SHAKESPEARE'S FLOWERS

by Jessica Kerr ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 1969

A duet of words and pictures about the flower-power in Shakespeare's plays that misses the beat because it adheres to letter and not to spirit where spirit is all... The drawings are one-dimensional botany-book types, insipidly authentic, never buoyant or bright. What defeats the text is its didactic tenor, so self-consciously documentary as to void the imagery of its magic; and the old biographical cliches (about Shakespeare in Stratford and Anne Hathaway) are dismaying in the midst of Well-researched natural history. There are grace notes here and there -- well-chosen quotations that stand up even out of context, etymological details, and such oddments as the fact that the rosemary stem was used in making of lute strings. Most meaningful if you've read the plays -- but then so much is superfluous...

Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1969

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: T.Y. Crowell

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1969

Categories: NONFICTION