Edmund Wilson, the dean of literary journalism, the author of Axel's Castle, the man who refuses to acknowledge unsolicited mail, unpublished manuscripts, or any mass-media requests, friend of legendary figures and a bit of a legend himself, 71 years old and still pouring forth, the only contemporary reviewer ever to have reprinted his "literary chronicles" from the Twenties onwards to the present, a polyglot, a paragon of taste, honored by all, even the White House- how pleasant, then, to attack so prestigious a personage! Alas, one cannot: The Bit Between My Teeth, a two volume collection of his pieces (mostly from The New Yorker) produced over the last fifteen years, offers not the slightest occasion. One is reduced to repeating the same boring encomiums: Wilson is delightful asia stylist, far ranging in his interests, a scholar of the first rank but never a pedant, judicious, adventurous, brilliant. Here you will find two splendid studies of Pasternak and Zhivago, an unusual assessment of Eliot, lengthy, learned accounts of Swinburne, de Sade, Cabell, Malraux. The variety of subject matter is, as always, striking: Mencken, Shaw and Beerbohm, as well as the philologists Partridge and Tolkien; the Holmes-Laski correspondence and Kennan on Russia; books about mushrooms and home furnishings; Dawn Powell's Greenwich Village and something wonderful called "My Fifty Years with Dictionaries and Grammars ("...and I have discovered that reviewing conjugations and declensions is a very effective device for putting oneself to sleep"). Wilson's great gift is his ability to instruct painstakingly yet painlessly, to make vivid the most abstruse material; never windy, never inflated, reading him is always to be in touch with literature and life.
Pub Date: Nov. 29, 1965
ISBN: 0374506248
Page Count: 710
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1965
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
