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ACQUAINTED WITH THE NIGHT

Name: ACQUAINTED WITH THE NIGHT
Author: Christopher Dewdney
ISBN: 1-58234-396-9

EXCURSIONS THROUGH THE WORLD AFTER DARK

by Christopher Dewdney ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2004

Eulogistic and very personal treatment of a world to itself, full of incident and lovely as a Whistler nocturne.

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A magical tour of night's great landmarks.

It follows every day, but night is still as exotic for most people as the farthest land: now terrifying, now exhilarating, a heightened state. This is what Canadian poet and polymath Dewdney (Last Flesh, not reviewed, etc.) captures so well as he starts at sunset and ends at dawn, drawing a representative and universal night with an hour to each chapter. First come the sunsets, the green flash, the three stages of twilight: civil (time to turn on headlights), nautical (when the first stars appear for navigation), and astronomical (when even the faintest stars come out). With each chapter, as Dewdney so easily slips through the night, he will ask unexpected questions and answer them, too: How big is the night? How wide? What about those cosmologies? Who were Nut and Orion and Cassiopeia? Each passing hour calls to mind a subject he will pursue with digressions. Who make up the night shift of animal workers? How do they see, what is the new role of hearing as darkness falls, and what is bioluminescence anyway? What are some fun night games, and how did the institution of bedtime stories evolve? Later come the night-shift workers, the cops and the ladies of the night, and their constant battle with circadian rhythms. Dewdney is good at explaining the more arcane aspects of sleep and hormonal activity, but then he makes riveting every element he has incorporated. The gothic literary night, engaging and recreational with its blend of fantastic and abstract terror, drifts into the bosom of the night’s night: 3 a.m., when the fossil light of the stars overwhelms the sky and the stargazers, the hour dreaded by insomniacs when we wake to be tormented by our troubles.

Eulogistic and very personal treatment of a world to itself, full of incident and lovely as a Whistler nocturne.

Pub Date: June 1, 2004

ISBN: 1-58234-396-9

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2004

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.