An exciting probe of the great discoverer and the countless enigmas surrounding his life and legacy. Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times science correspondent Wilford (Mars Beckons, 1990; The Riddle of the Dinosaur, 1985; The Mapmakers, 1981) sifts through the legends that have encrusted Columbus ``to review and assess the numerous questions that persist and cause such heated dispute among historians.'' No mean task: the proud and secretive navigator left a host of enemies and the wispiest of paper trails at his death, with his subsequent reputation veering wildly between neglect, admiration (Samuel Eliot Morison's Admiral of the Ocean Sea), and revisionism (Kirkpatrick Sale's Conquest of Paradise). In his superbly balanced portrait, Wilford depicts the navigator as an intelligent, indomitable, courageous mariner hopelessly at sea as a colonial governor. Acknowledging that ``the burden of the practices Columbus initiated or condoned weighs heavily on his reputation in history,'' he examines with moral sensitivity the admiral's responsibility as progenitor of the Black Legend, Spain's ``burden of violence and destructive greed'' that included the enslavement and killing of Native Americans. Even more useful, however, are his discussions of recent archival and archaeological discoveries related to Columbus, including his origins, how he conceived his plan to discover the Orient by sailing west, why Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain supported his quest, his initial landfall in 1492, his ships, even where he lies buried. Most fascinating of all, Wilford speculates that Columbus saw himself as God's messenger, sent to help Spain recover the Holy Land lost to the Moslems. A crisp, highly readable account of Columbus as man and symbol, and of how the first momentous encounter between the Old and New Worlds has been interpreted and reinterpreted over the last five centuries. (Three maps.)
Pub Date: Oct. 12, 1991
ISBN: 0-679-40476-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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