Drawing on such popular histories as Nancy Mitford's The Sun King (1966), Elliott, a San Francisco writer, weaves through an informed and absorbing history of Louis XIV's court at Versailles the cloying story of little Adelaide, the ``perfect princess,'' betrothed at age ten to the king's grandson and sent to court to be groomed as the future queen. Traded off by her father, the Duke of Savoy, to secure a fitful peace, brave but ``merry'' Adelaide won the heart of the aging king and his secret wife, the wise Mme. Maintenon. They doted on Adelaide, amused her with hunts, masquerades, and fireworks while she learned the ceremonies and intrigues on which the opulent court functioned. ``Gay,'' ``reckless,'' ``irrepressible,'' briefly addicted to gambling, often ill-natured, mischievous, and demanding, Adelaide at age 14 married her moody, austere, and eccentric prince. As the ``18th century dawned over Europe,'' bickering over the Spanish succession turned into a long and costly war (1702-13), conducted only in the spring and summer under strict rules of decorum that guaranteed the dignity of the warring royals, all of whom were related. The war, however, was merely an unpleasant interlude in Adelaide's repeated attempts to produce an heir. Along with many miscarriages, she had three sons: One died in infancy, another at age five, and the last—orphaned as a toddler when both Adelaide and the Dauphin died of measles—grew up to become the ill-fated Louis XV. For those who like to read about the domestic life of royals, this is a rich tale. For the sake of Adelaide, though, it trivializes the marvelous French court, and turns the powerful and fearsome Louis XIV into an aging Maurice Chevalier singing ``Thank Heaven for Little Girls'' as he ogles his grandson's wife. (Sixteen pages of b&w photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: July 14, 1992
ISBN: 0-395-60516-4
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1992
This early reader is an excellent introduction to the March on Washington in 1963 and the important role in the march played by Martin Luther King Jr. Ruffin gives the book a good, dramatic start: “August 28, 1963. It is a hot summer day in Washington, D.C. More than 250,00 people are pouring into the city.” They have come to protest the treatment of African-Americans here in the US. With stirring original artwork mixed with photographs of the events (and the segregationist policies in the South, such as separate drinking fountains and entrances to public buildings), Ruffin writes of how an end to slavery didn’t mark true equality and that these rights had to be fought for—through marches and sit-ins and words, particularly those of Dr. King, and particularly on that fateful day in Washington. Within a year the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had been passed: “It does not change everything. But it is a beginning.” Lots of visual cues will help new readers through the fairly simple text, but it is the power of the story that will keep them turning the pages. (Easy reader. 6-8)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-448-42421-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000
Puccini wins the prize for most-maligned great composer. In a fit of depressive self-deprecation, Puccini himself called his own music ``sugary,'' and the persistent popularity of his mature operas at box-offices around the world for nearly a century has too often provoked critical condescension, as if art so well-loved could not possibly be worth much. But that situation, thankfully, is changing, and this much-needed essay collection on Puccini by leading scholars of 19th- and 20th-century Italian opera is worth a good deal more than several new biographies. The volume ranges from a lengthy piece on Puccini's family by his granddaughter (one of the editors) to chapters devoted to Puccini's ``musical world'' and each of his operas by luminaries such as William Weaver, Harvey Sachs, Fedele D'Amico, Verdi heavyweights Mary Jane Phillips-Matz and Julian Budden, and William Ashbrook. A favorite: David Hamilton's expert investigation of the early Tosca recordings, especially the legendary ``Mapelson cylinders'' of live Metropolitan Opera performances from 1902-03, to see what light they shed on Puccini's original interpreters. The editors, perhaps hoping to attract non-musicologist admirers of the Luccan master, issue the disclaimer that ``this is not a work of scholarship'' (even though two of the chapters make a start on an accessible Puccini bibliography). They needn't have worried. Lovers of Puccini and Italian opera at every level of interest and knowledge will want this book. (Photographs—not seen)
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1994
ISBN: 0-393-02930-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1994
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