A spirited if scholarly examination of the nature of regret. Landman (Psychology/University of Michigan) defines regret as ``a more or less painful cognitive and emotive state of feeling sorry for misfortunes, limitations, losses, transgressions, shortcomings, or mistakes.'' Nothing startling there—but ``cognitive'' and ``emotive'' are the keys, since Landman considers regret to be an experience of ``felt-reason'' or ``reasoned-emotion.'' She analyzes regret through a literary lens, choosing novels that exemplify four different views of regret: the romantic (Dickens's Great Expectations); the comic (James's The Ambassadors); the tragic (Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground); and the ironic (Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway). She also looks at Anne Tyler's Breathing Lessons, which, she says, blends the romantic and ironic. In addition, Landman draws on empirical surveys, philosophy, chaos theory, anthropology, economics, psychology, and even poetry, for she sees regret as a complex, multilayered experience. Among the questions explored are: What sort of experience is regret? Who is most likely to feel it? What causes regret? What role does it play? How is it transformed? Landman's exploration of the role of regret gets involved in theories of decision-making, along with sometimes daunting mathematical formulas, but math-phobes can skip this discussion...without regret. Meanwhile, the author's study of the transformation of regret through a dialectical process requires careful reading but is central to her view of regret as concept and experience. Landman favors a romantic-ironic view that acknowledges regret's force; recognizes the inevitability of conflict, loss, limits, and mistakes; and remains alert to contradictions and ambiguities. Erudite, intense, and intellectually demanding.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-19-507178-6
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1993
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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
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