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LAWRENCE AND THE WOMEN

Name: LAWRENCE AND THE WOMEN
Author: Elaine Feinstein
ISBN: 0-06-016226-0

THE INTIMATE LIFE OF D.H. LAWRENCE

by Elaine Feinstein ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 1993

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With a rich idea satisfyingly carried out, novelist/biographer Feinstein (All You Need, 1990, etc.) focuses on the erotic life of D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930). Curiously pagan yet puritanical, Lawrence, Feinstein explains, remained a virgin until his 23rd year and later assumed a strange stance in print—that woman was the sexual servant of man and should not be brought to orgasm during love-play, and that exciting the clitoris was a ``lesbian'' practice not to be allowed by a proud male. Nonetheless, he wrote about sex with a lyrical flair and frankness unmatched in English literature. He was misunderstood, however, since although the object of his groundbreaking Lady Chatterley's Lover was to celebrate tenderness between lovers, not greasy sex, Lady Chatterley followed his earlier The Rainbow in being publicly vilified and banned. Feinstein looks into the love ties between the nonadulterous Lawrence and all the women in his life. The writer, she says, hated his coal-miner father for being beastly to his mother, and drew him savagely in Sons and Lovers, but then later came round to his father's view, feeling that in a robust marriage, such as his own with Frieda von Richthofen, he should imitate his father and wipe up the floor with Frieda regularly. Six years older than Lawrence and the married mother of three children, Frieda gave up her family to run off with the young writer. But to Lawrence, any woman who befriended him was fair game for his pen, and he alienated many with his deeply dismissive or poisonous portraits. A typical Lawrence moment: He dusts some cups and saucers with a poker, then says, ``Beware, Frieda, if you ever talk to me like that again, it will not be the tea things I smash but your head.'' Not much new, but smartly joined together. (Sixteen pages of b&w photos—not seen.)

Pub Date: March 17, 1993

ISBN: 0-06-016226-0

Page Count: 400

Publisher: HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1993

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
ANNA OF ALL THE RUSSIAS
by Elaine Feinstein

- BOOK REVIEW
PUSHKIN
by Elaine Feinstein

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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.