A well-conceived book and a fine Byron biography for neophytes.
A user-friendly biography of the major Romantic poet, framed around some of his most revealing missives.
In his brief life, Byron (1788-1824) exemplified passion and transgression, becoming an icon of British literature despite protests from the likes of William Wordsworth, who argued that Byron’s Don Juan “will do more harm to the English character, than anything of our time.” Between provocative epics and a louche lifestyle involving countless lovers (including his half sister), he earned his place as a man who was “mad, bad, and dangerous to know,” as his lover Caroline Lamb famously put it. Timed to the 200th anniversary of Byron’s death, this book by Stauffer, president of the Byron Society of America, isn’t a scholarly study filled with fresh research, but nor is it a dumbed-down overview of Byron’s life and career. Though each chapter opens with a key letter from a moment in the poet’s life, it’s not quite a critical study of his writing, either. Rather, it’s a pocket biography that leverages Stauffer’s knowledge well. The author is sensitive to Byron’s insecurities (he was born with a deformed foot), affections (numerous letters concern his seductions and affairs with men and women), and political passions (he died while supporting Greece’s battle for independence). Byron often comes off as smug and amoral, but he could also be sensitive and confessional about his behavior—and, toward the end of his life, eager to pursue something like redemption. “He is becoming what he should be, a virtuous man,” Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote in 1821. Stauffer dedicates a fair amount of space to explaining the many references in the letters, but he’s also careful to maintain a lively narrative of Byron’s life, clear about his many flaws but clarifying why he was such a commanding figure.
A well-conceived book and a fine Byron biography for neophytes.Pub Date: Feb. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9781009200165
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Cambridge Univ.
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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