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CHURCHILL: THE END OF GLORY

Name: CHURCHILL: THE END OF GLORY
Author: John Charmley
ISBN: 0-15-117881-X

A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY

by John Charmley ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1993

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Shrewd analysis that just misses taking the full measure of the great wartime leader. ``To be a Party you must have at least one follower. You have none,'' David Lloyd-George once told Churchill. Why was someone so brilliant so often mistrusted or in the political wilderness? William Manchester's The Last Lion saw Churchill's isolation as proof of his maverick courage. Charmley (English History/Univ. of East Anglia; Chamberlain and the Lost Peace, 1989, etc.—not reviewed) finds the truth more dismaying. While he hails Churchill's energy and eloquence, he details, with perhaps more telling effect, the man's failings as politician and statesman: his egotism, insensitivity, abrupt ideological and partisan shifts that left him standing alone, and impetuosity (e.g., Churchill's advocacy as First Lord of the Admiralty of the disastrous Dardenelles and Norwegian campaigns). Charmley's reading of Churchill's fierce political jockeying is instructive, if overdetailed, and he can be waspishly funny about the great man's vanity (``Like many famous men, Churchill was fond of enlarging the obstacles which stood in the way of his success''). The author also shows how the archimperialist Churchill ironically helped ring the death knell of the British Empire by playing junior partner to the US and by not protesting the Soviet threat to Eastern Europe until it was too late. But this devil's advocate unravels his case against Churchill by comparing him with Neville Chamberlain (who, Charmley feels, has been unfairly maligned by history). While Chamberlain rightly questioned Churchill's views on India, on the attempt to invade the fledgling USSR after the Russian Revolution, and on the abdication of Edward VIII, Churchill was indisputably correct about the paramount issue of the time: the monstrous evil posed by Hitler. The case against Churchill is argued forcefully and often wittily here, but is lost in a final, too-clever summation. (First printing of 20,000)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1993

ISBN: 0-15-117881-X

Page Count: 752

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1993

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.