any analysis of the impact of the monarch's death on a population that had known no other ruler. Queen Victoria's life defined an age; unfortunately for this intelligent chronicle, the events of her death were not all that exciting.

Pub Date: Jan. 9, 1995

ISBN: 0-525-93730-7

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1994

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
AMERICAN NIGHTMARE
by Jerrold M. Packard

- BOOK REVIEW
NEITHER FRIEND NOR FOE
by Jerrold M. Packard

bookshelf

NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

bookshelf

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

bookshelf

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

bookshelf

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.