The first English-language edition of Charbonneau-Lassay's near-legendary meditations on the symbolic import of animals, real and imagined. Elegantly translated by Dooling (coauthor, I Become Part of It, 1989), from the one of the handful of copies that remained after the original French edition was nearly destroyed by a bomb after its 1940 publication, the book contains the fruits of Charbonneau-Lassay's lifelong researches into the hidden meanings of some three-score beasts, such as the lion, the dog, the wolf, the unicorn, and the sphinx. While his findings, based on sources ranging from ancient Egyptian to Gnostic, are invariably intriguing (``The analogy between the dead person and the caterpillar in its chrysalis state arose spontaneously in ancient Egyptian thought. Their mummified dead...were like the chrysalis in its silken sheath''), what is perhaps most provocative here are the remarkable lessons the author distills from his animals: ``Between two infinities of the past and the future, human life is only a moment and the soul is an eagle which ought not to waste its energy in futile things.'' Accompanied by over 400 of the author's original woodcuts, this is a treasury of the wisdom of symbols, a hidden classic of spiritual literature revealed.
Pub Date: April 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-930407-18-0
Page Count: 496
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1991
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
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
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