History is nothing if not perverse. In the heart of Victorian England Edward Fitzgerald, an eccentric scholar, published his version of an unknown poem by a medieval Persian, Omar Khayaam. Fitzgerald's Rubaiyyat, with its mixture of fatalism and hedonistic joy, shocked his contemporaries and became famous throughout the English-speaking world. Now in our advanced jaded age, Robert Graves, drawing upon the "original" text, "an earlier and authenticated manuscript" found "in the possession of the family of Omar Ali-Shah, Sufi poet and classical Persian scholar," presents a work which would surely have been dear to the heart of every 19th century vicarage. Though hardly Christian, the new Rubaiyyat, jointly translated by Graves and Ali-Shah, now emerges as a mystic meditation without blasphemy, sexual irregularity, or carousing: "Khayaam treats wine in Sufic fashion as a metaphor of the ecstasy excited by divine love." In short, where Fitzgerald's Omar attempts to embrace "the sorry scheme of things" through exotic worldliness, the pious figure "resurrected" by the current translators is concerned with other matters: "Though dust of sin lies clotted on my brow/Yet will I not despair of mercy. When/Did Omar argue that the One was Two?" No doubt, historians will be arguing this turnabout for many moons. Purely as poetry, however, there can be no debate: Fitzgerald is the winner. True or not, his Rubaiyyat is solid gold.
Pub Date: May 17, 1968
ISBN: 0385032757
Page Count: -
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1968
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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