A rich narrative, but generous to a fault.
A sympathetic, even laudatory biography of the sixth wife of Henry VIII.
Porter (The First Queen of England: The Myth of “Bloody Mary”, 2008) offers a favorable treatment of Katherine Parr (1512–1548), crediting her even with the glories of the Elizabethan Age. According to the author, she was attractive, clever and religious, and was a wonderful surrogate mother for Mary Tudor and a loving spouse four times (thrice widowed). Porter follows the scant material available on her subject and provides some fresh interpretations of her nature and behavior, writing that Katherine grew to love Henry, despite his profound physical odiousness, irascibility and roving eye. The author begins at a moment of discomfort for Katherine in 1547—the day of Henry’s death, when the court was keeping the news from her and from the rest of the country. She was uncertain of her standing with the king and, perhaps, worried for her life. Then the narrative retreats for Parr family history. Katherine was born into her influential family sometime in 1512, but precious little is known of her girlhood. In her midteens, she married her first husband, who died a few years later. Her second husband, Baron Latimer, who was twice her age, got caught up in the Pilgrimage of Grace but escaped the fatal fate of some of his more zealous companions. After his death, Henry VIII, having beheaded Katherine Howard, married Parr and seemed happy. Porter believes that Parr annoyed him only when she found, through her publishing, some fame for herself.
A rich narrative, but generous to a fault.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-312-38438-8
Page Count: 464
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Sept. 7, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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
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