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F.R. LEAVIS

Name: F.R. LEAVIS
Author: Ian MacKillop
ISBN: 0-312-16357-6

A LIFE IN CRITICISM

by Ian MacKillop ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 2, 1997

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A life of the eminent critic, a controversial figure whose ideas were influential wherever English was taught—except at Cambridge University, the institution that grudgingly employed him. Indeed, F.R. Leavis (18951978) seemed to make a career of being snubbed by the university's English department. Of the Cambridge Critics, including rivals I.A. Richards and William Empson, Leavis had the longest exile, despite (or because of) such notable works of criticism as The Great Tradition and New Bearings in English Poetry. He was also for two decades the editor of Scrutiny, an influential journal. As former pupil MacKillop (English/Sheffield Univ., England) shows in this approving but not official biography, Leavis worked passionately to establish serious standards for the study of English literature, to counter both suffocating Oxbridge classicism and Bloomsbury dillettantism. With an unreliable part-time lectureship, and the help of his unofficial study group, the ``Research Society,'' and of his equally erudite wife, Queenie (author of Fiction and the Reading Public), Leavis built his own intellectual elite within the university. Only very late in his career did he receive a stable position at Downing College. It did not lessen his combative spirit. Leavis's famous attack on C.P. Snow, whom he called ``portentously ignorant,'' was part of a broader effort to keep education in the humanities from becoming a backwater in modern Britain. Yet, citing aesthetic principles, the complex Leavis, the preeminent Lawrence scholar, refused to join the fight to get the ban on Lady Chatterley's Lover lifted. Of the rebarbative Leavis's many sides explored here, the one most likely to stir immediate sympathy is his experiences on an ambulance train during WW I. MacKillop, as objective as a Leavisian can be, does not ignore his mentor's more embarrassing fallings-out with his college and with some of his protÇgÇs. A thorough and candid examination from the academic trenches of the most combative of the Cambridge Critics. (b&w photos, not seen)

Pub Date: June 2, 1997

ISBN: 0-312-16357-6

Page Count: 493

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1997

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.