The fourth volume in the authoritative series launched with Dostoevsky: The Seeds of Revolt (1976), encompassing the six incredible years during which Dostoevsky wrote Crime and Punishment, The Gambler, The Idiot, and The Devils. This volume opens after the death of his brother, Mikhail, with Dostoevsky futilely attempting to singlehandedly edit and publish the journal they had founded, while also assuming Mikhail's debts and responsibility for his family. In a state of fiscal panic that would underlie his compositions for the rest of his career, Dostoevsky hurriedly wrote Crime and Punishment as a polemic against the radical younger generation's materialistic Nihilism (ably glossed by Frank), and The Gambler as a critique of his own mania for roulette. To keep up this pace he hired a stenographer, Anna Snitkin, who quickly became his second wife; the couple fled Russia to evade the financial demands of Dostoevsky's creditors and his brother's family. In exile in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, the homesick writer continued his compulsive gambling and his debate with Westerners and Nihilists. He had a famous row with the anti-Slavophile Turgenev, and he got his political point of view across in The Idiot's idealized portrait of a Russian Christian and in The Devils's depiction of fiendish Nihilist conspiracies. Frank approaches Dostoevsky's tormented character with admirable restraint and perceptiveness, although he sidesteps the writer's cultish Russian nationalism. As in the previous volumes, Frank's outstanding strengths lie in his masterly grasp of Russian intellectual history and his literary detective work on Dostoevsky's sources, inspirations, and creative process, the two superbly combined in his chapters on the background and writing of The Devils. Covering the crest of Dostoevsky's creative output and one of his life's many troughs, Frank maintains his unbroken streak of biographic and literary excellence. (15 b&w illustrations, not seen)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-691-04364-7
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Princeton Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1994
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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