Still, readers will salivate as they glimpse tables set with roasts and game birds, sauces and soups, fruits and ices,...
An extravagant paean to the import of dining, cast as historical reports of memorable meals.
First is an account of a grand gathering of clerics held in the church at Cluny in 1132, at a time when monks were supposed to eat only one meal a day in silence, and no meat at all. Nevertheless, according to Young (Culinary Historian/Sotheby’s), the vegetable fare had grown so rich and varied that abbot Peter the Venerable chided the diners to return to a more ascetic regimen. Asceticism has no place in the 11 chapters that follow, including the wedding banquet (sans groom) in Florence of Maria de’ Medici and Henri IV of France. The groom was not much missed amid the fantastic entertainments, which featured a chariot drawn by peacocks descending from the ceiling. Peacocks were also among the 30 dishes served as a first course. In time, table settings grew more elaborate, with services of Sévres and Meissen, and dining habits more refined, with the increasing specialization of knives, forks, and spoons—as at, for instance, a dinner for Louis XIV so beautifully lit that “the heavens were jealous.” Casanova’s intimate dinner with a nun offered only eight exquisitely prepared dishes, so as not to sate other appetites. Talleyrand’s elegant fête in honor of Josephine Bonaparte and even the surrealist picnic attended by Max Ernst, André Breton, Salvador Dalí, and others in 1932, where lobsters were devoured with bare hands, serve to support Young’s rather grand thesis that “the soul of dining lies in its ability to express our humanity”—bad as well as good. Digressions into the history and politics surrounding each event are often as diverting as descriptions of the meals, the latter often speculative when the menus haven’t survived.
Still, readers will salivate as they glimpse tables set with roasts and game birds, sauces and soups, fruits and ices, extravaganzas of pastry—and plenty of wine. (b&w illustrations)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-7432-2202-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2002
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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