WHEN THINGS OF THE SPIRIT COME FIRST - FIVE EARLY TALES

bookshelf

WHEN THINGS OF THE SPIRIT COME FIRST - FIVE EARLY TALES

Name: WHEN THINGS OF THE SPIRIT COME FIRST - FIVE EARLY TALES
Author: Simone de Beauvoir
ISBN: 0233974628

by Simone de Beauvoir ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 20, 1982

bookshelf

De Beauvoir's first fiction, previously unpublished in English, is certainly a sign of work to come; but it's no mere juvenilia. In five separate but loosely connected tales (some of the characters know each other and show up in one another's stories), de Beauvoir chronicles the early lives of five women—most of whom become casualties, in one way or another, of French society's emphasis on "things of the spirit" (religiosity, piety, aestheticism, respectability) in preference to the "real world." Marcelle, a dreamy and devout little girl who offers her life to "a young fair-haired God," grows up to be victimized and deserted by her gigolo/husband as she acts out her spiritual piety in decidedly fleshy appetites. Chantal, in temporary exile from Paris as provincial schoolteacher, creates herself a sensitive persona devoted to beauty and the free spirit—but a real-life crisis caused by her fakery exposes her perfectly conventional narrow-mindedness. Lisa, a student at a Catholic boarding school in the briefest of these tales, is torn and finally baffled by her own body's insistent undermining of her struggle to be properly soulful. Anne is stifled into the "peace" of resignation and death by the combined efforts of her proper mother, her aesthete"lover," and her romantic friend (the phony Chantal again, whose existential "bad faith" breeds disaster everywhere). So only the autobiographical Marguerite—younger sister to deserted Marcelle and to the dead Anne's Swinburne-reading lover—successfully throws off her family's dedication to "the Christian virtues": introduced to Paris low-life by Marcelle's reprobate husband, Marguerite at last sees through even his tarnished luster to "look things straight in the face, without accepting oracles or ready-made values." Deceptively simple tales told with remarkably clear-eyed moral vision and pungent irony: a worthy opening to a shining career.

Pub Date: Sept. 20, 1982

ISBN: 0233974628

Page Count: -

Publisher: Pantheon

Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1982

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
AMERICA DAY BY DAY
by Simone de Beauvoir

- BOOK REVIEW
A TRANSATLANTIC LOVE AFFAIR
by Simone de Beauvoir

- BOOK REVIEW
LETTERS TO SARTRE
by Simone de Beauvoir

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.