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RANTERS RUN AMOK

Name: RANTERS RUN AMOK
Author: Leonard W. Levy
ISBN: 1-56663-277-3

AND OTHER ADVENTURES IN THE HISTORY OF THE LAW

by Leonard W. Levy ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 7, 2000

more apt than its author intended.

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A strange bouquet in which stellar examples of scholarly jurisprudence mingle with freewheeling academic invective directed

toward those who have had the audacity to find fault with any of the author’s earlier writings. In the collection’s best piece, prolific legal historian Levy (Blasphemy, 1993, etc.) proffers instruction about the Ranters, an antinomian Cromwellian proto-hippie sect whose members were equally notorious for their radical rejection of legal authority and their unbuttoned codpieces. Another essay probes the origins of the Fourth Amendment (which provides security against unreasonable searches and seizures and requires warrants to be issued only on probable cause). Law is largely history, and this is the kind of history that was enjoyed by many an attorney once upon a time, when the law was a learned profession rather than just a business. As venerable professionals are wont to do, Levy presents, too, remembrances of some legal giants he’s known, as well as an encomium to the great 19th-century chief justice of Massachusetts, Lemuel Shaw. An essay describing in tedious detail how Pulitzer nominees are chosen, however, reveals a darker side of the historian, which flowers in several cantankerous essays seeking to overwhelm past slights in inky torrents. Levy goes on about the perfidy of Harvard University Press in rejecting a book. His manuscript was "a success; only the readers were failures." Contrary academics harbor opinions that are "a disgrace to scholarship." Reviewers' reports are "contemptible and lacking in competence." Levy also offers the back of his hand to critics of his Origins of the Fifth Amendment (1968), winner of a Pulitzer in history, as he seeks to persuade recalcitrant fools and knaves how right he was. It’s a strange miscellany, with some old-fashioned learning and enough abrasive intellectual argument to make the title rather

more apt than its author intended.

Pub Date: April 7, 2000

ISBN: 1-56663-277-3

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Ivan Dee/Rowman & Littlefield

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000

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.