This excerpt from Solzhenitsyn's projected multi-volume work on the Russian Revolution shows Lenin stewing in Switzerland during World War I, from 1914 to the spring of 1917, when, with the assistance of the German government, he returned to Russia to turn the liberal February Revolution into a Bolshevik seizure of power. Solzhenitsyn's Lenin is a pudgy, compulsive, humorless fellow, chronically frustrated by finances and colleagues. Interior monologue—which lacks the genuine empathy of Solzhenitsyn's earlier fiction—depicts his vexed relationship with French revolutionary Inessa Armand (his lover) and with his wife Natalya, who "stayed, determined never to stand in his way. Never to show her hurt. To train herself not to feel it." Solzhenitsyn also suggests that Lenin, while ruthless, was no creative architect of revolution but found himself caught off guard by events and prone to failures of nerve. It was the intriguer Parvus who, on behalf of the Germans, really made things work. The details of the German connection are the fruit of Solzhenitsyn's detective work; he claims to have discovered major new evidence in Zurich, though his bibliography cites only standard primary and secondary sources. Despite Solzhenitsyn's determination to reduce Lenin to small, neurotic size, the book is good fun as historical reconstruction and an intriguing installment in the writer's effort to prove that the Russian Revolution was a vast misfortune.
Pub Date: March 15, 1976
ISBN: 0370106075
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1976
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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