Thirteen classroom lectures by the late Campbell, which will air on PBS early next year and are already available on video cassette. As ever, Campbell is spellbinding in these lightly edited transcripts, offering for the nonacademic reader a simplification of his five-volume historical atlas and four-volume The Masks of God The subjects and themes are prime Campbell: the nature of initiation; myths of the Native Americans; neolithic gods and goddesses; Egyptian myths; Buddhism, kundalini yoga, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and mystery religions; European consciousness and the Grail myth; the legends of Arthur and of Parzival, which Campbell ranks higher than Dante's Divine Comedy, because it "ends up on earth, and the thing is solved here, now, in the flesh, and in a magnificent way." Profuse illustrations throughout enliven and explicate the text.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1989
ISBN: 0060964634
Page Count: 282
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1989
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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