The 1983 TV mini-series The Jewel in the Crown, adapted from The Raj Quartet, exposed millions on both sides of the Atlantic to the work of British novelist Scott, who had died five years previously. Now, this leisurely, sensitive biography, published last year in Great Britain, explains how this sprawling epic of Britain's ``greasy and evasive'' departure from India resulted from Scott's roiling inner turmoil. Most of Scott's career-the discovery of his self-described ``extended metaphor'' (India) while in the military, apprentice poetry, plays, and novels, skillful work as a literary agent, and plunge into full-time writing at the age of 40-was not the stuff of high drama. Fortunately, Spurling (Ivy, 1984)-a literary critic for the Daily Telegraph of London-concentrates on the deep divide between his romantic aesthete and Puritan breadwinner sides. Scott's taciturn father, a commercial artist, arbitrarily decided to make his 14-year-old son an accountant (a drama of displacement echoed in the tragedy of Hari Kumar, the British- educated Indian schoolboy of The Raj Quartet); later, an army incident during WW II caused Scott to repress his homosexual inclinations. Spurling sympathetically outlines the toll taken on this charming, considerate man in producing his masterpiece: financial insecurity, alcoholism, withdrawal, and alienation of wife and daughters. Success-a happy teaching stint at the Univ. of Tulsa, the Booker Aware for Staying On after years of neglect by British critics-came only months before his death at the age of 58 from cancer. Despite its slow, ruminative pace, a rewarding account of the man behind one of the masterpieces of 20th-century British literature. Scott has found a generous and insightful biographer. (Photographs-not seen.)
Pub Date: May 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-393-02938-7
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1991
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
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