A warmly sympathetic biography of ``Ireland's Joan of Arc'': Maud Gonne (1866-1953), the agitator and legendary beauty best known today as the muse of William Butler Yeats and mother of Nobel Peace Prize winner Sean MacBride. Of all the contradictions in Gonne's life, the biggest may have been that the woman who personified Mother Ireland in Yeats's nationalistic play Cathleen ni Houlihan was the British Protestant daughter of a Royal Army colonel. Outraged by the plight of starving Irish peasants, Gonne embarked on a lifelong crusade on behalf of the downtrodden and her adopted country's freedom. Ward (History/University of the West of England) is at her best in examining how Gonne overcame the sexism of male Irish republicans because of her wealth and charisma (in addition to being beautiful, she was a mesmerizing public speaker even as an octogenarian). Ward explains the activities that absorbed Gonne's considerable energy, including spying in Czarist Russia, lobbying for land reform, picketing royal visits to Dublin, founding the female nationalist group Inghinidhe na hEireann (Daughters of Erin), raising funds for Irish independence, participating in hunger strikes, and improving the lot of the poor and imprisoned. But the author isn't so successful in accounting for the other aspects of her heroine's public career and eccentric private life—failing to explain, for instance, why Gonne became the longtime mistress of a French right- winger. Ward also avoids criticizing Gonne's patriotically correct protests against plays by John Millington Synge and Sean O'Casey, and her faith in astrology and mediums. A vivid if airbrushed narrative of a glamorous activist whose story begs for Hollywood treatment. (Sixteen pages of b&w photos- -not seen) (For more of Gonne, see The Gonne-Yeats Letters 1893- 1938, 1992, ed. by Anna MacBride White & A. Norman Jeffares.)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-04-440889-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1993
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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