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THE GIVEN AND THE MADE

Name: THE GIVEN AND THE MADE
Author: Helen Vendler
ISBN: 0-674-35431-1

STRATEGIES OF POETIC REDEFINITION

by Helen Vendler ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 1995

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A brief but stimulating meditation on four significant American poets by an indispensable critic. Vendler's (English/Harvard Univ.) dismissive June 18 New York Times Book Review assessment of Bill Moyers's The Language of Life: A Festival of Poets caused a stir among writers who took issue with her negative appraisal of the populist and mutlicultural literary mission. Here she returns with four cool-headed, serenely selfless essays that originated as the T.S. Eliot Lectures given at the University of Kent. Her subject is the characteristic obsessions guiding the work of Robert Lowell, John Berryman, Rita Dove, and Jorie Graham, each of whom, in Vendler's view, has transformed obsession into art. Vendler guides us as she follows the course of the obsession through the transformation. Berryman's ``given'' obsession, in her judgment, was manic-depression and alcohol addiction, leading the poet to construct in his work a ``phantasmagoria'' of the id. Lowell's was history, reconfigured from the burden and the honor of the writer's distinguished public ancestry. Dove's ``rethinking of the lyric poet's relation to the history of blackness'' sprang from her identity as an African- American, while Graham's ``given'' is her trilingualism, leading to a complex metaphysics embodied in language. The particular virtue of Vendler is to write with the authority of a scholar and the alertness of a contemporary about a form of art too often deluged by arcana, professional jargon, literary back-patting, or neglect. Encountering clarity in analytical writing that fulfills clarity of thought is a rare event; even Vendler's detractors, who assail her conservative aesthetic, should acknowledge her ongoing accomplishment. A literary challenge and a companion for the common reader, whoever that may be, of 20th-century poetry.

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-674-35431-1

Page Count: 160

Publisher: Harvard Univ.

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1995

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.