by John Blashford-Snell & Richard Snailham ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 15, 2004
Blashford-Snell may have come up short on scientific results, but not even a mad dog would challenge him to a sitting...
A bit of late-high-imperial adventure deep in the wilds of South America, from two English explorers.
Blashford-Snell, our narrator and man in charge, launched the expedition (Snailham participated in its final leg) in May 2001 with two objectives. The first was to determine if a reed boat could navigate its way from the Bolivian coca region to the Atlantic, thus making some sense out of why cocaine was found in the ancient, mummified body of an Egyptian princess. The second was to follow the lure of a lost Incan city, Paititi—“South America has a good tally of such lost cities,” remarks Blashford-Snell in a comment typical of his prose style, which feels like it has been torn from a Victorian adventure story. “ ‘I've been thinking,’ he said when we met him,” begins one characteristic passage. “This was ominous. Oswaldo, often inscrutable and enigmatic, had a penchant for dramatic throwaway observations.” The ensuing capers are strewn with equally appropriate characters: Leopold d'Arenberg, “a prince of the Holy Roman Empire”; Marigold Verity-Dick, a harpist whose “sweet evening recitals had soothed many a savage breast”; and the sinister Austrian Sigfried Trippolt, whose rotten behavior prompts Blashford-Snell to crow, “a highly satisfactory instance of local obstructionism taking on British determination and coming off a poor second.” The expedition didn’t prove anything per se, but the explorers did unearth some important archaeological sites, the medical team performed lots of good works, and some of the conservation studies may bear critical fruit. But it is the swash and buckle of it all that really matters here: tackling a monstrous, murderous set of rapids head on with a reed boat and getting beaten like a gong, keeping an eye skinned for vipers and giant fire ants, or besting the Nazis yet again.
Blashford-Snell may have come up short on scientific results, but not even a mad dog would challenge him to a sitting contest in the noonday sun. (25 color photos)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2004
ISBN: 0-7195-6504-9
Page Count: 238
Publisher: John Murray Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2004
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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 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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