by John Ashbery ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2000
An impressive performance by a central figure in modern American poetry.
One of our foremost (and most difficult) living poets talks about a half-dozen almost forgotten colleagues who have had an influence on his own highly influential verse.
In his newest collection of poetry, Your Name Here, Ashbery writes, “No explanations, / not from me,” and he has always been reluctant to offer exegesis of his twisting, witty, but obscure verse. Called upon to deliver the Charles Eliot Norton lectures, he does the next best thing, discussing his interest in six minor poets who have spurred his own writing. Although he offers repeated assurances in the opening lecture that he is not going to “spill the beans” about his own poetry, his choices of subject and approach to their writing is often telling. The six poets (John Clare, Thomas Lovell Beddoes, Raymond Roussel, John Wheelwright, Laura Riding, and David Schubert) seem to share among themselves little more than their reputations as “minor” and (except for Clare and Roussel) are rarely read today. But Ashbery finds in them another common denominator. Clare and Beddoes are 19th-century Romantics, while the other four are 20th-century modernists, but each of them is someone for whom the mere act of versifying is its own end, with the flash of language in motion often taking precedence over “meaning”—a quality that could fairly be ascribed to Ashbery himself. Perhaps that is why the most conventional exegetical passages of these lectures are the least convincing and most pedestrian. Ashbery says of Clare’s vividly descriptive but strangely detached rural poetry, “The point is that there is no point,” a remark that could also sum up his own verse. The great strength on display here is not that of the “explainer,” but of the enthusiast: in their best passages, these lectures make the reader want to go back to the poets under discussion. And that is just what they are meant to do.
An impressive performance by a central figure in modern American poetry.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-674-00315-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harvard Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2000
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by John Ashbery
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
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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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis
by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
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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developed by Ludwig Bemelmans ; illustrated by Steven Salerno
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by Ludwig Bemelmans ; illustrated by Steven Salerno
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