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BACKING INTO THE FUTURE

Name: BACKING INTO THE FUTURE
Author: Bernard Knox
ISBN: 0-393-03595-6

THE CLASSICAL TRADITION AND ITS RENEWAL

by Bernard Knox ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 7, 1994

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Essays, articles, and reviews from the past few years by scholar and classicist Knox (The Oldest Dead White European Males, 1993, etc.). The ancients, Knox remarks, thought of themselves as looking into the past, which was visible, and as standing with their backs to the future, which was invisible for not yet existing. How this intriguing idea (people seem to have turned around sometime in the Middle Ages) manifests itself in the present volume may not be fully clear, although it's true that one does come away with an awakened sense of the past, if not always a highly excited one. Essays on Homer, Pindar, Euripides, Catullus, and Ovid—often the reviews of books on these figures—have less lift for the nonspecialist than they might have had at their first publication (in Grand Street, for example, The New Republic, and The New York Review of Books). A speech made on the subject of democracy's first origins, however (``The Athenian Century''), is full both of fact and fascination, as is a review of I.F. Stone's The Trial of Socrates; but a long review, on the other hand, of an academic book on Plato and Aristotle (``How Should We Live'') is unremittingly demanding, and a long essay on Sophocles is touched by Lethe. These pieces, though, have different characters just as they had different origins, and an essay on T.E. Lawrence's Odyssey is filled with interest, as are essays on the present status of philology (constituting a grand call to arms for humanities teaching), on historical American views of Rome, and a lyrically celebratory review, from a classicist commanding the entire long tradition, of Derek Walcott's Omeros. Not all things to all readers, but a varied pasture for literate browsers.

Pub Date: Feb. 7, 1994

ISBN: 0-393-03595-6

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1993

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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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

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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

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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.