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DYLAN

Name: DYLAN
Author: Jonathan Fryer
ISBN: 1-85626-090-0

THE NINE LIVES OF DYLAN THOMAS

by Jonathan Fryer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 1994

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Dylan Thomas set out to make his life as striking as his poetry, but BBC journalist Fryer (Isherwood, 1978) denigrates the former while skirting the latter, missing both man and poet. Precociously gifted even as a child with an extraordinary imagination and literary talent, Thomas (19141953) decided early on to become poäte maudit of the sleepy South Wales town of Swansea. Despite his early death from alcoholism in New York City, his career displayed many facets (not all of them glittering): hack journalism, film scripts, radio readings, American lectures, short stories, and some of the finest modern poetry in English. It's evident even in the introduction here that Fryer dislikes Thomas's mercurial personality and finds his perpetually adolescent pub antics distasteful. Such prejudice makes it impossible for the author to trace any connections between Thomas and his poetry- -indeed, he prefers to discuss the latter as little as possible. Although he succeeds in recreating the social milieu of literary London, Fryer fails to prove his general thesis that Thomas was ``a writer of the Thirties'' comparable to Auden and Isherwood. His book could have been a welcome deflation of Thomas's mythmaking cult, to which admirers contributed as much as the poet himself, but it finally becomes a squalid and scornful exercise in gratuitous contempt. While Fryer has some sympathy for Thomas's put-upon friends, he offers no genuine insights into either side of such crucial relationships as those between the poet and his formidable wife, Caitlin, and his American promoter, John Brinnin (both of whom wrote books about Thomas themselves). Fryer cites recently published letters and includes some new anecdotes, such as Thomas's reaction to his father's cremation, but none of this material is more trustworthy or more illuminating than that already on record. In the end, his work remains overshadowed by Paul Ferris's intensively researched Dylan Thomas (1977), the authoritative biography. An example of poor quality control in the Dylan Thomas industry.

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1994

ISBN: 1-85626-090-0

Page Count: 276

Publisher: Collins & Brown/Trafalgar

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1994

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.